“Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.”
Hardy sure was a depressing fellow.
As with Tess and Jude, the eponymous mayor of Casterbridge in this book takes one figurative beating after another. Just when you think things might be starting to look up, when it seems he's found his footing and is turning his life around, Hardy says "nuh-uh" and throws another load of shit at him. I know he was challenging social norms and critiquing the bourgeoisie and whatever else, but good god man, give these poor characters a break!
Michael Henchard stands apart a little bit though because - I feel - unlike Tess and Jude, he himself is something of an antagonist in the lives of other goodhearted and modernistic folk. He is actually rather unpleasant and probably deserves a lot of what he gets, which is why it's quite an achievement that Hardy makes me sympathise with him. I wanted him to get better, do better, be better. I didn't like him, of course, but then there are many ways I can be made to feel about characters and “like” is always the least interesting one.
The novel opens eighteen years before the main story. Michael Henchard is unemployed, unhappy and on the road with his wife and daughter when he stops at a fairground tent for some rum-laced furmity. A few bowls later and he is drunk. In a moment of drunken foolishness, he gets angry at his wife and declares to all present that he will sell her to the highest bidder. What starts as a joke is taken too far, and when a passing sailor offers him five guineas, intoxication and pride make him go through with it. His wife, Susan, takes her daughter and leaves - quite gladly - with the sailor.
The next morning, Henchard realises the horror of what he has done and makes a vow not to drink for as long as his age at that moment (21 years).
Eighteen years later, the sailor has been lost at sea and Susan follows the trail of her true husband to the town of Casterbridge, hoping he will take pity on her and her daughter. There she discovers a sober, well-respected Michael Henchard in the mayor's seat. Could this be a second chance for them both?
Could it hell. Sorry, but this is Hardy. He wasn't going to let anyone get away with anything that easily. There's twists around every corner in this book. He really pushes how much we can feel pity for Michael Henchard. Henchard essentially orchestrates his own downfall time and again by behaving selfishly and jealously. I found myself despising him at times, and yet in the end I could only think: Henchard, you poor, poor bastard.
I enjoyed the moral challenges and complexity the book offered. I also really enjoyed the rural setting and the town of Casterbridge. My least favourite part of the book was Elizabeth-Jane, though she got a little more bearable towards the end. Maybe.
I do have one question, though. (view spoiler)[How does Lucetta die? She can't have been more than, say, forty. What happened to her? She seems to have literally died of embarrassment (hide spoiler)]...more
2 1/2 stars. There are two main ways I could view Robinson Crusoe - firstly, as a reader who reads for enjoyment and entertainment, and secondly, as s2 1/2 stars. There are two main ways I could view Robinson Crusoe - firstly, as a reader who reads for enjoyment and entertainment, and secondly, as someone offering a more critical analysis of historical attitudes. To be honest, though, the book doesn't fare too well under either microscope.
As a novel for enjoyment, it's about the titular character being shipwrecked on an island many believe to be based on Tobago, near Trinidad. There's a whole lot of survival skills going on (but a modern reader will likely have read more compelling accounts of survival) and Crusoe finds himself facing native cannibals and captives. The style is distant and emotionless, only marginally more readable than Swift's Gulliver's Travels, but that is largely due to the more simplistic narrative.
The parts where Crusoe turns to his knowledge of European agriculture to survive are particularly tedious for any reader not interested in production theory, trade and economics.
Looking at this book through the eyes of history, it's something of an advocate for colonialism and European superiority. Crusoe arrives on this island and quickly attempts to adjust it to his own expectations of civilization, even to the point of wanting the prisoners as slaves. It should also be pointed out that Crusoe is shipwrecked during a voyage to acquire African slaves. He survives by using his European knowledge, adapting very little, killing off natives, and embracing Christianity.
Crusoe is the intelligent European and the natives, including his one friend - Friday, are savages. He becomes a "king" figure of this "colony" and the conclusion appears to be that he brings civilization to these backward peoples. Perhaps interesting as a view of European mentality in the 18th century, but frankly quite nauseating to sit through today.
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