THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE is one of the most powerful of the Hardy "Wessex novels." Like "Tess of the Durbervilles," it combines interest of plot with interest and vitality of subject-matter, revealing a bit of that human drama in which the relationship of the senses plays a prominent role. Hardy attacks this subject with characteristic boldness and a consummate mastery which is at once fearless and delicate. The first author to lift the ban of silence on sex from English fiction, Hardy helped to raise the novel to its present high level and still remains one of the greatest exponents of the spirit of the modern age.