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The Mayor of Casterbridge - Community Reviews back

by Thomas Hardy
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Burfobookalicious
Burfobookalicious rated it 6 years ago
I haven’t tackled Thomas Hardy since my high school syllabus, but what a treat I had been denying myself. Various maxims spring to mind from this book (‘you reap what you sow’; ‘no man is an island’; ‘what goes up…’) emerging from the chronicled life of Michael Henchard. From very humble beginnings ...
Portable Magic
Portable Magic rated it 7 years ago
I once knew an essentially selfish man who thought of everything, even the people he loved, in terms of what they could do for him. And when he didn’t benefit, he could be angry and resentful and hurtful. He knew better, and he often regretted it and apologized and resolved to do better, but he neve...
Reading Slothfully
Reading Slothfully rated it 9 years ago
Damn, it looks like a half dozen or more pages were missing from Chapter 20 in the version I downloaded from Amazon. I wonder what else is missing? So, anyway, I downloaded a version from Gutenberg.org. I'm surprised that Amazon, who only just poach out-of-copyright stuff from other people, can't ev...
Ellen Allen Writes
Ellen Allen Writes rated it 9 years ago
I read a little Hardy when I was at university but after reading Jude the Obscure and being completely depressed, I gave him up. I like real life, but he’s always so, well, downbeat. Now with the release of Far From the Madding Crowd and having seen the stylish BBC adaptation of Tess of the D’Urberv...
Book Ramblings
Book Ramblings rated it 10 years ago
If Thomas Hardy's Wessex region was a real place the British government would probably have to nuke it as nothing but misery seems to go on there, as recounted in [b: Tess of the d'Urbervilles|32261|Tess of the D'Urbervilles|Thomas Hardy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358921541s/32261.jpg|3331021], ...
aka Grasshopper
aka Grasshopper rated it 11 years ago
This is a real roller-coaster ride. Following the mayor from his drunken decision to sell his wife and infant daughter, to his final act of desperation, is an engrossing tale of perfidy and happenstance. At its moral center is Elizabeth-Jane, the mayor's long lost daughter who bears a strong resembl...
nente
nente rated it 12 years ago
You know the feeling that is always associated with Greek tragedies or Eastern apocryphal stories: that Workings of Fate are above men's will. The kind of stories where someone hears a prophecy about the person who would ruin or kill him and starts a great activity trying to evade his fate, only to ...
Kim Reads and Bakes
Kim Reads and Bakes rated it 13 years ago
This is the story of Michael Henchard, who sells his wife and infant daughter for five guineas while drunk at a local fair. The consequences of this one impulsive action haunt his life thereafter. Henchard is a tragic figure, doomed not only by the character flaws of which he is only too aware, but ...
I'm Reading...
I'm Reading... rated it 14 years ago
Other thoughts/reviews:Shelf Love: http://shelflove.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/the-mayor-of-casterbridge/
Abandoned by user
Abandoned by user rated it 14 years ago
Part of a classics challenge, along with the Scarlet Pimpernel. So far, my favorite Hardy.
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