![]() ![]() In some sense, I believe that this novel is Hardy's testament to his views on 'Crime and Punishment.' The structure of the tale, and the bleakness of the characters, brings home in a powerful way the intended and unintended consequences of our actions upon others in our journey along the path of Life. In between those two bookends of horror, in typical Hardyan fashion, Fate, Chance, and Irony intermittently intercede impacting the lives of Henchard and those around him. ![]() The novel opens with a horrifying event, and concludes with another. No, this is the story of the slow, but largely self-wrought, destruction of one man - Michael Henchard - the Mayor of Casterbridge. Change the scene, the time, and the garb and this tragedy is worthy of the greatest ancient Greek playright. It is a relentlessly sad story, and a relentlessly painful story to read. ![]() ![]() The Mayor of Casterbridge is a relentless novel. While most of Hardy's 'Novels of Character and Environment' have a fairly pronounced pastoral presence, The Mayor of Casterbridge is distinctly a novel about characters in a relatively urban setting, the fictional Wessex town of Casterbridge. Well, at least the more well known novels. I am in the midst of reading all of Thomas Hardy's novels in the order that he wrote them. ![]()
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