Thomas Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbridge, Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Indialog Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2005. Large thick octavo, softcover, VG in gray pictorial wraps. Contains the Mayor of Casterbridge, Far from the Maddening Crowd and Tess of the D'Urbervilles -- 3 classics by Hardy. 915 pp. The Mayor of Casterbridge is, from beginning to end, the story of Michael Henchard, a skilled farm laborer who, in a drunken rage, sells his young wife, along with their infant child, to a passing sailor. Most of the novel takes place eighteen to twenty years after this event. When the sailor is reported lost at sea, the cast-off wife and now-grown daughter set out to find Michael, who has become an affluent businessman and the mayor of Casterbridge. Michael's success is temporary, though, as circumstances and his own weaknesses of character combine to bring about his downfall. ,,,Includes Cliffs Notes on book so you can ace any test on same.