The Mayor of Casterbridge (version 2)

by Thomas HARDY (1840 - 1928)

Chapter 12

The Mayor of Casterbridge (version 2)

Irritated and drunken, an itinerant farm-worker sells his wife and child to a stranger. Thus begins The Mayor of Casterbridge, set in rural and small-town England in the mid-1800s. In the original subtitle, Hardy called this the story of "a man of character," and the central character, Michael Henchard, is one of English fiction's greatest creations. Henchard is deeply developed as a realistic character, but also larger-than-life in the manner of a Greek or Shakespearean tragic hero — huge in his determination and huge in his failings. The novel deals with the struggles between individual will, the hold of the past, and the relentless control of circumstances in a changing society. (Summary by Bruce Pirie)


Listen next episodes of The Mayor of Casterbridge (version 2):
Chapter 13 , Chapter 14 , Chapter 15 , Chapter 16 , Chapter 17 , Chapter 18 , Chapter 19 , Chapter 20 , Chapter 21 , Chapter 22 , Chapter 23 , Chapter 24 , Chapter 25 , Chapter 26 , Chapter 27 , Chapter 28 , Chapter 29 , Chapter 30 , Chapter 31 , Chapter 32 , Chapter 33 , Chapter 34 , Chapter 35 , Chapter 36 , Chapter 37 , Chapter 38 , Chapter 39 , Chapter 40 , Chapter 41 , Chapter 42 , Chapter 43 , Chapter 44 , Chapter 45