The Trumpet-Major

Nov 27, 2025 10:55 PM

Author:Thomas Hardy,Linda M. Shires,Linda M. Shires,Patricia Ingham

The Trumpet-Major

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.

Reviews

His masterpiece

—— The Sunday Times

Naguib Mahfouz's CAIRO TRILOGY puts all contemporary writers in the shade. He is the Arab Tolstoy.

—— Simon Sebag Montefiore , Twitter

Proust, Tolstoy and Balzac are the names most frequently flung around in company with that of Mahfouz...I thought of Galsworthy, reading Sugar Street

—— Spectator

Mahfouz's scope is vast and his concerns are not only still evident today, but crucial

—— The Scotsman

Sugar Street is a marvellous novel, with many messages, open and concealed, for those who will be instructed

—— The Times Literary Supplement

The Cairo Trilogy has made its mark on Anglo-American literary tastes because of its unusual grandeur, a technically "Good Read" - recalling Dickens, Flaubert, Zola, even Galsworthy - which still engages the dynamic society of Egypt in the first half of the century

—— Glasgow Herald

Mahfouz's sequence telescopes a family chronicle into an unparalleled picture of Egypt under the British Protectorate

—— The Times

A penetrating and thoughtful study of Catherine de'Medici

—— Northern Daily Telegraph

'Irrestistably engaging'

—— Kirkus

'Witty and intelligent...just the thing for a lazy summer day'

—— Newsday

Genuine wit and charm

—— Image

Witty novel about life and love after divorce, Hollywood-style.

—— Daily Express

A bitchy and entertaining look at life in La-La Land

—— The Sun

A perfect poolside read

—— New Woman

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