The Mayor of Casterbridge
Hardy, Thomas / Lopate, Phillip
<, div>, <, div>, <, b>, Thomas Hardy<, /b>, &, #8217, s first masterpiece, <, i>, The Mayor of Casterbridge<, /i>, opens with a scene of such heartlessness and cruelty that it still shocks readers today. A poor workman named Michael Henchard, in a fit of drunken rage, sells his wife and baby daughter to a stranger at a country fair. Stricken with remorse, Henchard forswears alcohol and works hard to become a prosper...