The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy

"Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain."

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter to a sailor at a country fair. Eighteen years later, Henchard has become the wealthy and respected Mayor of Casterbridge. But his past returns to haunt him when his wife and daughter reappear, setting in motion a tragic sequence of events that strips him of everything.

Thomas Hardy's novel is a masterpiece of character and fate. Henchard is a man of immense strength and deep flaws, whose destruction is brought about by his own impulsive nature and the unforgiving turns of chance.