The Trumpet-Major

Összefoglaló

COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED: In his glorious, witty, yet disarmingly down-to-earth novel of the passionate fortunes of Miss Anne Garland, Hardy brings his childhood fascination with the Napoleonic era stunningly to life. Anne and her widowed mother live quietly in a portion of the mill owned by Miller Loveday, until their peace is shattered by the sudden blaze of colour and activity brought by a local encampment of several army regiments. As they prepare to defend the country from the expected invasion by Napoleon, Anne quickly builds her own defences against a private army of suitors. She must apparently choose between the headstrong and rude Festus Derriman who, in place of any manners at all, nevertheless possesses good prospects, and the reflective and honest trumpet-major, John Loveday, who does not. And there is a third, Anne\'s childhood sweetheart and John\'s sailor brother, Robert, whose sudden arrival with an unknown wife-to-be, throws the whole affair into thorough confusion. By turns comic and tragic, The Trumpet-Major is a marvellously heartfelt emotional adventure, a wonderful insight into a rural community under threat, and an agonizing drama of unrequited love.