The Mayor of Casterbridge (Modern Library Classics)

Book Description

One of Hardy’s most powerful novels, The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with a shocking and haunting scene: In a drunken rage, Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a visiting sailor at a local fair. When they return to Casterbridge some nineteen years later, Henchard—having gained power and success as the mayor—finds he cannot erase the past or the guilt that consumes him. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a rich, psychological novel about a man whose own flaws combine with fate to cause his ruin.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic reprints the authoritative 1912 Wessex edition, as well as Hardy’s map of Wessex.

Customer Reviews:

Allegory of the King Saul/David story.......2007-07-19

Thomas Hardy has a reputation for writing bleak, sad stories. The Mayor happens to be my first Hardy read, and I can't tell you how saddening I found the overall tale.

Many points are made by Hardy: dealing with the past and its haunting effects; pride before the fall; and even the folly of mental inflexibility.

I couldn't shake the parallel of the King Saul/David story from the Bible while reading this. You have the powerful man who takes in an apprentice then becomes overcome with jealousy and envy as his apprentice eventually outshines him. And rather than putting his usurped life in perspective, allows his anger and envy to make matters much worse.

I saw Michael as a flawed man who is redeemed by his sense of duty and obligation.

I think the theme of duty to world versus self is important here. Michael's duty to his first family overrides his desire to be with his new girlfriend Lucetta. He probably would have been happier with Lucetta; but wouldn't we as the audience have seen him as selfish if he had chosen her instead of Susan? Both women were manipulative, one aggressively, one passively, so it probably didn't matter. But it does raise the question of how much of our personal happiness should be sacrificed for societal duties.

Donald Farfrae, the Scottish apprentice is put here purely to provide Michael Henchard with a foil. I don't feel he is developed at all, and is kind of dull, as is Elizabeth Jane.

There are character driven stories and plot-driven stories. And in plot-driven stories, you know that the characters' personalities or decision-making won't really matter in how things end. That's an aspect of Mayor...that some may find the most frustrating. You never could shake the feeling that destiny was unalterable. I, however, had no problem with it. It was a good ride.

Powerful read, but not a happy one .......2007-07-10

Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge is a story about Michael Henchard attempts at redemption and the many sorrows, pain, and misery that comes with his decision to uphold his pride and name. To say that Henchard is the only character that suffers in this novel would be a misrepresentation; almost every character at some point suffers immensely in some trial of life, whether it is death of someone close, pain of separation, or the frustration of a relationship. For these reasons, this work is not a "light" read by any stretch of the imagination, and will probably test even the optimist's patience in getting through. Still, Hardy's story, the descriptions of the countryside and the characters' inner feelings, as well as the way he ties together every character in this book, is a remarkable feat and makes for a powerful read.

The story begins with Michael Henchard walking with his wife, Susan, to the fair as they cross the countryside. While there, in an act of drunkenness, Henchard sells his wife to a sailor, and seemingly sets in motion his irreversible bad fortune. Not being able to find his wife the next day, he makes an oath to not drink alcohol for 21 years, the exact amount of years he has lived. The novel then fast forwards 19 years to find Henchard the Mayor of Casterbridge, and a noteworthy man of respect. Susan finds him, marries him after forgiving him, but there are many secrets that both parties have and will have until the end of the novel. It seems that many of these secrets are the character's downfalls. Henchard, while Mayor of Casterbridge, meets a man named Donald Farfrae, who he comes to like and implores to stay in town; however, eventually he and Farfrae become bitter rivals in not only their business and society, but also in their relationship with Lucetta, a woman who had an affair with Henchard in the past.

Henchard's fallacy of character lay in his stubborn pride and his foolish belief that name and appearance is everything. He sometimes tries to create a façade, or cover up one sin with another secret or problem. When he tries to persuade Lucetta to marry him, so as to not destroy her name, he retorts: "But it is not by what is, in this life, but by what appears, that you are judged." He is a tragic individual who seems to not be able to change his views long enough to make something right occur; when something does go well, it is short lived. He even gets to a point where he connects himself with an ominous and unpreventable fate, at one point referring to himself as Cain. He never really heeds Elizabeth's attempts at love until very late in the novel when tragic occurrences seem to be set in motion.

Still, despite all his problems, and all his pride, he is a "likeable" character because he makes the effort at retribution and is sorrowful each time he gets hit with a dilemma or makes an unfavorable decision. He has the willingness and conscience to try to amend his deficiencies, but, in the end, he just makes too many mistakes, and has too much pride to reverse his fortunes.

Neither cheerful nor uplifting, but always compelling and moving!.......2006-12-26

Michael Henchard, a down-on-his-luck, unemployed hay trusser, succumbs to the siren call of alcohol at a country fair. Subconsciously feeling his wife, Susan, is holding him back from success in this world, he awakes to sobriety the next morning and realizes that, in a foolish fit of pique, he has auctioned her and his daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, off to a sailor. Despite his frantic efforts to find them, they have disappeared. Ravaged with guilt over his selfish, impulsive act, he swears he will not take another drink for twenty-one years.

Whether his wife was indeed one of Henchard's problems is left for the reader to ponder as Henchard moves to Casterbridge, prospers wildly in business and eventually becomes the town's leading citizen and mayor. Henchard's wheel of fortune, however, begins to spin on a wobbly axle as Donald Farfrae, an enterprising young Scot travelling to seek his fortune, enters his employ as the manager of his business. At the same time, Susan and Elizabeth-Jane, re-enter Henchard's life believing that Michael Newson, the sailor who had purchased them some nineteen years earlier, has perished at sea. Henchard's life truly begins to come apart when Lucetta Templeman, a former lover, also moves to Casterbridge and, ashamed of her past romantic entanglement with Henchard, seeks to hold him to his promise of marriage!

Hardy raises many issues but, not expressing his own opinion through an unequivocal direction in the story's plot line, seems content to leave these issues as topics for sober analysis by his readers. Hardy questions the conflict between the merits of tradition vs modernization. There is the enormous irony that Henchard's success as a business person seems clearly attributable in part to his tee-totalling vow but is founded upon the five guineas seed capital raised through the auction of his wife and daughter! Henchard seems to epitomize the constant personal conflicts we all face between decisiveness and strength of character as opposed to impulsiveness and stubborn bullheaded intransigence! One wonders whether Lucetta is flighty, coquettish, thoughtless and selfish or is she an early manifestation of modern woman sadly out of time and years ahead of the ladies around her? Is Farfrae to be admired or scorned for his meteoric rise to power in Casterbridge and his complete devastation of Henchard's place among his peers?

Perhaps the most powerful moment of the entire novel comes with the discovery of Henchard's will and his words directing that the world leave him to rest in forgotten isolation and that no person mark or mourn his passing in any fashion. Once again, we are left to decide for ourselves whether Henchard's life should be pitied, forgiven, admired or looked upon with scorn and disgust.

To the readers of the day, "The Mayor of Casterbridge" would have been perceived as a darkly pessimistic tragedy that might have evoked emotions akin to those raised by Shakespeare's "Hamlet" or Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex". A classic worthy of the term, "The Mayor of Casterbridge", certainly never cheerful or uplifting, is however many, many things - compelling, moving, disturbing, thought-provoking and poignant. Above all, it is worthy of being read and enjoyed by any lover of classic 19th century British Literature.

Paul Weiss

Oedipus Updated.......2006-08-25

In the novels of Thomas Hardy, tragedy can be an externalized force like Egdon Heath in THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE or it can be of the internalized sort, the kind that Michael Henchard brings on himself in THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE. In either case, nature is unforgiving, a quality which is a given in any of Hardy's works. When tragedy is of the latter kind, then the protagonist is not unlike the doomed tragic hero from classical Greek drama wherein he is first seen as a great or simply a good man who suffers from a tragic flaw, the results of which drag him down so that by the end of the action, his state is so miserably pathetic that the reader/audience can do no more than shake their heads in sorrow at his downfall, that in another and less proud man need not have happened at all.

Michael Henchard is the post-Victorian man of mixed qualities who like Oedipus, commits a sin and then spends the rest of the book trying to make amends. His sin is maudlin self-pity. He allows his current debased financial position to lead him to drink, all the while blaming his wife and child. At an auction, he offers his family for the sale to the highest bidder. He ignores the warnings from those present that he is courting disaster. An unknown man offers the highest bid and off he goes, taking Henchard's wife and child with him. Hardy takes pains to place Henchard squarely in the middle of this somber farce. Hardy gives no name to the successful bidder nor does he allow the reader to note the wife's actions. She, surprisingly, remains silent, but weeping. Henchard, by contrast, is loud, crude, and obnoxious. He occupies central stage until the next chapter when he sobers up, is filled with remorse, and then tries to set things right. He fails and winds up the leading citizen of Casterbridge. The image of the drunken Henchard and the mayor Henchard are startlingly unlike. The latter is sober, industrious, and respectable, causing the reader to commiserate with him. But the tragedy of Henchard does not lie merely in a series of vain regrets. Just as he seems to undergo permanent rehabilitation of self, his ex-wife shows up again, with a new child from the now dead bidder. Hardy complicates the plot with his usual unwieldy complications. As a result, Henchard plunges again into the depths of despair; this time he shows that his old sins of false pride and egotism have returned with a vengeance. He tries to bankrupt his business partner Farfrae, for reasons purely of jealousy. It becomes progressively more difficult for the reader to maintain the same sympathy that they had earlier. Later, at the novel's close, Henchard is made to wander like a wounded Lear, and this alone partially elevates him back to his previous stature of a tragic figure. He, like Lear, dies repentant. From his death, the audience discovers that the essence of a tragic fall lies not so much in how much sympathy that protagonist garners during that fall but rather in how true to life his fall was. Michael Henchard was neither saint nor reprobate sinner. He was the Victorian Everyman with a mixture of goodness and mean-spiritedness, either of which could emerge under the right circumstances. At his fall, the reader saw that the "right" circumstances were sufficiently ordinary so that anyone of us might have done the same. This is the essence of the tragedy of THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE.

Compelling and Captivating.......2006-03-24

The first book I read out of Thomas Hardy's many works was "Far from the Madding Crowd" back in my secondary school days. I immediately fell in love with Hardy. Reading "The Mayor of Casterbridge" only confirmed that my liking for Hardy's works was not misplaced. The Mayor of Casterbridge is absolutely brilliant as the author uses his perceptive insights into the human nature to create very realistic characters with complex personalities. For example, Henchard is an alcoholic who suffers from many of the accompanying afflictions that include low self-esteem, shame, guilt, self-castigation, self-punishment, loneliness, a death wish, and a tendency to depression.

The book starts in the first chapter with a dramatic masterpiece that perfectly sets the tone and theme for the rest of the novel. A young man named Michael Henchard and his wife Susan and baby daughter Elizabeth-Jane enter a village where Henchard hopes to find work. They go to a country fair where Henchard, an alcoholic, gets drunk and sells his wife and baby to a sailor. Once Henchard sobers up, he realizes his mistake, and searches, in vain, to retrieve his family. Abhorred at what he has done, he swears off liquor and decides to make something of his life. The story unravels nineteen years later, when his wife and daughter come back to present themselves to him. In the course of the rest of the novel, Henchard who was now the Mayor of Casterbridge falls from grace, this being a result of his own character flaws and the hand of fate.

I enjoy reading Hardy's impressive prose, which is strong, sharp and descriptive. The various scenes the author describes are filled with vivid and compelling imagery that leave one wanting to read more and more. Thomas Hardy is especially adept at describing the environment which he has a deep seated love for. The ironic twists of fate provide a setting that demonstrates the brilliant writer that Hardy is where he expertly weaves a plot that shows the themes of the balance between fate and individual choice. That makes The Mayor of Casterbridge very pleasant to read despite the sad story.

For those who wish to study English Literature, The Mayor of Casterbridge is on the top of the recommended list. The book provides exceptional descriptions of England and its culture as well as exposing the student to themes of profound gravity and importance. The book provides clear and concise explanations, dialogue and emotional energy. It is well-written, is easy-to-understand and to follow.

The Mayor of Casterbridge (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

favorite Hardy book
The Mayor of Casterbidge is a Tragic Tale of a Tormented Soul.
Dark, depressing, and fascinating
The Downward Spiral
"He sold his wife and baby daughter for 5 guineas."

The Mayor of Casterbridge (Penguin Classics)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141439785
Release Date: 2003-04-29

Book Description

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Keith Wilson.

Customer Reviews:

favorite Hardy book.......2007-08-23

Reread this one recently - what a great book. This is my favorite of all Hardy's books. The fascinating part of this novel is the protagonist, because he is such a mix of good and bad. He has good and even heroic impulses and acts, and bad and even evil impulses and acts. The way he manages to sabotage the good things he could get reminds me of Lily in the House of Mirth, although Henchard's sabotage is due to through bad temper and anger and insecurity, while Lily's are due to ambivalence. But the trip downward is quite similar. Basically it ends up being the story of a man's self-destruction. What a crime that Hardy's novels were unpopular when he first wrote them, and the bad reviews discouraged him from writing more! I have them all but wish there were more.

The Mayor of Casterbidge is a Tragic Tale of a Tormented Soul........2007-08-03

An early fall afternoon in the 1840s bucolic world of Wessex. Michael Henchard, a young hay trusser, sells his wife Susan to another man for the paltry sum of five guineas. The 400 page classic by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) goes on to chronicle the rise and fall of Henchard. The main characters are:
1. Michael Henchard-The tragic Mayor of Casterbridge who loses all he values in life and all those people he loves to his rival. Henchard is a visible proof of the fact that fiction displays "the human heart in conflict with itself.' He is a Faustian striver who is ambitious in business as a corn chandler; politics as he becomes mayor and love losing the three women who have meant most to him. Henchard dies in an obscure hut near Egdon Heath desiring to be completely forgotten by the world. He has a death wish and wishes to achieve the oblivion of death in a universe controlled by fate, chance and irony. He is one of Hardy's great creations.
2. Sue Henchard is the wife sold by Henchard to a sailor. She emigrates with him to America. When she returns 20 years later to Casterbridge she remarries Henchard but dies soon after the wedding. She is a simple-minded country woman lacking in knowledge and sophistication.
3. Donald Farfrae-While Henchard represents ancient Wessex in folkways and beliefs, Mr. Farfrae is a young Scotchman who soon steals Henchard's supremacy in Casterbridge. He is hired by Henchard to straighten out the latter's business affairs but leaves him to start a successful rival business firm. Farfrae is the second Mayor of Casterbridge in this novel. He marries Henchard's mistress Lucetta. When Lucetta dies after being the center of a scandal caused by old loves letters to Henchard being revealed, Farfrae weds Henchard's stepdaughter Elizabeth Jane. He is a kind man who seeks to help Henchard to no avail.
4. Eliaabeth-Jane-She is an intelligent person who returns from abroad with her mother Sue. She has been raised to believe that Michael Henchard is her father. Elizabeth-Jane becomes a hired companion to Henchard's quondom mistress Lucetta. Elizabeth Jane later weds Farfrae. This young lady learns her real father is the sailor Newson and Sue.
5. Seaman Newson-The real father of Sue who returns to find her twenty years after the deal of exchange he made to purchase Sue as his wife from Michael Henchard.
6. Lucette-The Jersey miss who had an affair long ago with Michael Henchard. Lucette is sexy and exotic. She weds Donald Farfrae dying after details of her affair with Henchard lead to scandal.
The characters in this ironical novel are all puppets in an uncaring universe.The last word in the novel is "pain"! There is plenty of pain to share among all the characters.
As with all of Hardy's classic novels, the descriptions of the town folks and the flora and fauna of Wessex are beautifully written. Hardy is the best regional novelist in all of English literature.
The Penguin Edition of the novel contains excellent illustrations by Robert Barnes which were included in the original edition. A helpful chronology of Hardy's life; discussion of the textual history of the novel and a useful introduction by Dr. Keith Hardy are included. The novel is one you should read and enjoy.

Dark, depressing, and fascinating.......2004-10-06

Read this novel after Far From The Madding Crowd and Return of the Native. It's a very bleak and depressing novel - without the comic flourishes and moments of his earlier work.
The story follows Michael Henchard, a hay-trusser, who sells his wife and child for five guineas in an 'auction' during a fit of inebriety. He spends the next 21 years regretting his action, but during that time he does well for himself, becoming mayor of Casterbridge, a rural town. Years later, his wife and daughter reappear. This starts a chain of events that leads to Henchard's fall. He eventually ends up losing everything because of his pride, passion and stubborness. The main character isn't very likeable, but there is something of the tragic about him that commands your attention.

The Downward Spiral.......2004-09-16

Michael Henchard (yep - - later he's the Mayor, all right), having sold his wife and baby early in the novel for 5 guineas while in a drunken rage, gets what he deserves despite his valiant efforts at atonement years later after an initial rise in fortune and a 'chance' reunion with his long-abandoned wife and daughter. Not that an example of Divine retribution is Hardy's intention; Hardy was an atheist. But he stacks the cards so heavily against Henchard that it's hard to believe he isn't a True Believer after all. Chance? Irony? Coincidence? (Synchroncity?? Gadzooks!) Divine retribution? All grist for Hardy's deterministic mill, and a grinding mill it is for Henchard. It ultimately doesn't matter - - to prove his point Hardy orchestrates the narrative so obviously and nothing can stop Henchard's downward spiral, of course. Everywhere in the novel, it's plain he's doomed. Hardy created this character whose final wish, as Hardy has him spell out in his will, is that he be forgotten. And then Hardy titles the novel after him for the ages. Did I hear someone say 'Omniscient Narrator'? Pretty divine, I'd say.

"He sold his wife and baby daughter for 5 guineas.".......2004-08-10

The Mayor of Casterbridge, focused and simple the premise has been in itself, affords a quite convoluted plot that packs with events as the memorably niched characters play out their lives and unravels the novel. The book is riddled with a well-faceted theme of conscience: the purging of conscience and its reconciliation through an allusion to deceit and characters' shameless past that ceaselessly haunt them and render them despondent and guilty. The tragic actions revolve around one man who manages to establish prestige, wealth, and authority over Casterbridge and ironically the very elite status leads to the fall of the deeply flawed man.

In a fit of drunken anger and delirium, young Michael Henchard sells his wife Susan and baby daughter Elizabeth-Jane to a sailor for 5 guineas at a county fair. Over the course of the years, though he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the town from literally nothing, Henchard still affords a ray of hope in reuniting with his family, until he meets Lucetta Templeman who nurses him in America. Such black spot of his youth as wife-sale caused by his fits of spleen not only renders him ashamed of himself but also wears an aspect of recent crime: something that will shame him until his dying day. Behind his success is always lurking such shameful secret of his troubled past shielded from the public and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper.

Contributing to the suspenseful nature of the novel is the return of the mayor's wife and daughter some 18 years later whom Michael Henchard believed to have perished at the sea. The sentimental reunion, which marks Henchard respectable 20-year abstinence from alcohol, brings about a heartrending revelation and an ironical sequence of events that irritate Henchard. The very truth cruelly leaves in him an emotional void that he unconsciously craves to fill. At the same time, the regard he has acquired for Elizabeth-Jane has eclipsed by this revelation. The new-sprung hope of his loneliness (or "friendless solitude" in Hardy's own words) that she will be to him a daughter of whom he can feel as proud as of the actual daughter she believes herself to be, has been stimulated by the (yet another) unexpected arrival of the sailor to a greedy exclusiveness in relation to her.

All these ineluctable consequences of his past shameful transaction at the fair take a stupendous toll on Henchard and his conscience. He is also uneasy at the thought of Elizabeth-Jane's passion for Donald Farfrae, whose rising prestige and success in his independent business provoke in Henchard enmity and envy. Henchard quails at the thought that Farfrae shall utterly usurp her mild filial sympathy with him, that she might be withdrawn from him by degrees through Farfrae's influence and learns to despise him. The pricking of conscience subtly manifests in Henchard's solicitous love and growing jealousy. His fear of losing tie after the death of his wife is sympathetically understandable. Though he in his effrontery has been weaning Elizabeth-Jane from the sailor by saying he is her father, she understands that Henchard has himself been deceived in her identity.

Lucetta Templeman, inescapably torn between her past disgraceful entanglement with Henchard and her love for a more refined gentleman, is also pricked by her conscience. In an impulsive moment, purely out of gratitude, Henchard proposes to the Jersey woman who has been so far compromised to him. But as the years gone by, Lucetta is more convinced that she has been forced into an equivocal position with Henchard by an accident. She has discovered some quantities in Henchard, who is either well-educated nor refined in manner, that irretrievably renders him less desirable as a husband than she has at first thought him to be, notwithstanding there remains a conscientious wish to being about her union with him.

When Lucetta learns of the wife-sale, she immediately dismisses any possibility of being with him and realizes she cannot risk himself in his hands. It will have been letting herself down to take Henchard's name after such an ignominious scandal. But her past which she diligently seals, if not expunge altogether haunts her. The surreptitious history with Henchard becomes the torture of her meek conscience and the reconciling of which through a marriage with a second man remains also her secret alone.

Subtitled "A Story of a Man of Character", Henchard's origins remain unexplained but he literally begins and ends the novel away from Casterbridge, where he achieves his prominent status ironically destines his downfall, through the lampooning and skimmity-ride. A psychological study, the novel accentuates the fury that causes him to lash out against both himself and those who stand closest to him. It depicts to the fullest the very self-destructive nature of the power that causes Henchard's fall, which is so obvious through his louring invidiousness.

2004 (46) ©MY

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Fathers and Sons (and Lions)
Rare style

The Lion of Boaz Jachin and Jachin Boaz
Russell Hoban
Manufacturer: Stein & Day Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0812816242

Customer Reviews:

Fathers and Sons (and Lions).......2002-07-27

An early novel from the supremely talented Russell Hoban, this is a well-crafted slice of magic realism set in an unnamed country somewhere bordering the Black Sea in that part of the world so fascinating to outsiders, that is neither entirely European, Asian nor Arabic.

This is a novel about about fathers and sons. Jachin-Boaz makes maps in a small town: all kinds of maps, from the mundane to the more bizarre; for example, a map for voyeurs. He creates the ultimate map for his son, Boaz-Jachin, which will enable him to find everything, but Boaz-Jachin, the dreamer, rejects it because will not help him locate the long-extinct lions. Depressed and disatisfied, Jachin-Boaz leaves his wife and son for the city and makes a new life for himself.

Boaz-Jachin meanwhile conjures up a lion, neither entirely real nor entirely metaphysical, from ancient carvings, which stalks his father in the city. He also leaves his home and searches for his father, with only the map, a guitar and his good looks to keep him on track. But, not knowing where to start, he heads off into the unknown, and experiences a picaresque series of surreal encounters and events along the way.

The book is is full of humour as well as being quite a serious meditation on love, family relationships, and on what life lacks without mystery. It is also beautifully written, economical in style, concludes well and does not outstay its welcome. Read it, and you'll find yourself wanting to seek out Hoban's other novels too.

Rare style.......2002-02-25

I purchased this book after reading his "Riddley Walker" masterpiece. I subsequently lost the book to a 'borrower' as so often happens. The book is short, but unforgettable - Hoban has a mythic imagination and is quite at home with metaphysics and storytelling. This reads like a New Age personal transformation book to the simple reader, but it is much more literary in it's contstruction than that genre. I hope that by reading this, others will be encouraged to track this book down and try it - with Hoban, perseverance to his style has a huge reward.

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Suspenseful and Beautiful
Nauseating
An American Haruki Murakami...
Not a page turner
Intriguing premise slowed by lack of character............

About Grace: A Novel
Anthony Doerr
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743261828

Book Description

When Anthony Doerr's The Shell Collector was published in 2002, the Los Angeles Times called his stories "as close to faultless as any writer -- young or vastly experienced -- could wish for." He won the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Discover Prize, Princeton's Hodder Fellowship, and two O. Henrys, and shared the Young Lions Award. Now he has written one of the most beautiful, wise, and compelling first novels of recent times.

David Winkler begins life in Anchorage, Alaska, a quiet boy drawn to the volatility of weather and obsessed with snow. Sometimes he sees things before they happen -- a man carrying a hatbox will be hit by a bus; Winkler will fall in love with a woman in a supermarket. When David dreams that his infant daughter will drown in a flood as he tries to save her, he comes undone. He travels thousands of miles, fleeing family, home, and the future itself, to deny the dream.

On a Caribbean island, destitute, alone, and unsure if his child has survived or his wife can forgive him, David is sheltered by a couple with a daughter of their own. Ultimately it is she who will pull him back into the world, to search for the people he left behind.

Doerr's characters are full of grief and longing, but also replete with grace. His compassion for human frailty is extraordinarily moving. In luminous prose, he writes about the power and beauty of nature and about the tiny miracles that transform our lives. About Grace is heartbreaking, radiant, and astonishingly accomplished.

Customer Reviews:

Suspenseful and Beautiful.......2007-08-28

Doerr's imagery is beautiful and at some points the book is really vividly suspensful. The major themes of this book include (in my humble opinion), the fluidity of life, the uniqueness of everything, the pain of loss and the redemption of found relationships.

I actually found the book very hard to put down -- which is really a contrast to some of the reviews I've read.

There were a couple of very small parts that dragged a touch, but for the most part this book kept me up all night - in a good way.

Nauseating.......2007-07-04

Here's the story: A sniveling loser abandons his wife and child because he has a bad dream and then spends 25 years in self-indulgent navel-gazing on a Caribbean island. His major conclusion is that the world is indifferent to his suffering (guess what, so are the readers). Then one day, he decides to find out if his daughter is alive and he goes on an exhausting trip. Does he find her? I have no idea; I couldn't finish this junk. I guess we're supposed to be sympathetic to this character, but I had nothing but loathing for him. Don't waste your time on this.

An American Haruki Murakami..........2007-05-02

I just finished this novel on a trip back from Phoenix, and I have to say not only the style and description, but the plot itself grabbed me. Unlike other reviews here, I found nothing plodding about the story. I found it riveting, and full of surprises. I'm a big fan of Japanese author Haruki Murakami, and I found a numbeer of similarities in both the beauty of the language, as well thematic and plot. There are elements of a surreal sort of journey and a search for a missing life that spans across thousands of miles. Doerr does a great job of shifting his tale between several key time periods in the life of David Winkler, the main character of the story. This is a brilliant novel, and I plan to share it with friends.

Not a page turner.......2006-08-02

Some of the prose is beautiful but the story dose not flow like the water the main character Winkler studies. The story line lacks focus and the dream episodes are disconcerting. I have not found this an enjoyable read.

Intriguing premise slowed by lack of character...................2006-04-25

This wasn't an aweful book, nor was it a good one. Anthony Doerr begins with an intriguing premise, a human who is able to fortell the future. He forsees one of our worst nightmares his own child's death. What follows is alot of dreamy prose about nature and love and life but not alot of plot movement. This novel reminded me of Michael Ondaatje's writing with one exeption, the characters lacked strength and purpose. What is one's life experience worth if they have not learned from it? Our main character schlumps through life, never really taking the time to find out if his daughter lived? Cmon......no wonder she was so mad and the reader feels her irritation as almost to say to Doerr "enough already."

The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics)

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The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192840711

Book Description

'The woman is no good to me. Who'll have her?' Michael Henchard is an out-of-work hay-trusser who gets drunk at a local fair and impulsively sells his wife Susan and baby daughter. Eighteen years later Susan and her daughter seek him out, only to discover that he has become the most prominent man in Casterbridge. Henchard attempts to make amends for his youthful misdeeds but his unchanged impulsiveness clouds his relationships in love as well as his fortunes in business. Although Henchard is fated to be a modern-day tragic hero, unable to survive in the new commercial world, his story is also a journey towards love. This edition is the only critically established text of the novel, based on a comprehensive study of the manuscript and Hardy's extensive revisions.

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A treat
fantastic book club read
Not as intelligent as books by Jane Hamilton or Sue Miller
Coming Back to Me
a rich story of despair & redemption

Coming Back to Me: A Novel
Caroline Leavitt
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312269374

Book Description

Newlyweds Gary and Molly are very much in love, and very excited about the imminent birth of their first baby. But unexpected complications arise during labor, and although their beautiful son Otis arrives unharmed, Molly lapses into a coma. Gary suddenly finds himself alone with a newborn, a mountain of medical bills, and a fierce belief that Molly will survive despite the odds. In the tradition of Elizabeth Berg and Barbara Delinsky, a touching, lyrical novel from a very exciting writer.AUTHORBIO: Caroline Leavitt is the author of six previous novels. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband Jeff and their son Max.

Customer Reviews:

A treat .......2007-03-27

This was an intriguing story of family. The challenges we face. The baggage we carry. The grace we must have to survive. I was drawn in from page one.

fantastic book club read.......2005-08-18

My book group chose this for a recent read and we couldnt' stop talking about the characterizations and the clear, brilliant writing. I just went and ordered Leavitt's other book. What I loved was there was the ebb and flow of story, like life, rather than ends being neatly tied up. Can't wait to read her next novel.

Not as intelligent as books by Jane Hamilton or Sue Miller.......2005-07-18

I was drawn to this book partly because of the blurb by Katharine Weber that appears on the cover of this book stating that "Readers who wait impatiently for the next Jane Hamilton or Sue Miller will find another favorite in Caroline Leavitt." I do not agree. While this was a fast-moving book, there were some flaws in this book that keeps Caroline Leavitt from being in the same playing field as Hamilton and Miller. As another reviewer noted, she introduces characters and situations and then fails to follow up with them. It's as if she had a ton of ideas but the process of following through with all of them just became too tedious for her. Then there are errors that I'm surprised an editor didn't pick up on such as Gary blowing up blue balloons on page 76 ("gulping, blowing long deep puffs") and tying them to the porch railings ("Soft washed blue, they floated and bobbed"). On page 85, after Molly goes into her "coma," Gary returns home to these same balloons and "jerked them free. He opened his hands and let them sweep across the sky." How? They weren't filled with helium? The other bothersome thing was that at times the baby seemed to be 6 months old and then a few pages later was suddenly a newborn again. The reader never really knows how much time has gone by in the story.

My recommendation is to skip this book.

Coming Back to Me.......2004-12-23

I loved this book! The absolute devotion of Gary, along with the brain-numbing futility of going to visit his wife day after day with no visible improvement, caring for his baby alone, and then his growing dependence on Suzanne is something I could identify with, having had a similar situation in our own family. I read this book in 2 days, then gave it to my daughter who read it in less than a week. We both cried and laughed.

a rich story of despair & redemption.......2004-03-17

COMING BACK TO ME is an intense read about a young couple & their yearning for a baby. When Molly arrives at the hospital to deliver, things go hellishly wrong.

& there is Gary, left with a newborn & a mountain of bills. After he calls Molly's estranged sister, she lands at his door, desperate & destitute, he is in for a lesson in both Molly's past, & coping with family & his own needs.

RebeccasReads recommends COMING BACK TO ME as a fine womanly read. Caroline Leavitt has flawlessly tackled the challenges of love & marriage, family & loss in an exciting, twisting medical nightmare, with the hope of redemption springing eternal.

Average customer rating:

A classic read

The Mayor of Casterbridge: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds Criticism (A Norton Critical Edition)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

19th Century | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

ASIN: 0393091740

Customer Reviews:

A classic read.......2000-05-27

A question about the source of human tragedy lies at the heart of The Mayor of Casterbridge. Characters frequently mention fate and providence as causes for tragedy (and joy), but Hardy offers more subtle and complex explanations for individual tragedy. At times, Hardy seems to indicate that circumstance and timing play a more important role than Providence in shaping the course of human destiny. Can people survive without the aid of luck or providence by pure force of will? Henchard (the Mayor) is a man whose loneliness, egoism, and pride cause him to make bad decisions. His faulty judgement certainly do not help him in his quest for fulfillment, either. Hardy's depiction of an ultimately unknowable universe is achieved partly through his characters' false assignment of meaning to meaningless incidents. Fate, human will, and faulty perceptions are central issues in much of Hardy's writing. Though not as moving and intense as Hardy's masterpiece Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Mayor is not to be missed. Hardy's complex rendering of Henchard's multi-faceted personality is remarkable. In addition, The Norton Critical Addition provides excellent commentary and background information from noteworthy critics.

Outlaw Princess of Sherwood: A Tale of Rowan Hood

Average customer rating:

A nice little book
this book is a HORROR(burns eyes do not read)
Outlaw Princess Of Sherwood
outlaw princess
The Outlaw Princess of Sherwood

Outlaw Princess of Sherwood: A Tale of Rowan Hood
Nancy Springer
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0142403040

Book Description

It has been little more than a year since Etty-once Princess Ettarde, promised to the power-hungry Lord Basil-escaped from her father and joined Rowan Hood's band of misfit teens and outlaws-in-the-making. Etty is so happy, she cannot imagine returning to her old life. That is, until her father appears to reclaim her. King Solon is determined to bring Etty back to barter her hand for peace. He will do anything. Even use his wife, Ettarde's mother, as bait. In a cage. In Sherwood Forest. In winter. Etty will not stand for it. Neither will Rowan Hood. An intergenerational battle of wit, will power, and wisdom follows in this third tale of Rowan Hood.

Customer Reviews:

A nice little book.......2006-09-30

Book # 1 of this series is Rowan Hood, about Rowan and her ancillary band to Robin's in the Sherwood Forest. Book # 2 is Lionclaw. Book # 3 is this one about Princess Ettard, a 13 year old who is rescued by Rowan and friends from a marraige to a wealthy landowner. In this, there is more backstory to Etty, we find out more about her parents and why her father is the tyrant king he is. I haven't read Lionclaw, the book about Lionel, yet, but I don't *think* this novel would stand well on its own.

this book is a HORROR(burns eyes do not read).......2006-03-20

I give this book 2 stars. it started with a princess who wanted to be in an outlaw group. but the king is tring to stop her. overall th book was.......BAD! I wish there was more fighting in it. I think the book should have been more interesting. I would not recommend this book to other people. I hope I helped your with your decision.

(do not read it was horrible)(get a life)

Outlaw Princess Of Sherwood.......2006-03-20

The Outlaw Princess Of Sherwood was a great book. There were some parts that were awesome. It really reeled the reader in, but some parts were kind of boring.I would give it a 3 on a scale of 1-5. If you like adventurous books or if you like books with a lot of action, then this is the book for you. It was exciting and fun to read. I didn't know what was going to happen next.

outlaw princess.......2006-03-20

I thought that the book was good and everything but I really did'nt get it.I would recommend the book to people and friends.The book was a little messed up at the beginning but I finished the book. I think the book had alot of description of the characters.
I gave the book 3 stars becouse the book was o.k. and everything but the book was not that intresting and I didn't like when the princess was going to kill her father and she liked the mother better then her father.

The Outlaw Princess of Sherwood.......2006-03-20

I gave this book three stars because it had too much detail in some parts and that made it long and boring. In other parts it wasn't long enough. Some parts gave me a headache and made me not want to continue. I do not recommend this book

Average customer rating:

5th grade Teacher-My students love it!
The sad journey that ended!!!!!!!
?¿SeArChInG fOr CaNdLeStIcK pArK¿?
Searching for Candlestick Park
An exciting runaway story with a happy ending!

Searching for Candlestick Park
Peg Kehret
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0141303662

Book Description

Life has been tough for Spencer since his dad left. His mom complains constantly, they never seem to have enough money, and they're always having to move. He knows his father works for the Giants baseball team and lives somewhere in San Francisco--and Spencer's sure that if he can somehow get there, his dad will take him in. But California is a long, dangerous way from Seattle if you've only got fourteen dollars, you're twelve...and you're alone.

"A fast-paced, exciting adventure." --Booklist

* A Puffin Novel
* 160 pages
* Ages 8-12

Customer Reviews:

5th grade Teacher-My students love it!.......2007-07-28

Peg Kehret is a great author and once again has written an intriguing and captivating story. Once I shared it with my kids, they were dying to check it out. Most read it in one night! A great "Can't put it down" book.

The sad journey that ended!!!!!!!.......2006-09-13

My book is about a boy whs name is Spencer and he is 12.Him and his mom had to move because they couldn't pay rent anymore so they left at 3:ooAM in the morning so no one could see them, but Spencer couldn't find his cat but his mom made him leave anyway.Then he went back later that night to get his cat.There was two guys there painting already as he began to call his cats name he went in the garage to see if he could find him.When he found him as soon as he turned around a guy said hey come out or I am calling the cops.He began to run dowm the road and hid behind a bush for a bus,when the first one said no pets allowed he had to wait 2 more hours for the other one.When he got to his aunts where he was staying he fell fast asleep and in the morning he woke up to his mom and aunt screaming at him to take the cat to the pound or find another home for it.So when they left he decided he was going to run away to his dads in San Fransisco.This is a very good book and I would definatly read it again if I had time.

?¿SeArChInG fOr CaNdLeStIcK pArK¿?.......2005-03-17

This book was about a boy on a journey to find his dad in Candlestick Park. Early one morning, Spencer and his mom move to their aunt May's hose. Spencer is forced to leave his cat behind but he goes back to the house that night. Aunt May and Spencer's mom makes him find a new home for the cat. Spencer hates that so he runs away from home to find his dad in California. Spencer runs into some trouble along the way to California. Along the way he stays at a park and his cat (Foxy) gets chased by a dog. He also stayed with a guy that did wood carvings. When he came back to see him he had died. He also starts to steal and lie and he feels really bad. This book was a great book I liked it. If you like adventurous books, this is good. I would recommend it to you.

Searching for Candlestick Park.......2002-02-19

This book is about a boy named Spencer that is 12 years old. He had to move to Seattle with his mom to his Aunts house because his mom wasn't paying the rent.He has a cat that he brings but his aunt doesn't like the cat so Spencer runs away from home to go and find his dad in San Francisco. His dad is a big Giants fan. Spencer finds his dad but Spencer can't live with him because now his dad has a girl friend and there is not enough room for all of them. So Spencers dad buys him an airplane ticket to go home and now Spencer and his mom moved back to there old house because now they have enough money.This is a very good book!

An exciting runaway story with a happy ending!.......2001-08-17

At first I was bothered that Spencer was lying and stealing to run away from his aunt's Seattle area home, where he was living with his mother, so he could search for his father in San Francisco. But once I realized that he was keeping a list of all the things he "borrowed" from people so he could pay them back, I relaxed and found myself getting involved in this bicycle/hitch-hike/bus ride adventure. While it's easy to get the impression that "Searching for Candlestick Park" glamorizes running away, in the end it serves as a warning for how dangerous this can be.

We added this book to our school library at the insistent request of a sixth grader who had read it in another school. After we acquired several copies, it was constantly checked out, including one copy that this same boy read at least two more times!

Book Description

Painter Honor Sullivan has made a life for herself and her three daughters–Regis, Agnes, and Cecilia–at Star of the Sea Academy on the magical Connecticut shore. Here she teaches art at the convent school’s beautiful seaside campus, over which Honor’s sister-in-law, mother superior Bernadette Ignatius, keeps a benevolent and watchful eye. No one could have foreseen the day rebellious Regis would come home with the stunning news that she was getting married. Nor could anyone have guessed how that sudden announcement would soon change all their
lives forever.

Eleven years ago, Honor thought she had the perfect home, the perfect love, the perfect life. Then her husband, brilliant photographer and sculptor John Sullivan, broke her heart–and tore their little family apart. Now, hearing of Regis’s impending marriage, John has ended his self-imposed exile and returned to the family he’s always loved more than anything on earth. What he finds is one daughter still hurting over his abandonment, another who barely remembers him, and a third who may be in more trouble than anyone knows. And then there is Honor herself–and a passion that may have been interrupted but that has never waned.

Some things, like sandcastles, don’t survive the changing tides. But love, family, and friendship–just as fragile–have a way of standing against anything. It will take nothing short of a miracle to heal the rift between father and daughter, husband and wife, the past and the present–but a miracle is exactly what is in the works at Star of the Sea Academy. The only question is: Do you believe?

Customer Reviews:

Sandcastles.......2007-08-15

Very slow, boring. I couldn't get into it at all and quit reading it after a few chapters. I gave it to a friend and she did the same.

Slow to grab my interest.......2007-08-02

I have read hundreds of books and a few of them have been authored by Luanne Rice. Sandcastles has a good plot but it didn't grab my interest like many of the books I have read. At one point in the beginning of the book, I almost put it down not to finish. This is very unlike me. Even if I don't particularly like a book, I will finish it. This book did not have me wondering what will happen next until 3/4 of the way through the book. When a book grabs me, I can't wait to carve out time in my day to find out what is happening next in the story. Sandcastles didn't do that for me. The story didn't flow nicely and got too caught up in the mundane. When I finish a book, I have a sense of loss because the characters exist no longer in that story. I did not get that from Sancastles. Although it had a good plot, it really could have been so much more. It seemed like the book was thrown together. It will be a while before I read one of Luanne's books again. I will definitely pay more attention to individual's reviews for the next Luanne Rice book I choose to read.

I love Luanne Rice, But..........2007-04-20

I just didn't love this book. I was so bored. The story seemed drawn out and so predictable. I pretty much knew what was going to happen before the end of the first few chapters.

Good for Insomnia.......2007-03-19

What a boring book! I have read several Luanne Rice books, and I fear she is going downhill lately, like some other authors I like. The story was so boring, and the twist at the end was like "Oh yea, oh well." Then you think something good will happen for Sister Bernie and Tom and, nope, don't get too interested in that storyline. That will leave you hanging too!

I still think she's a good author - this was just a boring book. I'm not ready to give up on Luanne Rice yet!

Sandcastles.......2007-01-03

Excellent story. Well written as are all her stories. I always manage to cry at some point when reading books written by her, yet am well satisfied at their endings.

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