Casterbridge Quagmire

I have been bogged down with this book review for weeks. I wanted to write an unpretentious recommendation for a book I enjoyed, but it seems like I've settled into a permanent state of being just one more paragraph from being done. So I'm cutting my losses and posting now, though I'm no longer certain it's to any good purpose.

I had wanted to write something like:

Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge is a real page-turner for a nineteenth century novel with a contemporary feel to its prose, brings its setting alive with Tolkienesque world-building, and deals in engaging, thought-provoking themes even if pessimistic and non-Christian in perspective, so you should read it.

Below, the insomniac among you can read and see how badly I failed.

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Books: The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (available in electronic form free-of-charge from Project Gutenberg) is the most easily enjoyable classic novel I have ever read, and that is in spite of having philosophic reservations on some of its themes.

To me there is an alien quality to older English works, some even as late as the early twentieth century. It's not the incomprehensibility of an unknown language, but the sensation that in spite of being able to make sense of every word on the page the obsolete vocabulary and forgotten idioms, the style of expression and approach to storytelling all create a barrier between my world and what the author is trying to say that's impenetrable without constant mental effort to punch through. It makes a labor of even the greatest of old books.

I did not get the same feeling from The Mayor of Casterbridge. Although it is definitely written and firmly set in the Victorian era and has a measure of paragraphs thick with unfamiliar idioms and dialects, the storytelling and overall style seem contemporary and accessible. I haven't read many books considered page-turners, but The Mayor of Casterbridge should be counted as one.

No matter what troubles the characters face, it is obvious that Hardy had a great love for the town of Casterbridge and the country around it. His writing imparts a share of that love on the reader. Casterbridge is a fictionalized version of the southwest English town of Dorchester where Hardy grew up. He describes the town to such depths of detail and history that a map spontaneously forms in the mind while reading the novel. Hardy's world is a creation comparable to Tolkien's Middle Earth to such a degree that I think it's likely Hardy was one of Tolkien's inspirations.

Hardy captures Casterbridge during an historic transition. The town has been a regional center for centuries, its fortune tied to the agricultural rhythms of the surrounding country. However, it is now the Industrial Age, at least in the outside world. Casterbridge is a backwater for the moment, but signs are on the horizon that the times are soon to catch up with the town. An air of nostalgia and melancholy in the novel's descriptions is perhaps due to Hardy having witnessed the tide of modernity sweep over the real Dorchester and change it forever.

The theme of The Mayor of Casterbridge can be summarized with the novel's brief quote from the German poet Novalis:

Character is Fate.

That is, the overall trajectory of a person's life is determined not so much by conscious choice or blind luck as it is by his basic personality. The consequences of our actions are inescapable because we can never escape ourselves. To Hardy, sin is not a lapse of virtue, but a tell-tale of a person's true character.

Another of Hardy's themes is that while the pursuit of happiness is futile, since even in the best case it is only an ephemeral good and in the worst case unachievable, peace of mind can be obtained through emotional detachment and acceptance of one's life situation with equanimity. By sacrificing the striving and elation at good fortune one can blunt the sting of misfortune. Hardy communicates this theme very subtly with his storytelling style. Although the novel is not explicitly narrated from the point-of-view of any one character, heinous and pathetic deeds are related matter-of-factly, their moral import unremarked, revealing that the narrator is not emotionally engaged in the action but is detached and peacefully relating whatever the characters do.

My first thought as Hardy's themes emerged was, This is the kind of book that can be enjoyed on literary merit while ignoring philosophical shortcomings. Certainly, no mainstream Christian could accept the thesis of the impossibility of salvation. However, further reflection shows that Hardy's views, while non-Christian, make some relevant challenges to my way of looking at the world.

Is character destiny? My first answer was no, people can learn and change. Even if we sometimes or often fail to live up to what we know is right, it's usually just a moment of weakness. In general we know what's right, intend to do it, and manage to pull it off more often than not. But do we really? While I affirm that change of character is possible, it is much easier to talk about change than to do it. While I have known transforming moments in my own life, I have also felt trapped in bad habits, even ones I thought I had beat years ago. Although Christians believe in transforming grace, we also believe in fallen human nature that will dog our best intentions all our days.

Is happiness achievable? […]

(Why did I pick up The Mayor of Casterbridge in the first place? A film critic recently interviewed the screenwriter of the movie Millions who had previously written the screenplay for The Claim which was based on The Mayor of Casterbridge. I knew there was little chance I'd see either movie anytime soon, the novel was available free online, and I'd never read any Thomas Hardy before, so I thought what the heck …. A read well-worth the time invested.)