The Trumpet-Major (Wordsworth Classics)

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The affection and the sense of personal engagement are in evidence throughout the novel, giving it a distinctive quality. The characters, though engaging enough, are little more than stereotypes, and the story rather loses direction towards the end, but these limitations were perhaps a price that Hardy was willing to pay in the interest of producing a work of an unusual kind, a meditation on the ways in which the past is preserved and transformed in our recollections of it. One of the central themes in the novel is the limited agency afforded to women during this time period. Through the character of Anne Garland, Hardy portrays the struggles faced by women who were expected to conform to societal expectations of femininity. Anne, a young and spirited woman, finds herself torn between her desire for independence and the pressure to conform to traditional gender roles. As the daughter of a miller, she is expected to marry and settle down, but her aspirations for a more fulfilling life clash with these expectations.

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. This novel is based on stories told by his grandmother when he was a child and he fondly remembered her for the storyteller she was. Other sources include that Hardy, as a young man, would visit and spoke to the Chelsea Pensioners about the Peninsular War and the Hundred Days campaign in which Napoleon was utterly defeated by the British army of the Duke of Wellignton at the Battle of Waterloo. The novel is set during a time of great national fervour and patriotism when a French invasion of Britain was anticipated. The novel also highlights as the French could anytime invade Britain, the emotions of the British people who feared an invasion were already cautious mid way through the novel.However, music also becomes a source of tension and conflict within the novel. The arrival of the military band, led by the charismatic John Loveday, introduces a new dynamic to the village. The band’s performances evoke a sense of patriotism and pride, but they also fuel rivalries and romantic entanglements. As the story unfolds, music becomes a symbol of desire and competition, driving a wedge between characters and testing their loyalties. Our heroine, Anne Garland, lives quietly in a rural community deep in the English countryside. However, the arrival of several regiments preparing for an expected invasion brings colour and chaos to the county. A graceful and charming young woman, Anne is pursued by three suitors: John Loveday, the trumpet-major in a British regiment, honest and loyal; his brother Robert, a merchant seaman and womaniser, and Festus Derriman, the cowardly son of the local squire. Set at the time of the Napoleonic wars, this is the author's only historical novel, and unusually for Hardy's books, some of the characters live happily ever after. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Cori Samuel.) Moreover, Hardy’s characters are not mere figments of his imagination; they are individuals deeply rooted in the historical context of the time. The protagonist, Anne Garland, embodies the struggles and aspirations of women during the Napoleonic era, while the Trumpet-Major himself represents the bravery and honor of the British military. By intertwining their personal stories with the larger historical events, Hardy creates a narrative that feels authentic and true to the time period. 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.’

Michael Irwin is right when he says that the Victorian novel reflects the popularity of melodrama in the Nineteenth Centuryv. The Trumpet-Major is full of what Irwin terms as the ‘extremities’ intrinsic to everyday life. Indeed, melodrama is used by Hardy precisely as Irwin suggests that melodrama in novels is: as a contrast to everyday life. Of course, Michael Irwin’s analysis of melodrama in the Nineteenth Century novel is significantly more complex than the simplistic use that I am making of it here for purposes of this brief talk. There are many examples of melodrama – and indeed, farce – in the novel. One example is the section which describes Benjamin’s insistence on Anne Garland coming to see him. When she eventually agrees to do so, he accompanies her down to a dark and dingy cellar to show her where he hides his tin box containing his valuables (chapter 24). Hardy, like all ‘great novelists’, in the words of Michael Irwin, ‘modulate[s] more or less uneasily into melodrama on occasion’.vi Let me try to explain why I include Hardy’s so-called ‘lesser’ novel The Trumpet-Major in this list of readings and re-readings. In 1958 The Musicmakers presented a "new musical in three acts" titled Farewell my Fancy at the Everyman Theatre in Reading. With book, music and lyrics by Michael Wild, the piece was a musical comedy "suggested" by The Trumpet Major and it featured all the major characters of the book. It was given six performances from 24 to 29 November 1958. A note of apology in the programme suggests that it was not authorised by the Hardy Estate. [9] Historical analysis [ edit ] Hardy, The Trumpet Major and the Napoleonic Wars [ edit ]The Trumpet-Major is a novel by 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.