it was necessary for him to live in, or near, London. For this reason, on 22 March of that year the couple relocated to the capital. On 4 November The Return of the Native was published by Smith, Elder & Co.
6
A Plethora of Novels
The Trumpet Major : Illness: Wimborne
Now lodging with Emma in Upper Tooting, London, Hardy immersed himself once more in the life and culture of the capital. He was elected to the Rabelais Club (which held literary dinners every two months), and also to the exclusive Savile Club for gentlemen. Time was spent at the Grosvenor Gallery studying and admiring sculptures and paintings. He also witnessed the final performance of actor Henry Irving, in a scene from Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Lyceum Theatre. Hardy’s love of the theatre may have had its origins in the strolling players whom he saw in and around Dorchester when he was a boy.
Needless to say, Hardy kept in touch with his native Dorset, where, in August and September of 1878, he renewed his acquaintance with poet William Barnes, and with Charles W. Moule, brother of the late Horace.
In August 1879 Hardy and Emma visited Hardy’s parents at Bockhampton. They also stayed for a time in Weymouth, where Hardy’s mother visited them and accompanied them on a drive to Portland.
Hardy was now moving in the upper echelons of London society, where among the people he met were Sir Percy Shelley, son of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; poet, educationalist and writer Matthew Arnold; poet Robert Browning; Poet Laureate Lord Tennyson (who said that of Hardy’s novels he liked A Pair of Blue Eyes best); novelist and cartoonist George du Maurier; and painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. He also attended the Epsom races for Derby Day.
Ever since his boyhood, when he had discovered a magazine on the subject at his home in Bockhampton, Hardy had been fascinated by the Napoleonic Wars. He would also have been aware that his grandfather, Thomas I, as a volunteer militiaman, had travelled with his regiment to Weymouth to prepare for the threatened invasion by Emperor Napoleon I of France.
Four years previously, in June 1875 (the 18th of that month being Waterloo Day, commemorating the Duke of Wellington’s victory in 1815 over Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo), Hardy and Emma had visited Chelsea Hospital and heard real-life accounts of the battle – from men who had fought in it. On another excursion to the Continent with Emma, in 1876, he had visited Waterloo and explored the battlefield. And, of course, nearer to home, he would often have seen the local ‘redcoats’ – based at their barracks in Dorchester – exercising their horses on the downs.
Hardy availed himself of any opportunity to immerse himself in matters Napoleonic, as when he attended the funeral of the exiled Prince Louis Napoleon (only son of Emperor Napoleon III), who had been killed, paradoxically, while fighting for Britain in the Zulu War. The prince’s body was duly brought back to England for burial at Chislehurst in Kent. It therefore seemed inevitable that Hardy would write a novel set during this period of history, and with this in mind he visited the British Museum and also read C. H. Gifford’s History of the Napoleonic Wars in order to acquaint himself with the full facts. Relevant information was also to be found in parish records and from inscriptions on local tombstones.
The Trumpet Major is set in those anxious times when an invasion of England by the forces of Napoleon seemed imminent. The story is about two brothers: John Loveday (the Trumpet Major) and Robert, a sailor. Sons of the miller, the brothers are rivals for the hand of village beauty Anne Garland. Anne vacillates as to which one she really loves, and finally, it is the less deserving Robert whom she chooses. Meanwhile, John, reliable and self-sacrificing, sails under Admiral Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy (Thomas Hardy’s alleged ancestor) in the warship Victory , only to meet his death in Spain
6
A Plethora of Novels
The Trumpet Major : Illness: Wimborne
Now lodging with Emma in Upper Tooting, London, Hardy immersed himself once more in the life and culture of the capital. He was elected to the Rabelais Club (which held literary dinners every two months), and also to the exclusive Savile Club for gentlemen. Time was spent at the Grosvenor Gallery studying and admiring sculptures and paintings. He also witnessed the final performance of actor Henry Irving, in a scene from Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Lyceum Theatre. Hardy’s love of the theatre may have had its origins in the strolling players whom he saw in and around Dorchester when he was a boy.
Needless to say, Hardy kept in touch with his native Dorset, where, in August and September of 1878, he renewed his acquaintance with poet William Barnes, and with Charles W. Moule, brother of the late Horace.
In August 1879 Hardy and Emma visited Hardy’s parents at Bockhampton. They also stayed for a time in Weymouth, where Hardy’s mother visited them and accompanied them on a drive to Portland.
Hardy was now moving in the upper echelons of London society, where among the people he met were Sir Percy Shelley, son of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; poet, educationalist and writer Matthew Arnold; poet Robert Browning; Poet Laureate Lord Tennyson (who said that of Hardy’s novels he liked A Pair of Blue Eyes best); novelist and cartoonist George du Maurier; and painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. He also attended the Epsom races for Derby Day.
Ever since his boyhood, when he had discovered a magazine on the subject at his home in Bockhampton, Hardy had been fascinated by the Napoleonic Wars. He would also have been aware that his grandfather, Thomas I, as a volunteer militiaman, had travelled with his regiment to Weymouth to prepare for the threatened invasion by Emperor Napoleon I of France.
Four years previously, in June 1875 (the 18th of that month being Waterloo Day, commemorating the Duke of Wellington’s victory in 1815 over Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo), Hardy and Emma had visited Chelsea Hospital and heard real-life accounts of the battle – from men who had fought in it. On another excursion to the Continent with Emma, in 1876, he had visited Waterloo and explored the battlefield. And, of course, nearer to home, he would often have seen the local ‘redcoats’ – based at their barracks in Dorchester – exercising their horses on the downs.
Hardy availed himself of any opportunity to immerse himself in matters Napoleonic, as when he attended the funeral of the exiled Prince Louis Napoleon (only son of Emperor Napoleon III), who had been killed, paradoxically, while fighting for Britain in the Zulu War. The prince’s body was duly brought back to England for burial at Chislehurst in Kent. It therefore seemed inevitable that Hardy would write a novel set during this period of history, and with this in mind he visited the British Museum and also read C. H. Gifford’s History of the Napoleonic Wars in order to acquaint himself with the full facts. Relevant information was also to be found in parish records and from inscriptions on local tombstones.
The Trumpet Major is set in those anxious times when an invasion of England by the forces of Napoleon seemed imminent. The story is about two brothers: John Loveday (the Trumpet Major) and Robert, a sailor. Sons of the miller, the brothers are rivals for the hand of village beauty Anne Garland. Anne vacillates as to which one she really loves, and finally, it is the less deserving Robert whom she chooses. Meanwhile, John, reliable and self-sacrificing, sails under Admiral Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy (Thomas Hardy’s alleged ancestor) in the warship Victory , only to meet his death in Spain
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