The Trumpet-Major
The Trumpet-Major is the seventh published novel by English author Thomas Hardy published in 1880, and his only historical novel. Hardy included it with his "romances and fantasies". It concerns the heroine, Anne Garland, being pursued by three suitors: John Loveday, the eponymous trumpet major in a British regiment, honest and loyal; his brother Bob, a flighty sailor; and Festus Derriman, the cowardly nephew of the local squire. Unusually for a Hardy novel, the ending is not entirely tragic; however, there remains an ominous element in the probable fate of one of the main characters.
The novel is set in Weymouth during the Napoleonic Wars; the town was then anxious about the possibility of invasion by Napoleon. Of the two brothers, John fights with Wellington in the Peninsular War, and Bob serves with Nelson at Trafalgar. The Napoleonic Wars was a setting that Hardy would use again in his play, The Dynasts, and it borrows from the same source material.
Edward Neill has called the novel an attempt to repeat the success of his earlier work Far from the Madding Crowd, after the limited success of his intervening works. The novel originally appeared in 1880 in the Evangelical serial Good Words with 33 illustrations by John Collier. The three-volume first edition was published in October 1880.
Plot
Window overlooking the Down
It's 1804 and England expects an invasion attempt by Napoleon Bonaparte's armies. Near Budmouth Anne Garland lives with her widowed mother in part of a flour mill, next to their landlord and friend miller William Loveday. Thousands of soldiers pitch camp on the downs nearby, ready to meet the invasion. Anne attracts the admiration of two of them, both with local connections: Trumpet Major John Loveday, the decent and thoughtful son of the miller, and Yeomanry officer Festus Derriman, the boastful and aggressive nephew of the skinflint local squire. Anne favours John and loathes Festus, but Festus pesters her, a situation not helped by her mother's desire for her to marry him on account of his rank and wealth. However, when her mother changes her view and favours marriage to John, Anne changes her mind and favours Festus, thinking herself too ‘high’ for a miller's son.Into all this walks Bob Loveday, the miller's younger son, home from a life in the merchant navy. Anne has a secret passion for him, but he has brought home Matilda, a prospective bride whom he met just two weeks earlier in Southampton. John and Matilda recognise each other, and after a private conversation about her past she does a midnight flit. John tells Bob what's happened, and although Bob understands, he can't help resenting John's intervention. Miller Loveday and Mrs Garland marry, John's regiment moves away, and Anne turns her focus to Bob. Anne plays hard to get with Bob, while Festus continues to pester her. She discovers that John sent Matilda away for honourable reasons, and writes him an apologetic letter, which he misinterprets as encouragement. Festus's uncle insists on telling Anne where he's hidden his will and other documents, but she drops the details in a field, where they're found by a mysterious woman.
The Conversation in the Crowd
The invasion beacons are lit, although it's a false alarm. In the chaos Festus almost has Anne at his mercy in an isolated cottage. She escapes and is found by John. He finds Festus and beats him, but drunken Festus thinks he's Bob. John thinks he has a chance with Anne but discovers she's with Bob, so to cover his embarrassment he pretends to be in love with an unnamed actress at the Budmouth theatre. Pressed to show Anne and Bob his sweetheart, John buys them tickets for the play, which is also attended by the King and Queen, who are staying in Budmouth. Matilda appears on stage, and John's shocked expression is mistaken for passion. Festus, lurking as always, encounters Matilda out for a late-night walk. The press gang are in town, and Festus and Matilda tip them off that Bob is an experienced sailor. The press gang come to the mill, but Bob escapes, with help from Matilda, who regrets her earlier action.Bob, however, feels increasing guilty about not serving his country. Discovering that John still loves Anne tips the balance, and Bob persuades local man Captain Hardy to take him on board, thus doing his duty and leaving the way clear for John.
Anne goes to Portland Head to watch the Victory sail past. In Budmouth she sits crying, and is comforted by the King, who is passing by. The Loveday family endure a long wait for news of the Victory, eventually hearing of the Battle of Trafalgar, but not whether Bob has survived. Finally a sailor comes to tell them that Bob is unharmed – but also that he's engaged to a baker's daughter in Portsmouth.
A Delicate Situation
John sees his chance, but Anne rejects him. Meanwhile, Festus discovers that John, not Bob, beat him up, and courts Matilda in the mistaken belief that this will upset John. Over a year or more, Anne begins to warm to John, and he is ecstatic – until a letter comes from Bob, saying he still wants Anne. John tries to be cold towards Anne, but this only makes her warmer towards him, until she virtually proposes to him, just as Bob, newly promoted to Naval Lieutenant, writes to say he's coming home for her. Bob arrives and John withdraws. Anne rejects Bob, but he wears her down with his naval tales and fine uniform. However, when he makes his big move, she rejects him again, and he storms out. Anne is worried that he'll do something stupid, but is distracted by Squire Derriman, who arrives asking her to hide his deeds box, as Festus and his new fiancée Matilda are searching the house for it. She hides it in a window seat.A Call on Business
Bob returns in good temper; he's been drinking with his new best friend, Festus. Anne yields to Bob, saying that if he can behave himself with the ladies for six months she'll be his. Then it turns out that Festus is waiting outside; he comes in, Anne flees, and watching from a hole in the floor of the room above, sees Squire Derriman sneak in and try to retrieve the box. Festus catches him, but Bob intervenes. Derriman snatches the box and disappears, with Festus and Matilda in pursuit. The next morning Squire Derriman is found dead from exhaustion, but the box has disappeared. It's eventually found hidden in Anne's room. Derriman has left all his property to Anne, except for a few small houses which will provide Festus with a living, but not luxury.Festus and Matilda are married, Anne and Bob are to be engaged, and John's regiment is posted away to battle in Spain, where, we are told, he will die.
Themes
Hardy, who distrusted empiricism when it come to novels and history, as he felt it marginalized many important aspects of human elements. The Trumpet-Major tells the tale of a woman, who is courted by three men during the early 19th century in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, during the backdrop of an much anticipated and amphibious landing of Napoleon's army on the British isles. In this setting, in which he explores the subversive effects and nature of ordinary human beings such when desire and conflicting loyalties on the systemized versions of history. As Hardy's only novel of historical fiction, it makes stand out among some of Hardy's more moral works.Like some of Hardy's other famous and popular novels such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and The Mayor of Casterbridge such often implore and deal with deep concepts such as disappointment in love and the "perversity of life", but The Trumpet-Major also deal with these very themes present in many novels and poems which are often laid with a carefully controlled elegiac feeling and much irony in them that make them stand out among the Victorian classical works of literature.
Operatic version
Thomas Hardy's novel provided the source of Alun Hoddinott's opera The Trumpet Major, with libretto by Myfanwy Piper, first performed in Manchester on 1 April 1981.Adaptations
Stage and Theatre
In 1908, the original Hardy Players put on a dramatised version of The Trumpet-Major at the Corn Exchange in Dorchester. Hardy was very involved with the play, working closely with its producer, Alfred Evans, whose daughter Evelyn later recounted that the two had many discussions in the study at Max Gate ‘deciding on the outline of the play, writing additional dialogue’ and discussing whether particular scenes should be retained or left out.There were departures from the novel: while the novel ends of a tragic note, with John Loveday going off to his death on the battlefields of Spain, as Evelyn Evans writes: ‘the curtain of the re-written play fell on laughter, song and dancing.’
Hardy attended some rehearsals at the Corn Exchange, remarking on the fact that many of the performers were direct descendants of Dorset inhabitants who had lived through those turbulent times. Indeed, the production was thoroughly Dorchester-based: ‘the scenery painted from designs by local artists; the uniforms made by a local tailor after originals that had been worn by the Dorset Rangers’ and other local militia groups. Music was composed by a local musician, Frederick Boynton Smith.
Unfortunately, Hardy, who was now 68 years old, couldn't attend the play as he was suffering from a chill, but Emma Hardy was there. He was, however, delighted by its reception.
The production caused quite a stir. As the Dorset County Chronicle reported: ‘there were to be observed in the front seats a posse of leading dramatic critics who had come down from London especially’, writing ‘critiques, to be wired to Town piping hot from their busily plying pencils.’ The Times devoted nearly a column to its review of the play and a leading article two days later: extraordinary exposure for an amateur company in a small county town, but clear evidence of Hardy's status as an author of international standing. The reviews were so numerous that the company produced a souvenir programme containing extracts of them all. It runs to thousands of words: ten pages, double-columned and in very small print.
As Captain Acland, curator of the Dorset County Museum wrote to Evans after watching the play: ‘thanks, not only for the genuine treat it was to us all, but because you and your talented company have proved afresh to the world what Dorchester folk can do.’
In 1910, the play was revived at the Weymouth Pavilion, and Hardy was able to attend, travelling there by train with Albert Evans and his family. He wrote personal congratulations afterwards to Mr Bawler and Mayor of Dorchester Mr Tilley on playing their roles so realistically.
The play was again revived in 1912, for a performance at the Cripplegate Institute in London, which came with a very fine programme, including photos of the principal actors, engravings of Hardy's birthplace and ‘Casterbridge from Ten Hatches’ and the songs from the play, written by Hardy and with music by Harry Pouncy and Boyton Smith.