Trumpet Major (Oxford World's Classics)

by ThomasHardy (Author), RichardNemesvari (Editor)

• Used

  Paperback
  1998

  $8.77

  Thomas Hardy distrusted nineteenth-century efforts to systematize history, believing the human qualities of desire and conflicting loyalties undermined such attempts. Thus, although he set the courtship of Anne Garland by her three suitors against the larger-than-life backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, he considered his characters' loves and sorrows to be as much the material of history as any record of emperors and generals. This edition is the only one to be based on the novel's manuscript. It restores Hardy's original punctuation and removes the bowdlerisms forced upon him by the editor of the magazine in which it first appeared. This book is intended for students of Hardy, Victorian fiction, general readers.

• Used

  Paperback
  1984

  $3.29

• Used

  Hardcover
  1997

  $3.29

  Anne Garland lives with her widowed mother in a mill, owned by Miller Loveday. She is wooed by three men: the stupid, coarse Festus Derriman; John Loveday, the quiet, thoughtful trumpet-major; and Bob, John's brother. Anne has to overcome many obstacles before she marries the man of her choice.

• New

  Paperback
  1998

  $14.14

  Anne Garland, who lives with her widowed mother in a mill owned by Miller Loveday, has three suitors: the local squire's nephew Festus and the miller's two sons, Robert and John. While Festus' aggressive pursuit deters the young woman from considering him as a husband, the indecisive Anne wavers between light-hearted Bob and gentle, steadfast John. But as their Wessex village prepares for possible invasion by Napoleon's fleet, all find their destinies increasingly tangled with the events of history. The Loveday brothers, one a sailor and one a soldier, must wrestle with their commitments to their country and their feelings for Anne. Lyrical and light-hearted, yet shot through with irony, The Trumpet-Major (1880) is one of Hardy's most unusual novels and a fascinating tale of love and desire.