Considered one of Hardy’s best works, this sobering and complex story of self-destruction features one of literature's quintessential tragic heroes. In a drunken fit of rage, young hay-trusser Michael Henchard auctions off his wife and baby daughter at a county fair. Exhausted by his behavior, his wife decides to leave with the highest bidder. The next day, too late to stop them from leaving, Henchard is consumed with immense regret. He vows not to touch a drop of alcohol for twenty-one years. Nineteen years later, Henchard is sober, wealthy, and now the mayor of Casterbridge. Just as he begins to fall in love with another woman, Henchard’s wife and who he believes to be his daughter return. What follows is an intensely dramatic tale of pride, anger, and regret that cannot be put down. Featuring an appendix of discussion questions, this Diversion Classics edition is ideal for use in book groups and classrooms. For more classic titles like this, visit www.diversionbooks.com/ebooks/diversion-classics

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Thomas Hardy’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Hardy includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Hardy’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

The ways in which women are portrayed in Victorian novels can provide important insights into how people of the day thought about political economy, and vice versa. In Economic Woman, Deanna K. Kreisel innovatively shows how images of feminized sexuality in novels by George Eliot and Thomas Hardy reflected widespread contemporary anxieties about the growth of capitalism. Economic Woman is the first book to address directly the links between classical political economy and gender in the novel. Examining key works by Eliot and Hardy, including The Mill on the Floss and Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Kreisel investigates the meaning of two female representations: the ‘economic woman,’ who embodies idealized sexual restraint and wise domestic management, and the degraded prostitute, characterized by sexual excess and economic turmoil. Kreisel effectively integrates economic thought with literary analysis to contribute to an ongoing and lively scholarly discussion.

Drawing on the theoretical work of Deleuze and Guattari and that of Jean Laplanche - particularly his major and as yet still relatively unfamiliar notion of the phantasme - Social Formation in Hardy's Major Novels is an original and groundbreaking rereading of Hardy's four major tragic novels. The readings are sophisticated and yet accessible. The theoretical work is complemented by the use of new and hitherto unregarded major empirical findings that reveal the very heart of Hardy's creative universe.

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.

Ursula Lord explores the manifestations in narrative structure of epistemological relativism, textual reflexivity, and political inquiry, specifically Conrad's critique of colonialism and imperialism and his concern for the relationship between self and society. The tension between solitude and solidarity manifests itself as a soul divided against itself; an individual torn between engagement and detachment, idealism and cynicism; a dramatized narrator who himself embodies the contradictions between radical individualism and social cohesion; a society that professes the ideal of shared responsibility while isolating the individual guilty of betraying the illusion of cultural or professional solidarity. Conrad's complexity and ambiguity, his conflicting allegiances to the ideal of solidarity versus the terrible insight of unremitting solitude, his grappling with the dilemma of private versus shared meaning, are intrinsic to his political and philosophical thought. The metanarrative focus of Conrad's texts intensifies rather than diminishes their philosophical and political concerns. Formal experimentation and epistemological exploration inevitably entail ethical and social implications. Lord relates these issues with intellectual rigour to the dialectic of individual liberty and collective responsibility that lies at the core of the modern moral and political debate.

In "One last beat," you are becoming a part of the dramatic past of Lusie, a 22-year-old girl who is facing harsh life and injustice as she gets a shocking cancer diagnosis, which leads her into a new life situation. Therefore, she needs the help of a mysterious doctor who owns his own private clinic and specialises in cancer treatment without pharmaceutical influence. However, his past marks him deeply, and his emotions are hidden under a facade of stability and rationality. If he is so damaged, is he going to be able to heal her? Will he stay that way? Then they meet and get to know each other's similarities, which makes them come closer together. Additionally, can she deal with him being that way?