The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character is an 1886 novel by British author Thomas Hardy. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge. At a country fair near Casterbridge in the fictional county of Wessex Michael Henchard, a 21 year old hay-trusser, argues with his wife Susan. Drunk on rum-laced furmity he auctions her off, along with his baby daughter Elizabeth-Jane, to Richard Newson, a passing sailor, for five guineas. Sober the next day, he is too late to recover his family. When he realises they are gone, he swears never to touch liquor again for as many years as he has lived so far. Eighteen years later, Henchard has become a successful grain merchant and Mayor of Casterbridge, known for his staunch sobriety. Henchard has avoided explaining the circumstances of the loss of his wife, allowing people to assume he is a widower.