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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
I had good memories of reading this just out of university, but it was a rather dismal experience this time around.
Hardy is always genius at tragedy and here he has taken on a very flawed protagonist and subjected him to a great deal of pain and suffering, as per usual. But the morality of this book has not aged as well as some of Hardy’s most famous works.
A man sells his wife and daughter for five guineas at the country fair, repents but cannot find her, and goes on to become rich and successful. Many years later, the wife’s return sets in motion a train of events which proves his undoing.
The plot is enjoyable enough, but requires contrasting good with bad – the troubled mayor with a pleasant young Scotsman; the virtuous daughter with a woman with a past. But while Hardy is skilled at making the reader like the good and hate the bad, modern morality muddles the issue. The “bad” woman is guilty of nothing worse than once having an (unconsummated) passion for another man; the “good” man is shallow and priggish. And while heroines like Hardy’s Tess are battered by circumstance but strong in their suffering, here we have that stalwart of Victorian fiction, a woman who succumbs, weakens, perishes, due to a shock! Overall, it makes for an unsatisfying twenty-first century reading experience, which is not helped by a peculiar decision by Hardy to cut a climatic scene (though I believe this was restored in later editions).
Hardy is always genius at tragedy and here he has taken on a very flawed protagonist and subjected him to a great deal of pain and suffering, as per usual. But the morality of this book has not aged as well as some of Hardy’s most famous works.
A man sells his wife and daughter for five guineas at the country fair, repents but cannot find her, and goes on to become rich and successful. Many years later, the wife’s return sets in motion a train of events which proves his undoing.
The plot is enjoyable enough, but requires contrasting good with bad – the troubled mayor with a pleasant young Scotsman; the virtuous daughter with a woman with a past. But while Hardy is skilled at making the reader like the good and hate the bad, modern morality muddles the issue. The “bad” woman is guilty of nothing worse than once having an (unconsummated) passion for another man; the “good” man is shallow and priggish. And while heroines like Hardy’s Tess are battered by circumstance but strong in their suffering, here we have that stalwart of Victorian fiction, a woman who succumbs, weakens, perishes, due to a shock! Overall, it makes for an unsatisfying twenty-first century reading experience, which is not helped by a peculiar decision by Hardy to cut a climatic scene (though I believe this was restored in later editions).
I know so many regard this as Hardy's best novel, but not for me. It is not the bleakness, which I rather revel in, but the increasingly strained twists in the plot which rather annoyed me. (His superficial consideration of how Elizabeth-Jane is affected by all the deceit surprised me).
The Mayor of Casterbridge is one of those books that consistently delivers satisfaction on multiple levels.
First level - no one describes the English countryside better than Hardy. He gives us all the agricultural minutiae we could ever want. I know that sounds like I'm being glib or snarky, but I mean it. The principal character is in the agriculture business and it's a pleasure to hear the little details of that work and lifestyle. And man, Hardy gives us a wonderful sense of topography! We know exactly where we are and we can almost feel the distances between places. He serves it all up so effortlessly. And I can read his details of a sunset again and again.
Second level - Hardy's plots are as tight as a drum, and of all his plots this might be his tightest. So this is like Neil Peart's favorite drum of all time (RIP...and I might be wrongly assuming that Neil liked his drums tight. I was just trying to round out the metaphor with a name that screams DRUM).
Third level - despite some pretty heinous behavior even the least attractive characters are able to rise above their worst acts and come off somewhat likable in the end. This could be my unique experience, but I was never turned off. I felt at least a minute (my-noot : don't you hate the ambiguity of that word?) degree of warmth or understanding for every character in the book. Not to say it's a feel-good story, it's just not a feel-bad story, like his equally great but extremely sad and depressing "Jude the Obscure". Mayor of Casterbridge feels like summer, while Jude is your coldest winter.
Ok, I want to get back to the plot, though I won't divulge any of the specific details. Mainly I want to emphasize how universal the story feels. You can easily recast this tale with characters from any place or time. As I read along I couldn't help but imagine the story being told in a modern setting among disparate ethnic groups. I was literally thinking "wow, this could be an Asian story, or an African story, or a New Orleans story, or even a suburban New Jersey story". What I mean is that the plot is so clean and the characters are so relatable that you can extrapolate the idea to fit whatever milieu you want and it will still make sense, it will still be just as effective. The story is so strong that it doesn't need to rely on time and place, even though he gives us such a wonderful sense of time and place.
To sum it up: "The Mayor of Casterbridge" is a richly detailed rural story with many likable and relatable characters wrapped up in a tight-as-a-drum plot.
It's so hard to rank an author's works because their value is subjective. We may like "Jude" because we can relate to the outcast orphan archetype. We may like "Tess" because we share a connection with the unheard girl who sacrifices herself for the family again and again without expecting even a smidge of recognition. Or we may like "Far from the Madding Crowd" for it's powerful female lead.
But I'd say on technical skill alone "The Mayor of Casterbridge" is a high water mark for Hardy. It feels like a very clean distillation of his greatest talents. And it's definitely the perfect entry point for anyone who wants to dive into the complete works of Thomas Hardy.
First level - no one describes the English countryside better than Hardy. He gives us all the agricultural minutiae we could ever want. I know that sounds like I'm being glib or snarky, but I mean it. The principal character is in the agriculture business and it's a pleasure to hear the little details of that work and lifestyle. And man, Hardy gives us a wonderful sense of topography! We know exactly where we are and we can almost feel the distances between places. He serves it all up so effortlessly. And I can read his details of a sunset again and again.
Second level - Hardy's plots are as tight as a drum, and of all his plots this might be his tightest. So this is like Neil Peart's favorite drum of all time (RIP...and I might be wrongly assuming that Neil liked his drums tight. I was just trying to round out the metaphor with a name that screams DRUM).
Third level - despite some pretty heinous behavior even the least attractive characters are able to rise above their worst acts and come off somewhat likable in the end. This could be my unique experience, but I was never turned off. I felt at least a minute (my-noot : don't you hate the ambiguity of that word?) degree of warmth or understanding for every character in the book. Not to say it's a feel-good story, it's just not a feel-bad story, like his equally great but extremely sad and depressing "Jude the Obscure". Mayor of Casterbridge feels like summer, while Jude is your coldest winter.
Ok, I want to get back to the plot, though I won't divulge any of the specific details. Mainly I want to emphasize how universal the story feels. You can easily recast this tale with characters from any place or time. As I read along I couldn't help but imagine the story being told in a modern setting among disparate ethnic groups. I was literally thinking "wow, this could be an Asian story, or an African story, or a New Orleans story, or even a suburban New Jersey story". What I mean is that the plot is so clean and the characters are so relatable that you can extrapolate the idea to fit whatever milieu you want and it will still make sense, it will still be just as effective. The story is so strong that it doesn't need to rely on time and place, even though he gives us such a wonderful sense of time and place.
To sum it up: "The Mayor of Casterbridge" is a richly detailed rural story with many likable and relatable characters wrapped up in a tight-as-a-drum plot.
It's so hard to rank an author's works because their value is subjective. We may like "Jude" because we can relate to the outcast orphan archetype. We may like "Tess" because we share a connection with the unheard girl who sacrifices herself for the family again and again without expecting even a smidge of recognition. Or we may like "Far from the Madding Crowd" for it's powerful female lead.
But I'd say on technical skill alone "The Mayor of Casterbridge" is a high water mark for Hardy. It feels like a very clean distillation of his greatest talents. And it's definitely the perfect entry point for anyone who wants to dive into the complete works of Thomas Hardy.
This is a very good book, I liked it a lot more than Tess. The story was fascinating but Hardy is just not for me.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After 19 years apart, mayor Michael Henchard is reunited with his wife. Thomas Hardy drama starring David Calder and Janet Dale.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bfnkl
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bfnkl
I think this is a solid piece of classic literature. It can certainly have a spot on my shelf.
Final line truly sums up many of the themes, events and endings in 'The Mayor of Casterbridge': "...to teach that happiness was but the occasional episode I a general drama of pain."