had to read it in high school.. enjoyed it then.. must read it again

my least favorite hardy by far. this book is egregiously, distractingly victorian. hardy was never subtle, but here his lack of subtlety isn't endearing, it's tiring. this feels so formulaic it becomes boring. the material descriptions here are more offensive than in other books of his. the characters aren't nearly as strong either. not a great read, which is upsetting.

Hardy has such a way of melding the happy & the tragic. A terrific story of an imperfect man.

If I had to give an alternative summary to this book: Man sells wife and baby, becomes rich and a series of Really Complicated romantic entanglements occur later on because of it. Also, many references to wheat and grain are present. Seriously though, this book could very plausibly be a modern day television drama, one of those that go on forever and never seem to come to a conclusion. No spoilers here, but needless to say it's a very wild ride.

3.5/5

I found this book incredibly difficult to get into and catch the plot threads. The action happens in fits and jerks with the majority of the narrative spent on the aftermath of that action or transition to the next action. On top of that the narrative reaches far too many climaxes and could have been finished at at least three different points, including the actual finish. I also found it difficult to comprehend the narrative without backtracking due to the frequent change in narrator. Some characters, like Elizabeth-Jane, drop off for twenty or more pages which left me to wonder what had happened to the character. I don't recommend this book to anyone besides those interested in reading the classics.

This would be the second book I've read by Thomas Hardy. I'm beginning to notice a bit of a theme with his writing. Mr. Hardy cannot STAND seeing his main character be happy! The titular Mayor in this book is basically miserable throughout the entire book, save the times that we aren't actively following him after his initial idiocy concerning his wife. I will say, though, that unlike Tess of the D'ubervilles, he really kind of deserves everything he gets. The man does not make smart life choices. Still, can't your characters be just a little bit happy, Thomas? A teensy bit? That being said, I did enjoy this book. It tend to get a bit wordy when it came to describing the country of Casterbridge and it did wander off on tangents, but it was a well written book, nonetheless. Not my favorite of Mr. Hardy's works, but, then, I've only read two, lol.