THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset in 1840 and became an apprentice architect at the age of sixteen. He spent his twenties in London where he wrote his first poems. In 1867 Hardy returned to his native Dorset whose rugged landscape was a great source of inspiration for his writing. Between 1871 and 1897 he wrote fourteen novels including Tess of the DUrbervilles and Jude the Obscure. This final work was received savagely: thereafter Hardy turned away from novels and spent the last thirty year of his life focusing on poetry. He died in 1928.Part of Penguins beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series designed by the awardwinning Coralie BickfordSmith these delectable and collectible editions are bound in highquality colourful tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.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 selfdestructive pride and temper. Subtitled A Story of a Man of Character Hardys 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 closeknit Dorsetshire town.