The Mayor of Casterbridge

the long version

Under the powerful influence of rum furmity, Michael Henchard, a hay-trusser, sells his wife Susan and their child Elisabeth-Jane to Newson, a sailor, for five guineas. Years later, Susan, now a widow, arrives in Casterbridge with Elisabeth-Jane, to seek her legal husband. To their surprise, Henchard is now the mayor of Casterbridge and, following the sale of his wife, took a twenty-one-year vote not to drink, out of shame. Hanchard remarries Susan and, as Elisabeth-Jane believes herself to be N