The Mayor of Casterbridge
First edition title page | |
| Author | Thomas Hardy |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Robert Barnes |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Published | London |
| Publisher | Smith Elder & Co |
Publication date | 1886 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Preceded by | Two on a Tower |
| Followed by | The Woodlanders |
| Text | The Mayor of Casterbridge at Wikisource |
| First published in two volumes | |
The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character is an 1886 novel by the English author Thomas Hardy. One of Hardy's Wessex novels, it is set in a fictional rural England with Casterbridge standing in for Dorchester in Dorset where the author spent his youth. It was first published as a weekly serialisation from January 1886.
The novel is considered to be one of Hardy's masterpieces, although it has been criticised for incorporating too many incidents, a consequence of the author trying to include something in every weekly published instalment.