The Mayor of Casterbridge

Thomas Hardy's novels about the cruel twists of fate that blight our lives have a timeless power to move us.

In The Mayor Casterbridge, a young Michael Henchard makes a rash, alcohol-fuelled decision to sell his wife.

Despite abstaining from alcohol from this point forward and living an upstanding life, this lapse is a revenant that returns to plague him at the peak of his career.

In his struggles to overcome his hot-headed, belligerent nature, Henchard is very recognisably human and sympathetic hero.