The Four Feathers 538998 221344688 2008-06-24T03:05:27Z Auror 1428257 revert POV {{Infobox Book | name = The Four Feathers | title_orig = | translator = | image = | image_caption = | author = [[A.E.W. Mason]] | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = | language = [[English language|English]] | series = | subject = | genre = | publisher = [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] | release_date = 1902 | english_release_date = | media_type = Print | pages = | isbn = NA | oclc = 848975 | preceded_by = | followed_by = }} '''''The Four Feathers''''' is a [[1902]] [[adventure novel]] by [[United Kingdom|British]] writer [[A.E.W. Mason]] that has inspired many films of the same title. ==Plot summary== The novel tells the story of [[United Kingdom|British]] officer, Harry Feversham, who resigns his [[Officer (armed forces)|commission]] from his regiment just prior to [[Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley|Sir Garnet Wolseley's]] [[1882]] expedition to [[Egypt]] to suppress the rising of [[Ahmed 'Urabi|Urabi Pasha]]. He does this for his own personal reasons, rather than cowardice. However, he is faced with censure from three of his comrades for cowardice, signified by the delivery of three white feathers to him, from [[Captain]] Trench and [[Lieutenants]] Castleton and Willoughby, and the loss of the support of his fiancée, Ethne Eustace, who presents him with the fourth feather. His best friend in the regiment, Captain Durrance, becomes his rival for Ethne. Talking with Lieutenant Sutch, a friend of his father, an imposing retired general, Feversham questions his own true motives, and resolves to redeem himself by whatever means necessary, travelling on his own to Egypt and [[Sudan]], where in 1882 [[Muhammad Ahmed]] proclaimed himself the [[Mahdi]] (Guided One) and raised a [[Holy War]]. On January 26, [[1885]], his forces, at the time called [[Dervishes]], captured [[Khartoum]] and killed its British governor, General [[Charles George Gordon]]. It is mainly in the eastern Sudan, where the British and Egyptians held [[Suakin]] that the action takes place over the next six years. Durrance is blinded by sunstroke and invalided home. Castleton is reported killed at [[Tamai]] where a British [[Infantry square|square]] is briefly broken. Feversham's first success is with Willoughby, by recovering lost letters of Gordon. He is aided by a Sudanese [[Arab]], Abou Fatma. Later, disguised as a mad Greek musician, Feversham gets imprisoned in [[Omdurman]], where he rescues now [[Colonel]] Trench, who had been captured on a reconnaissance mission, and they escape. Returned to England, Feversham has his honour restored and the feathers returned. Trench admits he instigated the feathers. Durrance yields Ethne, and travels to Germany to seek a cure for his blindness. Ethne and Feversham wed. The story is rich in characters and sub-plots,which the filmed versions perforce trim, along with making major changes in the story line, with the best known 1939 version centered on the [[1898]] campaign and [[battle of Omdurman]], only hinted as a future event in the novel. ==Film, TV, and theatrical adaptations== This novel's story has been filmed several times with all films retaining much of the same storyline (i.e. young Feversham disgracing himself by quitting the army followed by his redemption of manhood by various deeds in the Sudan).The enemy forces, Islamic rebels called Dervishes, of [[Muhammad Ahmad|The Mahdi]], are the same, as are the geographic settings, [[England]], [[Egypt]] and the [[Sudan]]). The films also feature a British square broken, only mentioned in the novel in a battle in which the square recovered. The various film versions differ in the ''precise'' historical context. For example, the celebrated 1939 cinematic version, produced by [[Alexander Korda]] and [[Ralph Richardson]] its chief star, takes place during the 1898 campaign, with its climax the [[Battle of Omdurman]] when British soldiers wore khaki uniforms. The more recent 2002 version with [[Heath Ledger]] takes place during the 1884-1885 campaign, when some British still wore red coats and when some of the novel's action occurs, and features the [[Battle of Abu Klea]], January 17, 1885, fought by the Desert Column that included the [[Camel Corps]] dressed in gray jackets and khaki trousers, but not in red coats. While the square was briefly broken, unlike the movie version, the British won the battle, but their advance was delayed. The battle is more accurately treated in the movie "Khartoum" (1966). In the 1929 silent version of "Four Feathers", a square of [[Highlanders]] is broken, but saved by Feversham and the Egyptian garrison of a besieged fort. Set in the 1880s, its great moment comes when wild hippos in a river attack the Dervishes pursuing Feversham. The many versions also differ in the racial ethnicity of the local Sudanese guide, Abou Fatma, who assists young Feversham in his desert adventure. For instance, this local guide is an [[Arab]] man in the 1977 version while he is a [[negroid|Black]] man in the 2002 version. The various film versions are as follows: {| class="wikitable" ! Year !! Title !! Country !! style="width: 140px" | Director !! Notes |- | 1915 || [[Four Feathers (1915 film)|''Four Feathers'']] || align=center | {{flagicon|USA}} || [[J. Searle Dawley]] || Black-and-white, silent |- | 1921 || [[The Four Feathers (1921 film)|''The Four Feathers'']] || align=center | {{flagicon|UK}} || [[René Plaissetty]] || [[Roger Livesey]] appeared in a minor role. Black-and-white, silent. |- | 1929 || [[The Four Feathers (1929 film)|''The Four Feathers'']] || align=center | {{flagicon|USA}} || [[Merian C. Cooper]], [[Lothar Mendes]],<br>[[Ernest B. Schoedsack]] || [[Richard Arlen]], [[Fay Wray]], [[Clive Brook]]. |- | 1939 || [[The Four Feathers (1939 film)|''The Four Feathers'']] || align=center | {{flagicon|UK}} || [[Zoltan Korda]] || Starring [[Ralph Richardson]], [[John Clements]], [[C. Aubrey Smith]], [[June Duprez]]. Considered by many to have been the best of the film versions, this was lavishly filmed in colour on many of the real African locations. |- | 1955 || ''[[Storm Over the Nile]]'' || align=center | {{flagicon|UK}} || [[Terence Young]], [[Zoltan Korda]] || Starring [[Anthony Steel]], [[James Robertson Justice]], [[Ian Carmichael]], [[Ronald Lewis]], [[Michael Hordern]]. A low-budget color remake, using much of the location footage shot for the 1939 version of ''The Four Feathers'', and exactly the same script - one of the few instances in which this was done. |- | 1977 || [[The Four Feathers (1977 film)|''The Four Feathers'']] || align=center | {{flagicon|UK}} || [[Don Sharp]] || Starring [[Robert Powell]], [[Simon Ward]], [[Beau Bridges]], and [[Jane Seymour (actress)|Jane Seymour]]. Completely remade for a new generation (though several scenes have been inserted from the 1939 version (e.g. the troops boarding the train in London, a panorama featuring dhows on the Nile, the British army on parade) with a great deal of skill so that the lifting of these excerpts is far from obvious to those who have not seen the 1939 version), the classic tale retains its imperial stiff upper lip and ''Boys Own'' style of adventure heroics. |- | 2002 || [[The Four Feathers (2002 film)|''The Four Feathers'']] || align=center | {{flagicon|USA}} || [[Shekhar Kapur]] || Starring [[Heath Ledger]], [[Wes Bentley]], and [[Kate Hudson]]. Made by an [[India]]n director, this version takes a somewhat [[Fictional revisionism|revisionist]] stance on the original novel's themes of masculinity, empire and the clash of Western and Islamic civilisations. Unlike previous versions, this version centres its big battle scene on the 1885 [[Battle of Abu Klea]] (thirteen years before [[Battle of Omdurman|Omdurman]]), when British soldiers were still wearing red uniforms in the desert (although actually they already wore khaki) and the famous British square formation was supposedly broken for the first time. Oddly, in this film the British lose the [[battle of Abu Klea]] while in reality they won. |} ==External links== {{wikisourcepar|The Four Feathers}} *[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18883 Gutenberg text of The Four Feathers] *{{imdb title|id=0005353|title=Four Feathers (1915)}} *{{imdb title|id=0012189|title=The Four Feathers (1921)}} *{{imdb title|id=0018908|title=The Four Feathers (1929)}} *{{imdb title|id=0048662|title=Storm Over the Nile (1955)}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Four Feathers, The}} [[Category:1902 novels]] [[Category:British novels]] [[Category:Adventure novels]] [[Category:War novels]] [[Category:Adventure films]] [[Category:Drama films]] [[Category:British Empire war films]] [[Category:Films based on military fiction]] [[de:Die vier Federn]]