In fact, he is believed to be the source of the term “cliffhanger”. The Mayor of Casterbridge was written by the British author Thomas Hardy, who is described as “the greatest tragic writer among English novelists”. Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895) were his last two novels but he continued to write short stories and poems until his death in 1928.A Book Review on The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, published in 1886. Wessex was first introduced in Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) and this and subsequent novels established Hardy as a household name. He wrote short stories and instalments for a tale called A Pair of Blue Eyes while writing further novels, and he was able to work solely as a writer when he left architecture. Throughout this time, Hardy developed his writing style and his second manuscript, Desperate Remedies (1871), was accepted and published.

He spent a brief period working in London as a draftsman before illness meant he had to return home in 1867. His rural upbringing instilled in him a love of the natural world and this was to combine with an appreciation of the built environment when he was apprenticed to a local architect, aged 16. Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset, England in 1840 and was the eldest son of Thomas and Jemima Hardy. Above all, he portrays a fatalistic view of the world: his characters are ultimately at the whim of a higher power. Hardy deals with social injustice, marriage and religion in often disparate contexts, as well as developing strong, independent female characters who are not always merely victims of their circumstances but occasionally also conquerors of them. The Wessex novels are sweeping sagas with characters who bare their souls and share their triumphs and declines in a dazzling emotional repertoire.

Henchard is punished for his misdemeanours to such an extent that, by the final chapters, he has become a deeply sorry, even sympathetic figure. However, the lessons meted out are suitably harsh, for Hardy makes it clear that past deeds never fade, and success and prosperity can be lost as quickly as gained. Hardy rarely shies away from humanity’s darker side but his characters’ cruelties are particularly prevalent here as the bartered wife and child are forced into a new life far from home. That someone would sell their family to a sailor after a night on the ale seems shocking enough, but the cover-up and Henchard’s subsequent social ascent make the original act even more scandalous.

The mayor of casterbridge pages