by Thomas Hardy (Author), Michael Irwin (Introduction by), Michael Irwin (Notes by)
With an Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at Canterbury.
None of the great Victorian novels is more vivid and readable than The Mayor of Casterbridge. Set in the heart of Hardy's Wessex, the 'partly real, partly dream country' he founded on his native Dorset, it charts the rise and self-induced downfall of a single 'man of character'.
The fast-moving and ingeniously contrived narrative is Shakespearian in its tragic force, and features some of the author's most striking episodes and brilliant passages of description.
Back Jacket
When a man sells his wife, he should not expect to get away with it. Michael Henchard forswears drink for twenty-one years and becomes the successful mayor of a thriving industrial town, but his mistake returns to hunt him.