The Mayor of Casterbridge

Thomas Hardy, Michael Irwin, Dr Keith Carabine

From Shelf: The books we read in 2011

Set in the heart of the Wessex, this book charts the rise and downfall of a single 'man of character'. It's moving and contrived narrative is Shakespearian in its force, and features some of the author's episodes and passages of description.

With an Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at Canterbury.

None of the great Victorian novels is more vivid and readable than The Mayor of Casterbridge. Set in the heart of Hardy's Wessex, the 'partly real, partly dream country' he founded on his native Dorset, it charts the rise and self-induced downfall of a single 'man of character'.

The fast-moving and ingeniously contrived narrative is Shakespearian in its tragic force, and features some of the author's most striking episodes and brilliant passages of description.