The Mayor of Casterbridge -- Thomas Hardy (with explanatory notes)

'The woman is no good to me. Who'll have her?'
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.

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) is a tragic novel by English author Thomas Hardy, subtitled "The Life and Death of a Man of Character". It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester in Dorset). The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rustic England.

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There are many editions of The Mayor of Casterbridge. This educational edition was created for self-improvement or in preparation for advanced examinations. The bottom of each page is annotated with a mini-thesaurus of uncommon words highlighted in the text, including synonyms and antonyms. Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on standardized tests.

 

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation.