The Mayor of Casterbridge

I could have picked any Hardy but this is wonderful. He is so good at portraying the highs and lows of human emotions and endeavours and setting them against the vast background of time and space that puts the smallness of the human condition into perspective -- Jane Asher * Daily Express *
What I love about Hardy is that anybody of any age can get into his books because he's such a good writer. All you've got to do is start reading. I could have picked any of his books but this is my favourite -- Matthew Wright (The Wright Stuff) * Daily Express *
It's the most tragic tale of a man who did a great wrong (he sells his wife and daughter) and pays for it later. The way Henchard arranges his life just so, only to see it wrecked and ruined by Fate - it makes me howl with pathos -- author John Wright * Independent *
You have to hand it to Thomas Hardy. He knew how to come up with the blackest, most fascinating of characters (principally, corn merchant and mayor Michael Henchard), then put them in a cracking predicament * Mirror *
A truly wonderful book -- Actor Brian Cox * Independent on Sunday *
And then there is the development of Henchard himself, the figure in this crowded landscape, a man for whom we should not have sympathy, but one whom Hardy has painted in such a masterfully subtle way that in the end our heart breaks with his - despite his past sins -- Jane Urquhart * Guardian *