Language: English | Category: Novel (Adventures) | Audio Book: external webside

The Four Feathers is a 1902 adventure novel by British writer A. E. W. Mason that has inspired many films of the same title. In December 1901, Cornhill Magazine announced the title as one of two new serial stories to be published in the forthcoming year. Against the background of the Mahdist War, young Faversham disgraces himself by quitting the army, which friends perceive as cowardice, symbolized by the four white feathers they give him. He redeems himself, feather by feather, with acts of physical courage to save his friends. He also wins back the heart of the woman he loves.

The novel tells the story of a British officer, Harry Faversham, who resigns from his commission in the Royal North Surrey Regiment just after Lord Garnet Wolseley’s 1882 expedition to Egypt to suppress the rising of Colonel Ahmed Orabi. He is censured for cowardice by three of his comrades, Captain Trench as well as Lieutenants Castleton and Willoughby, which is signified by their delivery of three white feathers to him. His fiancée, Ethne Eustace, breaks off their engagament and also gives him a white feather. His best friend in the regiment, Captain Durrance, becomes a rival for Ethne.