The only critically established text of the novel, based on a comprehensive study of the manuscript and Hardy's extensive revisions. Pamela Dalziel's new introduction incorporates the latest critical thinking on the novel and offers an original analysis of Hardy's representation of the modern and his characterization of Elizabeth-Jane in the Updated bibliography.
New chronology.
Map.
Glossary of dialect words.
New to this edition
New introduction by Pamela Dalziel, in addition to providing a basic introduction to the novel, analyses Hardy's representation of the modern and makes an original contribution to discusion of the character of Elizabeth-Jane as proto-feminist.
'The woman is no good to me. Who'll have her?' Michael Henchard is an out-of-work hay-trusser who gets drunk at a local fair and impulsively sells his wife Susan and baby daughter. Eighteen years later Susan and her daughter seek him out, only to discover that he has become the most prominent man in Casterbridge. Henchard attempts to make amends for his youthful misdeeds but his unchanged impulsiveness clouds his relationships in love as well as his fortunes in business. Although Henchard is fated to be a modern-day tragic hero, unable to survive in the new commercial world, his story is also a journey towards love.