The Mayor of Casterbridge

Rating:
Summary: I liked this book.
Review: At first, I was a little confused as to how Hardy could stretch what seemed to be a simple plot into such a long novel--especially because the story in blurb on the back cover happened within the first 50 pages. But the story is more than the blurb on the back cover. It is about betrayal, last wishes, the "evils" of drink, and how one mistake can affect you 21 years down the road. Hardy's fatalistic view, seen through Henchard, is, at times, enough to drive the reader crazy.

Like many of the other reviewers here, I cried throughout the book. There are constant turns in the story line that at times uplift your soul, and then crash it into the depths of depression. This book is not an easy read though. There are sections that you will struggle to get through because it is dry, but then there are others that will keep you up at night rushing to finish.

I liked this book slightly less than I liked _Tess_, but it was _Tess_ that made me buy this book. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: A literary miracle...and a very modern novel...
Review: I'm re-reading this book that thrilled me years ago and thrills me today. Now, however, I realize just how "modern" it is, even more so than the works of Dickens, whom I also revere, but whose writing had a quaint quality that actually makes him the lesser artist, in my opinion. Hardy's writing is spare but nothing is left out. You feel it, you taste it, you live it. It has the firm, sure quality of a minimalist work of art, and yet the twists and turns of its plot are dizzying. I detect its influence on novelist Toni Morrison, I might add. I'd be willing to bet she's a Hardy scholar. I read many passages, many scenes, that reminded me of her "folksy" conceits. And I was amazed at Hardy's contemporary understanding of addiction, in this case alcoholism. In fact, Henchard is a "dry drunk." He abstains from liquor for 21 years, but his character defects and lack of spiritual awareness catapault him right back into his disease when he begins drinking again. In fact, his life spirals out of control faster and faster with his first return to drink, showing that alcoholism, like all addictions, is a progressive disease. A reviewer here said the book was depressing, and that Hardy is dark. However, the "light" in Hardy comes with his wisdom, not unlike Faulkner's, of human nature. There are so many themes of the enduring truths that one is uplifted just by the reading. Sometimes I mourn for the writers I will never meet, the ones who have passed on. Their teaching is so important to my own spiritual and artistic growth, that I have experienced a great love from them and for them. Hardy is one of those for me. Wherever he dwells now, I send him my appreciation.

Rating:
Summary: Be Careful What You Wish For?
Review: Since I have decided to dedicate part of my time spent reading in 2003 to the classics, I started first with The Mayor of Casterbridge, not the most famous of Hardy's works but seemingly a good place to start. I will definitely read the other works by this author since I was so captivated by this book.

The novel begins with the sale of Michael Henchard's wife and child to the highest bidder at a local summer fair. Henchard is drunk and his wife, tired of his habits, decides to leave with the sailor who bids on her and her daughter. Henchard wakes up the next morning, somewhat remorseful for what he has done and vows not to drink for twenty-one years.

The very next chapter picks up the story nineteen years later, with the return of the wife and child into Henchard's life. Henchard is now quite wealthy and is such an important man in his community, he is now Mayor of Casterbridge. From here, a series of wrong decisions and misunderstandings lead to the devastating conclusion.

Hardy is well known for his tendency towards gloomy endings and this book certainly fits the mold. But he is also well known for his lyrical descriptions of the English countryside and describing a way of life which had disappeared even in his own time. There were beautiful passages about the hay carts being driven through town, loaded so high that people on the second floor of homes could reach out and touch the top of the hay. Small details abound, describing the sound of rain on trees and the smell of the local foods. But perhaps the most significant aspect of the novel for me was the feeling that Henchard had wished for everything that had happened to him, and all of his wishes came true, and thus ultimately his downfall. These wishes were almost all made in a rash moment, when perhaps a minute or more of reflection could have produced a clearer head. Yet Henchard lives by his instincts, since for almost twenty years they seemed to serve him well.

I would recommend this book to any serious literature lover and I believe it serves as a good introduction to his other works. His books serve as a bridge from Victorian literature to modern literature, with no happy endings guaranteed.

Rating:
Summary: A Plot Spiral
Review: The Mayor of Casterbridge has so many plot twists and turns that it would not be an exaggeration to label this book as a "plot spiral." With practically every new section, Hardy invents a new way to reveal some surprising (and sometimes not so surprising) twist to the plot line. Hardy creates a complex story about love, lust, relationships, economical hardship, family, shifts in power, and more in a beautiful and picturesque way. He concentrates so much on detail that it seems as if you are watching the events first hand. His style presents information as if you were reading it in the form of a play. He nearly always sets up the scene before beginning the action, which makes it so much easier to delve deeply into the action of the characters.

Hardy also creates enormously dynamic characters that are subject to so many changes throughout the novel that they become like real people. The author's grip on human emotions makes his characters believable and easily loved and then hated. The fluctuating emotions of the main character, Michael Henchard, as he falls subject to disappointment in every avenue of his life is a true example of Hardy's gift for characterization.

The contrast of the out-dated and underdeveloped town of Casterbridge vs. the complexity of the relationships that develop within it is brilliant and makes the reactions of the common townspeople to these relationships even more significant to the development of the setting and also the relationships themselves. Though not portrayed obviously in the book, the town of Casterbridge itself plays a very large role in the story. As Hardy thrusts outsiders from other cultures into this archaic town, things suddenly become very complicated and even more so when the newcomers begin to meet and mix together. The Scotchman, Farfrae, and Lucetta, the Jersey girl, as well as some others, react in such a way to the old ways of this society as to disrupt the harmony of this simple community, making this novel an avenue for Hardy to demonstrate his gift for rich dialogue and language, as created in direct relation to the character's point of origin.

Hardy has created a book about rises and downfalls of a small group of people and presents a very fitting theme about the events of ones life and how they affect everyone around them in death. I must say that I enjoyed this novel for its substance and complexity, as well as the timelessness of the general plot outline.

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the Perfect Tragic Character
Review: When Thomas Hardy penned The Mayor of Casterbridge, he brought to life a very authentic character in Michael Henchard. He is possibly the perfect tragic character. The only other character I can think of to compare him to as I struggle to describe him and the story - for he is so much the story - is King Lear. But where Lear was a King who was foolish, Michael is the common man, a simple hay trusser, with several character flaws ... most notably shortsightedness and a desire to "be on top". He at no point feels something that most people don't but where we restrain our first rash and selfish actions (most of the time), he goes full out until he has cost himself everything and too late finds redemption. His flaw is insidious and all too common, so we relate easily even through his most outrageous misadventures.

In a fit of drunken despondency, feeling that he is being pulled down by the responsibility of being a twenty-one year old husband and father, he jests that he would gladly part with his wife and daughter for the sum of five pounds. After having sworn this so vehemently for the entire evening, he has little recourse when someone takes him up on it and his wife, in shame and anger, agrees to go with the purchaser, taking their daughter with her. When sobriety brings full realization, it also brings a vow of temperance from Michael who in the following fifteen years builds himself up to a position respectability and public admiration in the nearby town of Casterbridge.

Though he seems to have learned his lesson, we are only on chapter two and his story is just beginning as his wife and child return and his friendship with a trusted friend and critical advisor becomes a bitter rivalry. Time and again he demands allegiance when he need only ask it and return it in kind.

Hardy's writing style is direct and straight-forward with no flourishes like you might find with Dickens or Twain. He has a story to tell and he tells it - no swashbuckling adventures like DeFoe or Dumas. However you feel about that, the character of Michael Henchard continues to skulk around in my head. He represents to me a very real possibility of personal failure and haunts my mind now just as Scrooge's deceased partner haunted him in A Christmas Carol. I would have given this book a fun factor of three stars when I first read it. Now I give it five stars because I have had the time to realize what a masterful job Hardy did when he created Michael Henchard.