About this title: Harry Feversham is in love with the alluring Ethne Eustace. A dazzling engagement ball is held in their honour at her Irish country home. For Harry, it seems like life cannot get any better. But a mysterious package arrives for him and the contents turn out to be three white feathers. Publicly branded a coward, Harry suffers the ultimate ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Tom Doherty & Associates
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780765346148ISBN:0765346141
Description: Grade: C. Catalog: Fiction Historical Synopsis: 310 pages. A Soldier's Shame...It is 1882 and British officer Harry Feversham has it all: a loving fiancée, the camaraderie of fellow soldiers, a bri... read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Tor Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780765346148ISBN:0765346141
Description: A former library book with the usual identifiers in a protective glossy dust jacket covering. -, Mass Market PaperBack, Very Good / read more
Description: Very Good. 0743448219 light shelf wear / edge wear cover / pages very good condition//"Buy with Confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Customer Service Makes All the Difference. " read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"Old fashioned British novel first published in 1902 lately made into a movie. The basic plot is a good one. A young man trained to be a soldier dishonorably escapes going to fight in the war in Africa. His fellow soldiers and best friends learn of his maneuver and send him three feathers (3 friends) to symbolize his cowardice. His fiancee, learning of what he did, gives him the fourth. He spends years redeeming each feather by doing a heroic deed for the person who gave him each. After much tribulation, the fiancee finds out about his redemption, but she is now affianced to one of the friends, who has been blinded in the war. Good plot, but VERY slow, with a lot of the real action happening offstage. Positive, and worth reading if the student is willing to go at the normal 19th century British pace."
"Took me a quite a while to get into it, but once I did, LOVED IT. Maybe it's just a little harder to read with kids climbing all over you. Such a different way of live back then, so glad to be living NOW!"
"was very excited to read this book. Of all the choices I made for my classics challenge for this year, I was certain that I would enjoy this novel the most. In this case, my expectations were not met, and although I did ultimately enjoy this book, it will never be a favorite.
The Four Feathers is the story of Harry Feversham, an English officer, who is descended from a long line of military heroes and expected to follow in their footsteps. One night, as a boy, Harry is present when his father and fellow Crimean war veterans are relating the tales of their military exploits. That night, they also happen to relate two stories of cowardice, which so distress young, sensitive, and impressionable Harry, that he is convinced from that time forward that he is himself a coward at his core. Years later, after becoming engaged to the beguiling Ethne Eustace, Harry is in the company of three friends when he receives a telegram notifying him that his regiment will soon leave for the Sudan. Harry resigns his commission, and ultimately receives three feathers from his once fellow officers and friends, as well as a fourth from Ethne as she breaks their engagement. Having lost everything he values, Harry begins a quest to redeem his shattered honor, and force those who have charged him with cowardice to recognize his worth.
Prior to having read the novel, I had seen two movie adaptations. In both cases, the films contained quite a bit of action, intrigue, and hair-raising escapes. As I read the novel, I was somewhat surprised to find that the majority of the narrative resides in England and Ireland, and focuses particularly on the characters of Ethne and Jack Durrance, once Harry's greatest friend. Durrance is a great character; he is a born soldier who finds himself unexpectedly handicapped and forced to adapt in ways he had never expected. His honor is in some ways even greater than Harry's, and the ways in which he and Ethne relate to each other as romantic adversaries is interesting. However, I found myself longing to read about Harry. So much of Harry's story is told in hearsay and vague allusion by other characters that I found myself getting somewhat frustrated. For me, the last 70 pages of the book were the best as I was finally able to read about Harry and some of the situations in which he found himself.
Despite my frustrations, there are many things to love about this book. The three main characters of the book are all studies in self-sacrifice for the good of others. If you enjoyed any of the film adaptations of the story, you may want to give the novel a try."
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