Riassunto
Riassunto di The Mayor of Casterbridge
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love serious novels in which character shapes fate, and anyone curious about rural England in the nineteenth century. Pride, rivalry and the struggle to atone give this tragedy its force.
Che cos’è questo libro
The Mayor of Casterbridge is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1886 after it appeared in weekly parts in a magazine. It is set in Casterbridge, a market town based on Dorchester in the south of England, in the years before the railways changed country life. Hardy gives the book a subtitle that sums up its plot, The Life and Death of a Man of Character.
The story opens with one of the cruelest scenes in English fiction. A young hay trusser named Michael Henchard, drunk at a country fair, sells his wife and baby daughter to a sailor for five guineas. He wakes sober and ashamed. What follows is the long attempt of a strong, proud and flawed man to make up for a single act, and the way his own nature keeps working against him.
You get a full portrait of a town, its corn trade, its weather, its gossip and its class lines. You also get one of the great studies of character in English fiction. Let us begin with the fair at Weydon Priors, where everything is set in motion.
In questo riassunto
- 1A drunken bargain at the fairFree
- 2Eighteen years later, a ruler of Casterbridge
- 3A clever Scotsman comes to town
- 4Rivalry, pride and a broken friendship
- 5Love, a secret and a woman from Jersey
- 6The past returns and the town turns
- 7Character is fate
- 8Old England and the weight of change
- 9How Hardy tells it
Punto chiave 1 di 9
A drunken bargain at the fair
The novel begins on a late summer evening in the village of Weydon Priors. Michael Henchard, a young hay trusser, walks into the village with his wife Susan and their small daughter Elizabeth-Jane. He is out of work and short of money. They stop at a furmity tent, where a woman sells a hot wheat porridge, and she quietly laces his bowl with rum.
Henchard drinks bowl after bowl. His mood turns bitter, and he starts to complain loudly about his marriage. He says he married too young and that his wife holds him back. Then he offers her for sale, as one might offer a horse.
A sailor named Newson takes up the offer and pays five guineas. Henchard takes the money, and Susan, who has put up with a great deal, picks up her child and leaves with the stranger. She tells Henchard that she will no longer be a burden to him. The scene is told in a flat, quiet way that makes it more shocking.
The next morning Henchard wakes in the tent, sober and sick with what he has done. He searches the district for his family but finds no trace. He then goes to a church and swears an oath to avoid strong drink for twenty-one years, the same number of years he has lived. This vow, and the way it shapes his life, is the first of many choices that Hardy sets as a trap for him.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Michael Henchard
- A proud hay trusser who sells his wife Susan and their daughter, then seeks to atone.
- Susan Henchard
- Henchard's patient wife returns to Casterbridge after many years, seeking a secure home for her daughter.
- Elizabeth-Jane
- Susan's thoughtful daughter accompanies her mother to Casterbridge, expecting little and carefully observing those around her.
- Donald Farfrae
- A charming young Scotsman skilled in the grain trade becomes Henchard's manager, friend and business rival.
- Lucetta Le Sueur
- A woman from Jersey with a past attachment to Henchard hopes to restore her reputation in Casterbridge.
- Newson
- A sailor who buys Susan and her child from Henchard takes them away from the fair.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 120,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 8 h
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages
Questions about The Mayor of Casterbridge
What is The Mayor of Casterbridge about?
It tells of Michael Henchard, who sells his wife and child while drunk, then becomes mayor of a country town. His pride and past threaten everything he has built, and a rival rises beside him.
Why does Henchard sell his wife?
He is drunk on rum-laced porridge at a country fair, frustrated by poverty and a marriage he feels has held him back. He regrets it the next morning and swears off drink.
Is Casterbridge a real place?
No, but Hardy based it on Dorchester in Dorset. He placed it in his invented region of Wessex, and many of its streets and buildings echo the real town.
Is The Mayor of Casterbridge a hard book to read?
The language is clear and the mood is dark. The plot is easy to follow.
What is the main message of The Mayor of Casterbridge?
Hardy suggests that character shapes fate, and that old wrongs can return. The book also shows the cost of pride and the way a changing world rewards different kinds of people.