Thomas Hardy was part of the English naturalist movement. He wrote short stories, novels, and poetry. In The Mayor of Casterbridge a hay-tresser in England in 1886 gets drunk at a fair and sells his family to a sailor. Eighteen years later, when the man has become the respected mayor of Casterbridge, his wife returns, and with her comes renewed problems and old vices | The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, Paperback | Indigo Chapters