The Mayor of Casterbridge

The Mayor of Casterbridge – At a country fair in Weydon-Priors, a young, drunken hay-trusser named Michael Henchard impulsively auctions off his wife, Susan, and their infant daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor named Richard Newson for five guineas. Sober and filled with remorse the next day, Henchard vows to abstain from alcohol for 21 years. He moves to Casterbridge, where he becomes a highly successful grain merchant and eventually the town’s Mayor.