Las cuatro plumas (The Four Feathers)

Escrito por A. E. W. Mason

Narrado por Javier Matesanz

Las cuatro plumas mete el dedo en la herida de una de las mayores derrotas del Imprerio británico, cuando en 1885 un desierto implacable y una población orgullosa y fiera le dio una lección en Sudán. Las tropas coloniales fueron arrasadas y su máximo oficial, Gordon, decapitado para humillación de Londres. Cuando los hechos de la novela suceden, ese incidente todavía está muy fresco, y los ingleses saben que tendrán que abandonar Sudán. Es este libro un clásico de la novela de aventuras que tiene en los escenarios exóticos y la valentía de sus protagonistas los elementos imprescindibles que se requieren del género. Las cuatro plumas ha sido llevada al cine hasta en seis ocasiones entre 1911 y 2002, y también a series televisivas. Ello habla de un argumento y un desarrollo de los hechos que no se ha marchitado desde que A.E.W. Mason la publicara por primera vez nada más iniciado el siglo XX. Paisajes africanos, aventuras y debilidades humanas en estado puro, una lectura a la que siempre se regresa.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: BookaVivo
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 15 mar 2022
• ISBN: 9781490664910

A. E. W. Mason

Alfred Edward Woodley Mason (1865–1948), otherwise known as A.E.W. Mason, is the author of A Romance of Wastdale, published in 1895. He is the author of more than twenty books, among them The Four Feathers, originally published in London in 1905 and now a 2002 major motion picture, starring Kate Hudson, Heath Ledger, and Wes Bentley. 

Comentarios para Las cuatro plumas (The Four Feathers)

[lamour_1 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Harry Feversham, a British military officer, is facing traveling to Egypt to fight an uprising of the dervishes. He is also looking forward to marrying his fiance Ehne. He has feared that when faced with danger in war, he would run from the fight and be declared a coward. Rather than go to Egypt and risk this, he resigns his commission and plans to marry and stay in England. Three of his fellow officers send him white feathers, a symbol of cowardice and when he shows them to Ehne, she gives him one too. Hence the title.His father disowns him and the marriage is over forcing Harry to reconsider his future. He promises himself that he will force the four who gave him the feathers to take the feathers back when he shows he is not a coward.The films based on this novel have predominately been set in Egypt while the novel takes place mostly in England with the action in Egypt being described by the soldiers when they are back to England. The 1939 production of this novel is one of my favourite adventure films.

[nielspeterqm · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

A young officer, disgraced by a single & aberrant act of cowardice, struggles via a dangerous undercover path to regain his honour & the respect of the woman he loves. On the cusp between literature & popular moral fiction, & immensely appreciated in its day, it was published a year after Queen Victoria's death & arguably stands as the last Victorian classic.(A very modern remark I truly can't resist here: The heroine, while "irreproachable" in Victorian moral terms, is a deeply questionable character - in fairness, the author himself hints at this repeatedly - & our hero shouldn't keep simping for her, she's not worth it.)

[justagirlwithabook · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I didn't realize (before stumbling upon this book) that The Four Feathers movie (the Heath Ledger version - swoon) was actually based off of a book. I stumbled upon this book at a used bookstore for a couple of bucks and grabbed it. This was the second book in a row that I read with a storyline whose setting takes place during a time when the British Empire began to wane, when "conflicts all ended in British victories, but the moral or material costs were high in each case ..." (and another book written by a white European man).All of those historical things in consideration, I did enjoy the storyline itself and did enjoy the characters. This is a book that I think would've been harder for me to read had I not already seen the movie. I saw the movie when I was younger when it had first came out - head over heels for Heath Ledger and adored Kate Hudson - and I just loved it all and the story it told of friendship, love, and overcoming obstacles. I appreciated that the movie showed a stronger bond between Harry and Abou Fatma than what the book did - that they were entirely different people from different places, yet still the same in many other ways.So I think ultimately because I felt I had so much extra 'background' in my head going into this book, images of characters, the setting, relationships, etc., it really actually added to my reading experience rather than 'spoil it' for me.Ultimately, I enjoyed this read, in some ways because of the old world, Indiana Jones atmosphere of the book, and also in spite of that old world thinking (though something to definitely be mindful of in reading the book).

[philsyphe · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I liked this in parts rather than on the whole. Found it too slow-paced and mundane. I'd hoped for more of an adventure yarn, or at least something more upbeat.A couple of enaging chapters take place towards the end, which led me to rate this three stars instead of two, but for the most part it lacks excitement.

[homeschoolbookreview · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Harry Feversham, son of a British general during the Crimean War, is haunted by both his family’s remarkable history of service in the British army and the stories of cowardice that he had heard told as a boy during his father’s annual “Crimea Nights” reunions. Due to his fear of becoming a coward and staining his ancestors’ reputation, Harry resigns his commission in the East Surrey Regiment just prior to Sir Garnet Wolseley's 1882 expedition to Egypt to suppress the rising of Urabi Pasha. Yet three of his comrades, Captain Trench and Lieutenants Castleton and Willoughby, send him three white feathers to express their disapproval of his act, and his Irish fiancée, Ethne Eustace, presents him with a fourth feather and breaks their engagement. Harry’s best friend in the regiment, Captain Durrance becomes his rival for Ethne. After talking with Lieutenant Sutch, a friend of his father, Harry decides to redeem himself by acts that will force his former friends to take back the feathers and might in turn encourage Ethne to take back her feather. Thus, he travels on his own to Egypt and Sudan. Meanwhile, Durrance is blinded by sunstroke and is sent home. Over the next six years, Castleton is killed at Tamai, but Willoughby is now a commander and Harry, with the aid of a Sudanese Arab Abou Fatma, succeeds in recovering some lost letters and getting them to Willoughby. Then he learns that Trench is imprisoned in the “House of Stone” at Omdurman and allows himself to be captured in an attempt to rescue him. Meanwhile, Durrance and Ethne become engaged, though each secretly realizes that there are problems in their relationship. Will Harry and Trench escape? Does Ethne take back her feather? Can Durrance find a cure for his blindness? And who will marry whom? This book was recommended to me by my friend Thaxter Dickey, a professor at Florida College. Alfred Edward Woodley Mason (1865-1948) was a British politician and author, of whom it is said that he delighted readers with adventure novels and detective stories written in a style reminiscent of Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle. I would add that this book reminds me of H. Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon’s Mines and She. Mason wrote more than twenty books but is best known for The Four Feathers. There is very little objectionable in the story. A few minor references to smoking tobacco, drinking alcoholic beverages, and dancing occur, and the name of God, as in “Good God,” “My God,” and “O God,” is used as an interjection. However, the facts that people prayed, trusted in God, and looked to His providence are also mentioned. And the idea of honor is quite strong. The plot may move a little too slowly and be a bit too complex for young children, but teens as young as thirteen and adults who like exotic adventure stories should enjoy it. I know that I did.

[adonisguilfoyle · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

The classic 1939 film adaptation, although the plot is slightly different and more action based than the original source, has long ingrained the gist of A.E.W. Mason’s The Four Feathers on my imagination, but I was still slightly apprehensive before reading the novel. Although the story sounds like a boy’s own adventure – a soldier accused of cowardice travels incognito into battle to restore his honour – the book was written in 1902, and Victorian prose can be difficult to digest. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Mason’s style, which is plainly phrased for the most part, but also poetic in places – the symbolic device of Ethne’s violin – and modestly romantic.Harry Feversham’s future seems determined – he will become a soldier, like his father and a long line of Feversham ancestors before him, and marry his beautiful Irish fiancée, Ethne Eustace. Yet Harry is haunted by his father’s stories of cowards during the Crimean War and the harsh treatment meted out to them by fellow soldiers, and on the eve of his regiment being sent into battle in the Sudan, Harry resigns his commission. He is sent three white feathers – the sign of a coward – and then Ethne adds the final insult to make up the four feathers of the title. Shamed by his former friends, and rejected by Ethne and his proud father, Harry decides to atone for his moment of weakness by winning back the respect of those who labelled him a coward.The largest presence in the story is not Harry, or the war in Egypt, but honour, or at least an inflated Victorian concept of male pride. The question I was asking myself throughout is not why Harry resigns – whether for Ethne’s sake, or because his mother died and his father doesn’t understand him – but rather why he joined up in the first place! Basically, Harry’s problem is that he thinks too much. Instead of facing his fears by going to Egypt with his friends, he backs out because he’s afraid of letting everyone down. His Pimpernel-esque quest to prove his honour is both entertaining and satisfying, but ultimately unnecessary if he had only been honest with himself and his father.A secondary thread of the story, similarly confusing, is the tangled affair of Harry, Ethne and Harry’s best friend, Jack Durrance. Jack met and fell in love with Ethne first, but stepped aside when Harry also fell for her, thanks to the machinations of an interfering third party. With Harry away in Egypt, fighting for his lost honour, Jack tries again with Ethne. They become friends and write to each other, but when Jack returns home wounded, Ethne takes pity on him and agrees to marry him, because ‘two lives should not be spoiled because of her’. I was ready to hate Ethne for hurting both men, but Mason’s characters are so believable that I finished with conflicting sympathies, wanting all three to be happy! My knowledge of the historical battles described in The Four Feathers is slim to non-existent, but Mason crafts an evocative and disturbing background of heat, sand and incredible endurance. The ‘House of Stone’, where Harry meets up with Trench, nearly gave me claustrophobia! Distinct from the film version, the novel is definitely worth a read.

[knitbusy · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I 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.