The lovely vistas of his Wessex hills and valleys form the background for Thomas Hardy's implacable drama of human fate. From the moment Michael Henchard sells his wife and infant daughter at auction to an unknown sailor until his will, forbidding anyone to remember him, is found, The Mayor or Casterbridge unfolds a tale as compelling as any ever told of man's dark pilgrimage on earth. (This is one of four of Hardy's most famous novels available in the Modern Library series. The others are Tess of the D'Urbervilles M. L. No. 72, The Return or the Native M. L. No. 121, Jude the Obscure M. L. No. 135.)