The Trumpet-Major

Anne Garland, who lives with her widowed mother in a mill owned by Miller Loveday, has three suitors: the squires nephew Festus and the millers two sons, Robert and John. As the Wessex village prepares for possible invasion by Napoleons fleet, Anne finds her destiny increasingly tangled up with the events of history. For Robert is a sailor while John is a soldier, both with equal commitments to their country and their love for Anne. Lyrical and light-hearted in tone, yet shot through with Hardys characteristic irony, The Trumpet-Major is one of Hardys most underrated and unpredictable works. In her Introduction to this new edition, Linda Shires demonstrates how the novelist defies the readers expectations by his parallel use of literary modes, which call each other into question: comedy, romance and historical narrative.

Categories: Romance