The Mayor of Casterbridge (Penguin Classics)

Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens was another important influence. Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). Hardy's poetry, though prolific, was not as well received during his lifetime. It was rediscovered in the 1950s, when Hardy's poetry had a significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including Philip Larkin.Most of his fictional works - initially published as serials in magazines - were set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex. They explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Hardy's Wessex is based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom and eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England.Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Bain News Service, publisher [Public domain, Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

出版者:Penguin Classics; Reissue edition

作者:Thomas Hardy

页数:448

出版时间:2018-11-13

价格:USD 12.95

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780141439785

图书标签:英文原版小说ThomasHardyHardy英国文学托马斯·哈代Victorian英文

A haunting study of guilt and lost love

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled "A Story of a Man of Character," Hardy's powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town.

This edition includes an introduction, chronology of Hardy's life and works, the illustrations for the original serial issue, place names, maps, glossary, full explanatory notes as well as Hardy's prefaces to the 1895 and 1912 editions.

读后感

“幸福不过是一场痛苦的大戏剧里不时发生的插曲而已。”——同样系错了人生中的前几颗扣子，亨查德既不像冉阿让自带基督光环，也不如聂赫留朵夫的政治正确，更没有拉斯科尼科夫“超人”般的吸引力，但丝毫不影响我对他的喜爱、同情与怜悯。我觉得他比前三者更像一个我们身边的...  

finally finished. it was a good—read in general. I could hardly repress my tears reading the final part. It seems to me to be a story of humanity. Henchard is the complex humanity incarnated. He is impulsive, a bit too self-esteemed but good-hearted. ...  

一个为过去的错误深深忏悔的男人，却始终得不到谅解，究竟是世人，是命运，还是上天，不肯放过他，让他在孤独和贫困中离去。 回望百多年前的英伦小镇，那里的男人女人，似乎都遵循着某种古老的法则，承受着自己的人生。  

用户评价

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

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

故事的结构明显是精心设计过的，但也因精心设计而显得不可信，简单来说就是狗血(比如那几个坏人搞了点巫术就把Lucetta弄死，还有Newson明明死了又活过来);另一缺点就是人物塑造(characterization)挺平庸的，过于扁平没有个性，没有让我留下深刻印象的人物。

故事的结构明显是精心设计过的，但也因精心设计而显得不可信，简单来说就是狗血(比如那几个坏人搞了点巫术就把Lucetta弄死，还有Newson明明死了又活过来);另一缺点就是人物塑造(characterization)挺平庸的，过于扁平没有个性，没有让我留下深刻印象的人物。

这年头这样富有戏剧性的故事不多的。好喜欢经典的味道。厌世者怎会不喜欢这本书呢。