

                                  Thomas Hardy

                           The Life and Death of the

                             Mayor of Casterbridge

                         A Story of a Man of Character

                                    Preface

Readers of the following story who have not yet arrived at middle age are asked
to bear in mind that, in the days recalled by the tale, the home Corn Trade, on
which so much of the action turns, had an importance that can hardly be realized
by those accustomed to the sixpenny loaf of the present date, and to the present
indifference of the public to harvest weather.
    The incidents narrated arise mainly out of three events, which chanced to
range themselves in the order and at or about the intervals of time here given,
in the real history of the town called Casterbridge and the neighbouring
country. They were the sale of a wife by her husband, the uncertain harvests
which immediately preceded the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the visit of a Royal
personage to the aforesaid part of England.
    The present edition of the volume, like the previous one, contains nearly a
chapter which did not at first appear in any English copy, though it was printed
in the serial issue of the tale, and in the American edition. The restoration
was made at the instance of some good judges across the Atlantic, who strongly
represented that the home edition suffered from the omission. Some shorter
passages and names, omitted or altered for reasons which no longer exist, in the
original printing of both English and American editions, have also been replaced
or inserted.
    The story is more particularly a study of one man's deeds and character
than, perhaps, any other of those included in my Exhibition of Wessex life.
Objections have been raised to the Scotch language of Mr. Farfrae, the second
character; and one of his fellow-countrymen went so far as to declare that men
beyond the Tweed did not and never could say warrld, cannet, advairrtisment, and
so on. As this gentleman's pronunciation in correcting me seemed to my Southron
ear an exact repetition of what my spelling implied, I was not struck with the
truth of his remark, and somehow we did not get any forwarder in the matter. It
must be remembered that the Scotchman of the tale is represented not as he would
appear to other Scotchmen, but as he would appear to people of outer regions.
Moreover, no attempt is made herein to reproduce his entire pronunciation
phonetically, any more than that of the Wessex speakers. I should add, however,
that this new edition of the book has had the accidental advantage of a critical
overlooking by a professor of the tongue in question - one of undoubted
authority:
