A Victorian Celebration: The Mayor of Casterbridge Giveaway!

I asked Twitter on Sunday whether I should read Middlemarch or Far From the Madding Crowd next, and those who weighed in steered me toward the Eliot title. And while I am perfectly happy with that choice (because I love Eliot so much), I'm still craving some Hardy.

To get a little bit of that craving out of my system, I decided to put the second Hardy title I have sitting in my "giveaway" pile up as this week's giveaway for the event. :)

When I made my project list...I had never heard of Hardy. I don't know if that speaks to the level of my college education or my own ignorance, but he was never on a reading list and he was never brought up in one of my classes! But, I was curious so I added a slew of his titles to the 250 list, and the very first Hardy title I read was The Mayor of Casterbridge. It blew me away and made me a Hardy fan for life.

Now I would like to give one of you a new copy of the novel. To see if it strikes your fancy, here is a little summary taken from Goodreads.com...

"In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled ‘A Story of a Man of Character’, Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town."

To enter to win a new Barnes and Noble edition of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, read and complete the following:

• This giveaway will be open to any residents of the U.S. or Canada (my international participants, I have special giveaways planned for you later on).
• You MUST be a participant of A Victorian Celebration to enter.
• You MUST be 13 years or older
• You do not have to follow me or subscribe to qualify
• You MUST leave me your e-mail so that I contact you if you win
• The winner will have 48 hours to respond or I will pick a new winner.
• To enter, comment on this post and answer the following question: What Victorian title should I read next for the event? Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy or Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte? (or something else-you suggest!)
• The giveaway will be open until 11:59 PM on Friday, June 29, 2012 EST.

Good luck and keep up the great job reading!