12 h 7 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 7 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the people you love call you a coward—and words cannot win back their trust?
Harry Feversham grows up hearing that soldiering proves a man's worth. Yet the military stories around him fill him with dread. When his regiment prepares to leave for the Sudan, he resigns. Four white feathers turn his private fear into a public accusation, and his fiancée, Ethne Eustace, gives him the fourth.
In A. E. W. Mason's The Four Feathers, Harry seeks to recover his self-respect through dangerous acts of service. His friend Jack Durrance loves Ethne and faces a severe test of his own. Between English military society and the hazards of the Sudan, courage becomes more than a matter of reputation: love, loyalty, and judgment are all at stake.
What you’ll discover
- Fear beneath the uniform Follow Harry as the demand to appear brave deepens his private dread.
- Four tokens of shame Discover how small white feathers carry judgments that explanations alone cannot undo.
- Courage beyond the regiment Enter the hazards of the Sudan, where Harry risks his life without regimental support.
- Love and divided loyalties Meet Ethne and Durrance as affection, pride, duty, and pity pull against one another.
- The struggle for recognition Feel the suspense of brave acts that may never reach those whose judgment matters.
Who will love it
Readers who love adventure set in far deserts and old wars, stories of honor and loyalty, and quiet love stories where people choose duty over desire. It will suit anyone who enjoys a well-built plot.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boy hears stories of cowardice
- A telegram and an engagement
- Durrance goes east, Harry goes west
- A pariah's plan takes shape
- The letters in the wall of Berber
- Ethne, Durrance and the loss of sight
- The story of the first feather
- A message in music, and a friend who sees
- Omdurman and the House of Stone
- What the book is about, and how it is told
Who’s who
- Harry FevershamA soldier's son with a vivid imagination, who resigns his commission in fear and then spends years trying to win back his honor.
- Ethne EustaceA strong, frank young woman of Donegal who loves her country, plays the violin, and tries to spare others from harm.
- Jack DurranceHarry's closest friend, a brave and rising officer who loves Ethne, goes blind, and learns to see people more clearly.
- Lieutenant SutchA lame old naval veteran who understands Harry as a boy and keeps his secret, longing to see him restored.
- General FevershamHarry's stern, upright father, who cannot understand fear and lives among portraits of soldier ancestors.
- Captain TrenchA sharp, curious officer who first thinks of the white feathers and later shares a prison with the man he accused.
- Captain WilloughbyA stubborn, dull officer who sends one feather and later brings it back to Ethne.
- Mrs. AdairDurrance's neighbor in Devonshire and Ethne's host, a secretive woman who loves Durrance and schemes to keep him.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 12 h 7 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 13 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Four Feathers
by A. E. W. Mason · 1902
Branded a coward by three friends, Harry Feversham goes alone into the Sudan to make them take back their feathers.
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In short
The Four Feathers is an adventure novel by A. E. W. Mason, first published in 1902. It follows Harry Feversham, the son of a long line of soldiers, who resigns his commission on the eve of a campaign in Egypt.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boy hears stories of cowardice
The story opens at Broad Place, the Surrey home of General Feversham. Each June the general holds a Crimean dinner for old comrades, and this year it falls on the birthday of his son Harry, who turns fourteen. Lieutenant Sutch, a lame naval veteran who once knew Harry's mother, arrives early and watches the boy closely.
The old soldiers tell tales of war in short, matter-of-fact phrases. Harry listens as though every event were happening in the room. He shivers at the cold of the trenches and strains with the suspense of waiting before a battle. Sutch sees on his face a look he has seen on frightened recruits, and it troubles him.
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What is The Four Feathers about?
It follows Harry Feversham, an English officer who resigns his commission before a war in Egypt. Three fellow officers send him white feathers for cowardice, and his fiancee adds a fourth. He sets out alone into the Sudan to win back his honor.
What do the four white feathers mean?
A white feather is a symbol of cowardice. Three come from fellow officers, Trench, Castleton and Willoughby, and Ethne breaks a fourth from her fan. Harry keeps them, and they become a challenge he sets himself to answer.
Is The Four Feathers based on a true story?
The characters are invented, but the setting is real. The story moves among the wars in Egypt and the Sudan in the 1880s, including the siege of Khartum and the Mahdi's rule. Mason published it in 1902.
The author
A. E. W. Mason
1865–1948 · English novelist
Alfred Edward Woodley Mason (1865–1948) was a British novelist and politician, born in London, where he also died. He wrote The Four Feathers (1902), At the Villa Rose (1910), and The House of the Arrow (1924). He served as a Member of Parliament for Coventry from 1906 to 1910.
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