I am a Hardy fan, but this one has been my least favorite. It is also Hardy's only foray into historical fiction. The time period is the Napoleonic Wars and Weymouth is preparing for an invasion by Napoleonic forces. The story centers around Anne Garland, who is pursued by three suitors. We do see some action with Wellington during the Peninsular War and one of the suitors serves with Nelson at Trafalgar. Meh ( )

Another of Hardy's that reminds me of Dickens, except Dickens would have made it three times as long as it was. I usually don't go in for books that try to be humorous, but I'm not surprised to find that Hardy can do it for me when it comes to comic relief. ( )

A three way love story set during the years of the Napoleonic Wars. Hardy has combined thorough-going research with his gently ironic approach to characters. He writes to arouse our pity, affection and affinity with these fine simple people caught up at the mercy of external events, and with their own human stories of love and survival.
Great absorbing reading.

Hardy once again shows us his talent for evoking imagery and the heartbreak that human biology plays with human emotions. Star-crossed love--the love that the trumpet major has for Anne--is the theme throughout this book. ( )

Continuing my dive into the prose of Hardy, this was a bit of an oddity. Because it takes place in the Napoleonic era, I kept having a Jane Austen type vibe but it was clearly not a comedy of manners. He played a little with that convention (A Misunderstanding, An Overheard Conversation) but it took a number of twists and turns that were much more Hardy. I found myself very frustrated by most of the major characters at one time or another, constantly with the odious creep Festus, but I did get very swept up in it and absolutely did not see things ending the way it did. An interesting read and Hardy continues to surprise me. One thing I did find here was there was a less deft handling of Anne than of some other of his women characters. She didn't come off so well, a bit of a hemmer and hawer, though I did appreciate her defiance of Festus. Just one more in my Hardy collection, though I think I have some short stories left.