The Mayor of Casterbridge

I thought I was going to hate this book--a dark, Victorian tragedy with a yucky main character--ugh! But I think I actually liked it. Michael Henchard turned out to be surprisingly sympathetic, a tragic figure in the Greek and Shakespearean sense, a great man with a "tragic flaw." In spite of the unlikely coincidences that sometimes govern the plot, the book's twists and turns kept me turning pages, and the rich characterization more than makes up for the somewhat contrived plot. As Phillip Lopate says in the introduction, "One measure of the psychological subtlety of The Mayor of Casterbridge is that Henchard keeps coming to a wiser self-awareness, and then losing it again, the way we all do." Likewise, "what makes the book so much more interesting is the way the narrative keeps slipping the noose of inevitability." In other words, the reader has plenty of chances to say, "Oh, it could go another way! Henchard, you could choose this better path." On top of that, he's basically a good guy. You get to see him do lots of decent things, like supporting a widow without anyone but she and her son knowing, or being to-the-penny honest at his bankruptcy. You like him. So, yes it's a Victorian tragedy, a pretty good one. Be sure to get the Barnes and Noble Classics version because it has a much more engaging and informative introduction than others I've seen. (to avoid spoilers, read the intro after the book) P.S. The book's almost worth reading for it's utterly unexpected first chapter.