"What English custom practised from the late 17th until the early 20th century, was the backdrop for Thomas Hardy's novel ""The Mayor of Casterbridge""?"
Wife selling (English custom) Wife selling (English custom) Wife selling in England was a way of ending an unsatisfactory marriage by mutual agreement that probably began in the late 17th century, when divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthiest. After parading his wife with a halter around her neck, arm, or waist, a husband would publicly auction her to the highest bidder. Wife selling provides the backdrop for Thomas Hardy's novel "The Mayor of Casterbridge", in which the central character sells his wife at the beginning of the story, an act that haunts him for the rest of his life,
The Mayor of Casterbridge landscape is drawn with a naturalist's eye and in which country people play out their lives between custom and education, work and ideas, and love of place and experience of change.. Hardy's portrait of Henchard – depressive, black-tempered, self-destructive but also lovable as a child is lovable – she considered one of his strongest achievements. She did concur with Hardy, however, in noting that he has tried to pack in too many incidents. The Mayor of Casterbridge The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character is an 1886 novel by the English author Thomas Hardy.