The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Thomas Hardy (Author), Dale Kramer (Editor), Pamela Dalziel (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: January 15, 2009

Set against the backdrop of peaceful south-west England, where Thomas Hardy spent much of his youth, The Mayor of Casterbridge captures the author's unique genius for depicting the absurdity underlying much of the sorrow and humor in our lives.
Michael Henchard is an out-of-work hay-trusser who gets drunk at a local fair and impulsively sells his wife Susan and baby daughter. Eighteen years later Susan and her daughter seek him out, only to discover that he has become the most prominent man in Casterbridge. Henchard attempts to make amends for his youthful misdeeds but his unchanged impulsiveness clouds his relationships in love as well as his fortunes in business. Although Henchard is fated to be a modern-day tragic hero, unable to survive in the new commercial world, his story is also a journey towards love.
This edition is the only critically established text of the novel, based on a comprehensive study of the manuscript and Hardy's extensive revisions.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Pamela Dalziel is the General Editor of the Clarendon Dickens Edition. She has published numerous articles on Hardy and edited Hardy's An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress and Other Stories (OWC, 1994) and A Pair of Blue Eyes (Penguin, 1998).

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199537038
• ISBN-13: 978-0199537037
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Hardy, Thomas
  • #13 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > British > 19th Century
  • #62 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > British > General

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, February 12, 2010

By 

L. Covillo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

I loved the book! It is not for the faint of heart as it takes a little more time to read....the old English. The story is classic.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fast but not as Advertised, September 11, 2010

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N. Wright (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Book came in speedy fashion but was not the edition advertised. I had to purchase another.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Depressing, May 12, 2009

By 

Robert Graden "Idiot Savant" (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Hardy was a naturalist in whose novels everything goes wrong. Michael Henchard is a drunk who "sells" his wife Susan and infant daughter Elizabeth-Jane to a sailor. Susan doesn't realize the sale is bogus because she is "simple," throws her ring away, and leaves with the sailor. When he sobers up next day, Henchard searches all over for his lost family, and finally enters a church and swears an oath over an enormous bible that he will not drink from his current age of 21 to double that age. Meanwhile, and 18 years later, when the sailor dies, Susan, with Elizabeth, comes looking for Henchard at Casterbridge. He is now a corn merchant and mayor of the town. As a teetotaler, he is described as drinking glass after glass of water at table for a town hearing. Eventually Susan, via Elizabeth-Jane, contacts Henchard and he pens a note suggesting that they meet at the "Ring." This last turns out to be a ruined Roman amphitheater or coliseum, a 1500-year-old relic full of ghosts and whose very name symbolizes the dark past. Henchard and Susan agree to remarry, playacting a courtship for public appearances, and to keep the daughter in ignorance that the sailor was not her biological father. After they marry, Henchard and the manager of his business, Farfrae, have a falling out because the latter shows the former up and makes a fool of him, making himself more popular than the mayor. To make matters worse, Elizabeth-Jane falls in love with Farfrae.

Frankly, that's as far as I've gotten. I know how it ends for Henchard, but I won't spoil the ending. Hardy is a mean naturalist writer, and has no sympathy for his characters whatsoever. _Casterbridge_ was first published in 1886, when alcoholism was little understood - least of all by people like Hardy who didn't have the disease. It's all too easy for this author to condemn and be judgmental of alcoholic people. I would suggest for an alternative reading Eugene O'Neill's _The Iceman Cometh_, since O'Neill was himself an alcoholic and could rightfully speak for alcoholics. The subject, no matter in whose hands, is by nature depressing. All my editorializing aside, Thomas Hardy is a great novelist who has earned his place in the canon. His poetry is good, too. _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ is worth pursuing to the end if you're not an alcoholic.