'The Mayor of Casterbridge" is a tragic novel by British author Thomas Hardy. It is set in the f ictional town of Casterbridge and considered one of Hardy's greatest works. A young hay-trusser named Michael Henchard, in a fit of drunkenness, has decided to sell his wife and daughter at a fair. Afterwards Henchard becomes a wealthy man and the mayor of the town Casterbridge. His wife and daughter find him after a number of years. In the end, it is neither his daughter nor his wife who ruins him but his own self-destructive nature. The original flavor of this classic has been carefully retained in this abridged version.