The Mayor of Casterbridge

I devoured Hardy as a teenager, but approached this book with some foreboding. I feared I would find it slow-going. It wasn't. I loved from the first Hardy's evocation of the Dorset countryside, its rural and urban landscape. Hardy specialises in telling us about lives which do not go well, and the story of the brooding, moody self-made Michael Henshaw, Mayor of Casterbridge is no exception. Although I was more convinced by his male characters than the female, I was drawn into the lives of the principal protagonists. It was obvious things would not end in a good way, but I was involved in the narrative, and in the detailed picture of a way of life already on its way out, a rural throw-back. This is a powerful and sympathetic study of a show more deeply flawed character, and the milieu in which he spent his life. show less

Mayor of Casterbridge is the wickedly funny and deeply affecting account of the train wreck that is Michael Henchard's life. Much of the humor comes from the Greek chorus like interludes in which some the the local lower class give their take on the doings if their "betters." Yet, this a tragedy of character. Henchard just can't seem not to hoist himself on every possible one of his petards, sometimes taking a somewhat innocent victim such as Lucetta with him. His combative sense of inferiority constantly eggs him into rivalry with both those seem such as Farfrae and unseen such as the sailor Newsome, Elizabeth Jane's father. His need to control and own people and things ultimately leaves him alone. All if the major characters are show more sympathetically drawn, finely shaded and colorful. The setting is splendidly golden. The honey hues of the stone, the grains, the sunlight wash over the story at times affecting a healing balm. The ancient ruins of Casterbridge underpin themes of wrongheaded malignant rivalry over vaunting pride, and plain old spitefulness as old as Hector and Achilles, Oedipus...you get the idea. Indeed, Henchard is a deeply flawed hero in the classical mode. There is never a dull moment in the Hardy's masterful treatment of his subject. This is just plain old good stuff. Fun, dramatic. cringe worthy, fascinating storytelling at its best. show less

Oh Mr. Hardy - canst thou ever forgive me for doubting thee?

The book is finished. My heart is sore. In my grief I can't bear to put it back on the bookshelf yet. Let it stay beside me on the bedside cabinet just a little while longer.

How wrong was I in my original assessment of Hardy's prose. I wept whilst reading this book. WEPT! Real tears! And not just once either.

Hardy initially cut to the chase with alarming alacrity, and it almost put me off continuing as I felt he had divulged the plot before I was engrossed enough to care much for the characters. More fool me. That was merely the tip of the iceberg, for the tale that developed was to have more twists and turns than a doorknob.

And the characterisation - oh, like nothing I've show more read before. Mr. Henchard was the most unpleasant of protagonists - harsh, proud, stubborn, jealous, cold, pompous - yet the whole way through the novel I was rooting for him, willing him on, desperately hoping he'll say the right thing here, do the right thing there. In the same way that my husband's wayward driving compels me to pump an imaginary brake as a passenger, so too Henchard's repeated mistakes had me constantly silently screaming "Stop! Look out! Take care!".

I'm now 5 books into my 50 book target. How I fear the 45 others shall now pale by comparison. show less

My first ever visit to Dorchester prompted me to read my first ever Thomas Hardy novel - very few other writers are so closely associated with a specific town or city; the fictional town in this novel's title is based very closely on Dorset's county town. I loved this novel, and will certainly be reading more Hardy. The plot is simple yet at the same time captivating and timeless. Michael Henchard, an itinerant farm labourer, while drunk one day sells his wife and baby daughter to a sailor at a fair. He wakes up sober and immediately regrets his choice, forswearing alcohol for 21 years and going off to search for them, but it is too late. The ramifications of this moment of madness ring throughout the years and affect Henchard's life show more and those of his family and others. This is a story about fortune's wheel and how it can bring one man up and cast another man down. Marvellous stuff, full of colourful incident and some quirky minor characters. show less

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Hardy's powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town.

I don't read much Hardy, on the basis that he is too depressing, but I really enjoyed this one, despite it still being fairly sad. Henchard, the Mayor of Casterbridge (for part of the novel at least), is his own worst enemy, but Hardy makes us sympathize with him despite his many and appalling faults - after all, he kept Abel Whittle's poor mother in coals all winter. There were flashes of humour throughout and the description of the constables trying to track down the perpetrators of the 'skimmington ride' was hilarious. The writing was reasonably easy to understand, and the Casterbridge setting (where everyone in the town is more or less co-dependant on everyone else) was strong.

If Thomas Hardy's Wessex region was a real place the British government would probably have to nuke it as nothing but misery seems to go on there, as recounted in [b: Tess of the d'Urbervilles|32261|Tess of the D'Urbervilles|Thomas Hardy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358921541s/32261.jpg|3331021], [b: Jude the Obscure|50798|Jude the Obscure|Thomas Hardy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389403264s/50798.jpg|41342119], [b: The Return of the Native|32650|The Return of the Native |Thomas Hardy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403182613s/32650.jpg|3140534] and other bleak-fests (I am excluding [b: Far from the Madding Crowd|31463|Far from the Madding Crowd |Thomas Hardy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388279695s/31463.jpg|914540] here because I show more find it quite cheerful by his melancholic standard (only a few tissue papers required instead of a whole box of Kleenex). The Mayor of Casterbridge is Hardy at least wonderfully mirthless best. A sign reading “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” would do just as well for the border of Wessex as Dante’s gate of hell.

The Mayor of Casterbridge, subtitled “The Life and Death of a Man of Character” is the story of Michael Henchard the (sometime) eponymous mayor of the town of Casterbridge. A bad tempered man with incredible mood swings who specializes in making very poor decisions. He starts off in fine form with selling his wife and child to an unknown sailor for the bargain basement price of five guineas (better known today as a fiver or GBP 5) while inebriated (pissed out of his mind in fact). After losing his wife for the price of a Big Mac he somehow manages to get his act together and works his way up in the world from a lowly hay-trusser to becoming a successful merchant and the town’s mayor (some suspension of disbelief is required here). After almost twenty years his poor sold wife shows up in town and reconciles with him, all seem to be going well until the fecal matter hits the fan. Seriously if they had electrical fans in Wessex I would stay well away from them as fecal matters would always make a beeline for these things, and spanners are always thrown into the works.

Most of Henchard’s troubles are of his own making but the universe also seems to have it in for him as his bad decisions are always compounded by misfortunes. Henchard is Thomas Hardy’s most interesting protagonist, bad tempered, cynical, violent and pessimistic, yet energetic, well-meaning (sometime), and honorable (usually); but don’t make him angry, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. He is often despicable yet oddly sympathetic and I could not help but wish things will work out well for him, but his worst stroke of luck is probably to find himself in a Thomas Hardy novel so that is not going to happen.

This is the fourth Hardy novel I have read and it is definitely my favorite. I am a sucker for tales of redemption or at least contrition and I felt an unmanly lump in throat several times towards the end of this book. Hardy was a master at creating complex and vivid characters, his prose is always a thing of wonder. However, it is always best not to become too attached to his characters as he usually put them all through the grinder and make sausages out of them. In his defence he does not do it out of malice but to illustrate the pitfalls and vicissitudes of life. If only people would be more open and honest with each other, if only they do not let secrets fester in their lives. Henchard’s step daughter Elizabeth-Jane is a good example of this, she survives being in a Hardy novel relatively unscathed* by virtue of her humbleness, honestly and resilience. For example:

“So she viewed with an approach to equanimity the now cancelled days when Donald had been her undeclared lover, and wondered what unwished-for thing Heaven might send her in place of him.”

Attagirl! Likewise Henchard’s unintentional antagonist and rival Donald Farfrae who is always kind and forgiving.

The Mayor of Casterbridge is a beautiful and moving novel in spite of its bleakness. There is always something you can take away from a Hardy novel, usually about your interrelationship with people around you. Now I’m going watch some cartoons…

* Though it was touch and go for a while when she is attacked by a crazed bull (!).
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Audio book credit:
I "read" the free audiobook version from Librivox, beautifully read by Bruce Pirie. Thank you sir! show less