13 h 17 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 17 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 326 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 326 pagesAbout this book
What if the life you build cannot shelter you from the harm you once caused?
At a country fair, a drunken Michael Henchard sells his wife Susan and their baby daughter to a sailor. Sober and ashamed, he sets out to change. In Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge, the hay trusser becomes a successful mayor through hard work and fierce will. Then Susan returns, hoping to secure a home for her daughter, Elizabeth-Jane.
Henchard wants to make amends, but pride and temper strain his resolve. Donald Farfrae, a charming Scotsman with a gift for the grain trade, becomes his manager and then his rival. Around them, Casterbridge trades, gossips, and judges. In this rural market town, private guilt meets public standing, and the wish to do right struggles against the force of habit.
What you’ll discover
- A conscience under pressure Follow a strong-willed man whose sincere wish to atone cannot quiet his temper.
- Friendship tested by pride Watch admiration turn toward rivalry as Farfrae wins the approval Henchard longs for.
- A town alive with judgment Enter a world of corn merchants, shifting weather, gossip, and firm class lines.
- Quiet strength beside ambition Meet Elizabeth-Jane, whose modest expectations accompany a growing ability to see people clearly.
- The weight of choice Explore how guilt, character, and unchecked emotion shape the struggle to begin again.
Who will love it
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A drunken bargain at the fair
- Eighteen years later, a ruler of Casterbridge
- A clever Scotsman comes to town
- Rivalry, pride and a broken friendship
- Love, a secret and a woman from Jersey
- The past returns and the town turns
- Character is fate
- Old England and the weight of change
- How Hardy tells it
Who’s who
- Michael HenchardA proud, strong-willed hay trusser who becomes mayor and wants to atone for a terrible act, but is ruled by his temper.
- Susan HenchardHis patient wife, who returns after many years hoping to give her daughter a secure home.
- Elizabeth-JaneSusan's thoughtful daughter, who expects little from life and learns to see people clearly.
- Donald FarfraeA clever, charming young Scotsman with a gift for the grain trade, who becomes Henchard's manager and then his rival.
- Lucetta Le SueurA lively woman from Jersey with an old tie to Henchard, who hopes to rebuild her good name in Casterbridge.
- NewsonThe sailor who buys Henchard's wife and child at the fair and takes them away.
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
by Thomas Hardy · 1886
At a country fair, Michael Henchard sells his wife and child, setting his future at the mercy of his past.
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In short
Imagine selling your own wife and child for five guineas, then waking sober and sick with shame. That bargain comes early in Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, first published in 1886.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A drunken bargain at the fair
On a late summer evening, Michael Henchard walks into Weydon Priors with his wife Susan and their small daughter Elizabeth-Jane. He is out of work and short of money. At a furmity tent, a woman quietly laces his porridge with rum.
Henchard drinks bowl after bowl and grows bitter about his marriage. Then he offers his wife for sale. A sailor named Newson pays five guineas, and Susan leaves with him, carrying her child.
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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.
The author
Thomas Hardy
1840–1928 · English novelist and poet
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was an English novelist and poet. He was born in Dorset and lived in Dorset and London. His novels include Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), and Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891). He published poetry collections from 1898 until his death.
More by Thomas Hardy
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