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The Mayor of Casterbridge
[Penguin Longman Readers Level 5]
104 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 1, 2013
such a sad, depressing, dramatic and simple story. while reading i just couldn't stop thinking how unfair life can be sometimes. it just takes u from being happy to sad wealth to poor just by making your dreams come true. Thomas Hardy must had been depressed while writing it. it is the kind of stories where u want to punch a wall or become a psychologist while reading it. still a great simple touching story.
December 14, 2018
I am not a Thomas Hardy fan. I have read Under the Greenwood Tree, Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'urbervilles...okay, well, I guess I AM a Hardy fan but not in the sense of “can’t wait to read him,” more like “I guess I better read this.” You know what I mean. You don’t REALLY want to read Heart of Darkness but need to answer truthfully when some literature major sniffs, “Have you read Conrad?” And you have. Sniff.
So I pick up Hardy with a sense of obligation and find that I like the guy. Actually do. His convoluted 19th Century torturous writing accented by incomprehensible English peasant dialogue is fun, a test of translation skills and reading levels. And the story usually turns out pretty damn interesting. Like this one.
Michael Henchard is a hay trusser (think sickler of wheat) who simply cannot get out of his own way. At the beginning of the novel, he commits an act of jaw-dropping cruelty, even by 19th Century standards, which has lifelong implications for not only him, but his wife and daughter. No matter what he does from that point on, no matter how successful (and he becomes very successful), this act hangs over him like the Sword of Damocles. The rest of the novel is awaiting on that cut thread.
For months after, Henchard seeks to make amends, ranging far and wide over the Dorset countryside in an attempt to find the offended parties and fix things. But he can’t find them and he finally gets on with his life, going from hay trusser to wealthy grain factor (love that word, ‘factor.’ So much better than ‘broker’) and, finally, the mayor of his town. Everything is going along swimmingly, and then it isn’t.
Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, and, boy, is Henchard driven mad, mostly by his jealousy over the successes of a former employee, Donald Farfrae, and by his shame over that years-ago act of cruelty. Which comes back to haunt him. Big time.
Henchard isn’t a bad guy, Snidely Whiplash rubbing his hands in evil satisfaction and chuckling “Nyah Ah Ah!”; he’s more like Wile E. Coyote: following his instincts right over the cliff. He’s very aware of what an eff up he is, which makes him an appealing figure. Yes, you want to smack him upside the head, but you’re rooting for him, too. That is, until the last, and probably biggest, of his eff-ups involving the long-lost father of Henchard's daughter. A bridge too far, that.
I don’t quite know what Hardy’s point is, other than no bad deed will go unpunished, over and over and over again, apparently. I’m not a Hardy (or hardy) scholar so I can’t comment on his patriarchal capitalist neutralization of neo-class bourgeoisie repression or whatever passes for literary criticism these days, but it’s obvious Hardy gives Henchard no quarter. The train wreck at the end is both inevitable and regretful, and Hardy wants you to thoroughly understand that there are no do-overs. You wish Hardy was a little more charitable and Henchard could avoid his fate, but going over a cliff generally has only one outcome.
So steel yourself. And consult the Notes often.
So I pick up Hardy with a sense of obligation and find that I like the guy. Actually do. His convoluted 19th Century torturous writing accented by incomprehensible English peasant dialogue is fun, a test of translation skills and reading levels. And the story usually turns out pretty damn interesting. Like this one.
Michael Henchard is a hay trusser (think sickler of wheat) who simply cannot get out of his own way. At the beginning of the novel, he commits an act of jaw-dropping cruelty, even by 19th Century standards, which has lifelong implications for not only him, but his wife and daughter. No matter what he does from that point on, no matter how successful (and he becomes very successful), this act hangs over him like the Sword of Damocles. The rest of the novel is awaiting on that cut thread.
For months after, Henchard seeks to make amends, ranging far and wide over the Dorset countryside in an attempt to find the offended parties and fix things. But he can’t find them and he finally gets on with his life, going from hay trusser to wealthy grain factor (love that word, ‘factor.’ So much better than ‘broker’) and, finally, the mayor of his town. Everything is going along swimmingly, and then it isn’t.
Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, and, boy, is Henchard driven mad, mostly by his jealousy over the successes of a former employee, Donald Farfrae, and by his shame over that years-ago act of cruelty. Which comes back to haunt him. Big time.
Henchard isn’t a bad guy, Snidely Whiplash rubbing his hands in evil satisfaction and chuckling “Nyah Ah Ah!”; he’s more like Wile E. Coyote: following his instincts right over the cliff. He’s very aware of what an eff up he is, which makes him an appealing figure. Yes, you want to smack him upside the head, but you’re rooting for him, too. That is, until the last, and probably biggest, of his eff-ups involving the long-lost father of Henchard's daughter. A bridge too far, that.
I don’t quite know what Hardy’s point is, other than no bad deed will go unpunished, over and over and over again, apparently. I’m not a Hardy (or hardy) scholar so I can’t comment on his patriarchal capitalist neutralization of neo-class bourgeoisie repression or whatever passes for literary criticism these days, but it’s obvious Hardy gives Henchard no quarter. The train wreck at the end is both inevitable and regretful, and Hardy wants you to thoroughly understand that there are no do-overs. You wish Hardy was a little more charitable and Henchard could avoid his fate, but going over a cliff generally has only one outcome.
So steel yourself. And consult the Notes often.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2018
Such a convoluted, sad story. Each of the main characters had so many changes of heart that the story kept developing and kept me interested right up to the end.
I loved the florid writing, all the differing dialects and the arcane words and oddities of phrasing.
I probably read this story in high school, but didn't appreciate the depth of the insight Hardy shows and the lyricism of the language. Glad my son-in-law gave it to me after he read it...
I loved the florid writing, all the differing dialects and the arcane words and oddities of phrasing.
I probably read this story in high school, but didn't appreciate the depth of the insight Hardy shows and the lyricism of the language. Glad my son-in-law gave it to me after he read it...
January 6, 2020
One of my most memorable tales
September 18, 2026
que de plot twist pffff me ha gustado la vd
July 10, 2015
The plot was intriguing, the writing difficult to wade through at times. Henchard is a young man who is not a bad fellow unless he is drinking. With a wife and daughter he goes to a fair and there imbibes to the point of selling his wife and child to a sailor. When he sobers he realizes what he has done and searches for them but to no avail. He swears off alcohol for a specific number of years and becomes a wealthy businessman and Mayor of Casterbridge. Mr. Farfrae comes into his life at a time when his business needs help and quickly Henchard becomes jealous of Farfrae's abilities. Henchard is impetuous and when he acts on feelings in the spur of the moment, his actions work against him, leaving no one to blame but himself. His wife and daughter again enter the picture as do others.
it
I enjoyed this novel and have thought much of the lessons of life included.
it
I enjoyed this novel and have thought much of the lessons of life included.
Read
January 2, 2014What a good soap-opera and drama!
Four seasons of "Sex and the City" later, I got back to a book and this was the first one. I found the both the book and the TV show made me laugh.
Four seasons of "Sex and the City" later, I got back to a book and this was the first one. I found the both the book and the TV show made me laugh.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews