The Trumpet-Major

by Thomas Hardy

Overview

This story is set at the time of the Napoleonic wars when the South coast was busy with preparations for the threat of invasion. It tells of the efforts of a young dragoon to woo a young maiden and his tragic death on a battlefield in Spain. The text is accompanied by a critical introduction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783964540089
Publisher:	Aeterna Classics
Publication date:	05/31/2018
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Hardy distrusted the application of nineteenth-century empiricism to history because he felt it marginalized important human elements. In The Trumpet-Major, the tale of a woman courted by three competing suitors during the Napoleonic wars, he explores the subversive effects of ordinary human desire and conflicting loyalties on systematized versions of history. This edition restores Hardy's original punctuation and removes the bowdlerisms forced upon the text on its initial publication.

Date of Birth:

June 2, 1840

Date of Death:

January 11, 1928

Place of Birth:

Higher Brockhampon, Dorset, England

Place of Death:

Max Gate, Dorchester, England

Education:

Served as apprentice to architect James Hicks

Editorial Reviews

Hearkening back to the Wessex of an earlier Napoleonic period, Hardy’s novel creates a homely world of likeable, though sometimes dull folk, anxious to get on with the business of falling in love despite the threat of imminent landing by the French…For readers used to Hardy’s star-crossed characters, this romance is a delightful discovery.”

AudioFile

Among the great Victorian novelists, only Hardy and Dickens consistently addressed issues of class. Narrator Nicholas Rowe gives a clear portrayal of the accents and diction of various classes, ranging from rural servants to King George III. It’s sometimes hard to distinguish the three major female characters' voices, but the men are clear and distinctive. Those who aren’t familiar with the story’s historical context—Hardy's Wessex from the Napoleonic Wars to the beginning of the Peninsular Campaign—may take a chapter or two to get the spirit of the times. But then these people of the working classes and lower gentry will come to life. It’s not Hardy's best, but it’s still a worthwhile listen. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

JULY 2017 - AudioFile