On a drunken impulse, Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter at a country fair, an outrageous act for which he suffers an agonizing remorse. Years later, when he has become a respected and prosperous man, his wife and daughter seek him out in Casterbridge. He attempts to right the long-ago wrong and sets in motion a series of events that spell his destruction.

Catherine of Aragon: With her enormous love for her husband ahd her unflinching loyalty to her people and to her faith, Catherine of Aragon should have been the perfect Queen, but she was unable to bear King Henry a surviving son. Subjected to the humiliation of divorce proceedings, she manages to maintain her integrity with a grand and touching defiance and with a quiet, compelling dignity. Anne Boleyn: For all her passion, pride and intelligence,...