The Mayor of Casterbridge
When you hear "tragic flaw" you think of hubris, probably, or curiosity, or the desire to fuck your mom, but here's the Mayor of Casterbridge's tragic flaw: he's an asshole.He's not bad, exactly. He has a sense of justice, or at least he develops one. As the book opens, he (Michael Henchard, the Mayor of Hardy's blazing character study) auctions off his wife for five shillings in a fit of drunken pique. When he sobers up and realizes what he's done, he swears off drinking. He tries to be better.
This is the story of the rise and fall of Michael Henchard, a hot-tempered, proud and irascible hay-trusser who in a drunken haze, sells his wife and baby girl to a sailor at a fair, for five guineas.He regrets his deed the next day, but can not find his wife and child. Entering a church, he kneels by the altar and vows to stay sober for 21 years and do good and be charitable. But can he rise above his anger, pride, obstinacy, jealousy, sense of rivalry and impulsiveness?Would he be able to
Life is an oasis which is submerged in the swirling waves of sorrows and agonies.orHappiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain--Thomas Hardy, in this and almost every one of his tragic novels.I had thought I was permanently done with my year of rereading Thomas Hardy, but I had some time in a car, so listened to this, a book I last read as a sophomore in college. Subtitled A Story of a Man of Character, Hardy's 1886 portrait of Michael Hencharddepressive, bad-tempered,
I give it five stars because it seems nearly a perfect example of its type of craft. This book has an intertwined and flawless plot that is never overcomplicated; it is full of wonderful language, rich with regional variation, for instance the tenor of Donald Farfrae's Scottish is exceptionally musical and not like the speech of his peers. There were moments reading this book I felt so much under the sway of the author's power that I could observe him wirte himself into one tight plot corner and
Michael Henchard an itinerant, young, annoyed farm worker, walking with quiet wife Susan, infant daughter Elizabeth -Jane, looking for employment, the time, the early 1830's, in southern England, after an exhausting journey they reach a country fair, in a small village, enter a crowded tent, with dubious humans, serving alcohol, he imbibes vigorously, (a weakness that will cause much trouble, and haunt him the rest of his life) soon inebriated, the highly distressed man, in a stupor, sells Susan
It seems The Mayor of Casterbridge can end only in one direction as this Mayor is continually victimized by his own shortcomings. As the novel begins, we witness the famous selling of his wife while he is in a drunken stupor, not caring about anything or anyone else in the world. Years later, he has his chance to make changes, amends but his essential character prevents this. He sees evil and devils where there are none and increases small faults to large. He turns friends to enemies and enemies
Thomas Hardy
Paperback | Pages: 445 pages Rating: 3.82 | 52328 Users | 2076 Reviews
Present Books In Favor Of The Mayor of Casterbridge
Original Title: | The Mayor of Casterbridge |
ISBN: | 0141439785 (ISBN13: 9780141439785) |
Edition Language: | English |
Characters: | Michael Henchard, Donald Farfrae, Elizabeth-Jane Newson, Susan Henchard, Lucetta Templeman, Richard Newson |
Setting: | United Kingdom Wessex, England Casterbridge, England |
Description Toward Books The Mayor of Casterbridge
‘I’ve not always been what I am now’ In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled ‘A Story of a Man of Character’, Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town. This edition includes an introduction, chronology of Hardy’s life and works, the illustrations for the original Serial Issue, place names, maps, glossary, full explanatory notes as well as Hardy’s prefaces to the 1895 and 1912 editions.Details Based On Books The Mayor of Casterbridge
Title | : | The Mayor of Casterbridge |
Author | : | Thomas Hardy |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Penguin Classics |
Pages | : | Pages: 445 pages |
Published | : | March 27th 2003 by Penguin Books Ltd (first published 1886) |
Categories | : | Classics. Fiction. Literature. 19th Century |
Rating Based On Books The Mayor of Casterbridge
Ratings: 3.82 From 52328 Users | 2076 ReviewsArticle Based On Books The Mayor of Casterbridge
Truth is stranger than fiction except in this story, which presents a circuitous series of tragic circumstances that only the cruelest force a depressed novelist could dream up. Actually, I have no idea if Hardy was depressed when he wrote this book, but I certainly was by the time I finished reading it. The story begins with an itinerant hay-trusser, Michael Henchard, selling his wife and baby daughter for five guineas (!!) in a fit of drunken madness. Unbelievably enough, it goes downhillWhen you hear "tragic flaw" you think of hubris, probably, or curiosity, or the desire to fuck your mom, but here's the Mayor of Casterbridge's tragic flaw: he's an asshole.He's not bad, exactly. He has a sense of justice, or at least he develops one. As the book opens, he (Michael Henchard, the Mayor of Hardy's blazing character study) auctions off his wife for five shillings in a fit of drunken pique. When he sobers up and realizes what he's done, he swears off drinking. He tries to be better.
This is the story of the rise and fall of Michael Henchard, a hot-tempered, proud and irascible hay-trusser who in a drunken haze, sells his wife and baby girl to a sailor at a fair, for five guineas.He regrets his deed the next day, but can not find his wife and child. Entering a church, he kneels by the altar and vows to stay sober for 21 years and do good and be charitable. But can he rise above his anger, pride, obstinacy, jealousy, sense of rivalry and impulsiveness?Would he be able to
Life is an oasis which is submerged in the swirling waves of sorrows and agonies.orHappiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain--Thomas Hardy, in this and almost every one of his tragic novels.I had thought I was permanently done with my year of rereading Thomas Hardy, but I had some time in a car, so listened to this, a book I last read as a sophomore in college. Subtitled A Story of a Man of Character, Hardy's 1886 portrait of Michael Hencharddepressive, bad-tempered,
I give it five stars because it seems nearly a perfect example of its type of craft. This book has an intertwined and flawless plot that is never overcomplicated; it is full of wonderful language, rich with regional variation, for instance the tenor of Donald Farfrae's Scottish is exceptionally musical and not like the speech of his peers. There were moments reading this book I felt so much under the sway of the author's power that I could observe him wirte himself into one tight plot corner and
Michael Henchard an itinerant, young, annoyed farm worker, walking with quiet wife Susan, infant daughter Elizabeth -Jane, looking for employment, the time, the early 1830's, in southern England, after an exhausting journey they reach a country fair, in a small village, enter a crowded tent, with dubious humans, serving alcohol, he imbibes vigorously, (a weakness that will cause much trouble, and haunt him the rest of his life) soon inebriated, the highly distressed man, in a stupor, sells Susan
It seems The Mayor of Casterbridge can end only in one direction as this Mayor is continually victimized by his own shortcomings. As the novel begins, we witness the famous selling of his wife while he is in a drunken stupor, not caring about anything or anyone else in the world. Years later, he has his chance to make changes, amends but his essential character prevents this. He sees evil and devils where there are none and increases small faults to large. He turns friends to enemies and enemies
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