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The Mayor of Casterbridge is a novel written by Thomas Hardy. It is one of the British author’s Wessex Novels, all of which are set in a fictional rural England. Summary of the Book Michael Henchard is a hay-trusser who, one day, gets so drunk that he auctions off his wife and child for five guineas to a sailor. When he realizes his blunder after becoming sober enough, he swears not to touch liquor again. Over the years, his hard work pays off. He becomes rich and eventually even the mayor of Casterbridge. Eighteen years after being sold off, his wife comes back with a daughter, and convinces Henchard to believe that it is his daughter. In the meantime, Henchard has a dispute with his assistant Farfrae, who then goes on to own, one by one, everything that belonged to Henchard. About Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy is one of the most famous poets and novelists of all times. He was born in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset. At the age of sixteen, he was apprenticed to a local architect, John Hicks. He later went to London to follow his architectural vocation and began writing at the same time. He came back to Dorset in the year 1867 to become an assistant to the same John Hicks he was apprenticed to. In the year fateful year of 1874, he gave up on architecture and dedicated himself completely to writing. He married his first wife Emma Gifford at the time and in the same year, Far From the Madding Crowd was published and even achieved significant feat. Hardy moved back to London in the year 1878. His reputation as a writer developed and he became an eminent personality in London’s literary circles. Some of the famous works written by Thomas Hardy are Jude the Obscure, The Return of the Native, Under the Greenwood Tree, and The Woodlanders.