The Fiddler of the Reels is a short story by British writer Thomas Hardy. It was first published in Scribner's Magazine, April 1893. It was included in Life's Little Ironies, a collection of Thomas Hardy's short stories first published in 1894.
In the story, set in South Wessex and London, the interaction of the lives of three people are related, at the time of the Great Exhibition in London, and of the coming of the industrial changes like the railway to Wessex.
Illustrated Map of Hardy's Wessex
While Thomas Hardy was invited to submit something to a special article of Scribner’s Magazine that was published to celebrate the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the story he submitted, “The Fiddler of the Reels,” focuses on several characters whose lives are impacted by the Great Exhibition of 1851.
A romantic yet dramatic story of a woman seduced by the melodies played by the fiddler, which leads to her downfall, and dooms her subsequent marriage to another.
An old man, reminiscing with the narrator about times past, comments on the Great Exhibition of 1851. He says, "For South Wessex, the year formed in many ways an extraordinary chronological frontier.... a sudden bringing of ancient and modern into absolute contact...." The conversation moves to people they knew at that time, particularly of three local people; their story is described.
Vintage illustration of Village Exhibition 1899
Wat Ollamoor, a veterinary doctor living in the village of Mellstock, is a fiddle-player; he is called "Mop" because of his long hair. His appearance and fiddle-playing attracts him to young ladies, in particular to Carline Aspent of the nearby village of Stickleford. Ned Hipcroft is courting Carline. When his proposal of marriage is rejected, Ned, a mechanic, goes to London (in six days' walking; the railway line was being built but was not open) and works there, living in Lambeth. After four years in London he works on the glass-house of the Great Exhibition. He receives a letter from Carline: she says she had been foolish to refuse him, and would gladly marry him. Ned, after a few days' consideration, replies: he is slightly reproachful and does not volunteer to return to Stickleford; agreeing to marry her, he suggests that she comes to London on the train, the railway line being now open.
She arrives, with a girlchild of three; they are wet after the journey in the rain in an open carriage. Ned, initially disappointed and shocked by the unexpected presence of Carline's daughter, agrees. They get married, visiting the Exhibition after they come back from church; their married life is comfortable. After about three years Ned becomes short of work, and they decide to return home. At Casterbridge, where they leave the train, Ned makes inquiries about work in the town while Carline and her daughter Carry walk to Stickleford. They stop for a rest at an inn; there is entertainment and, being recognized, Carline is welcomed. There is dancing, to the music of Ollamoor's fiddle-playing. "The notes of that old violin... thrilled the London wife, these having still all the witchery that she had so well known of yore, and under which she had used to lose her power of independent will."
She takes part in a five-handed reel; she is eventually the only one left dancing, and finally faints. While she is being revived, Ollamoor disappears with the little girl. Ned, having arrived, is angered by Carry's disappearance, being more concerned about her than he is about his wife. Ollamoor and Carry are never seen again, despite Ned's return to London to look for them. It is supposed that Ollamoor and his daughter escaped to America, "Mop, no doubt, finding the girl a highly desirable companion when he had trained her to keep him by her earnings as a dancer."
Painting of German Fiddler - Dirck Hals, c. 1630
Themes
Modernity impacting general lives
“The Fiddler of the Reels,” focuses on several characters whose lives are impacted by the Great Exhibition of 1851. The focus on the two world’s fairs might lead readers to believe that Hardy was an advocate of the kinds of scientific and technological progress that such spectacles tended to celebrate. But the story focuses on much more themes.
Power of more primitive forces on personality
By ending with a character that clearly represents primal forces that are never suppressed, the story demonstrates that the power of the primitive past is never far from the surface and may emerge at any moment to triumph over the representatives of the present.
Representation of women
'She was like another domestic article, a cheap tea-pot, which often brews better tea than a dear one.'
The story though about love and integrity and fidelity, also shows how the society then viewed as marriage the end-all for women.
Modernity impacting general lives
“The Fiddler of the Reels,” focuses on several characters whose lives are impacted by the Great Exhibition of 1851. The focus on the two world’s fairs might lead readers to believe that Hardy was an advocate of the kinds of scientific and technological progress that such spectacles tended to celebrate. But the story focuses on much more themes.
Power of more primitive forces on personality
By ending with a character that clearly represents primal forces that are never suppressed, the story demonstrates that the power of the primitive past is never far from the surface and may emerge at any moment to triumph over the representatives of the present.
Representation of women
'She was like another domestic article, a cheap tea-pot, which often brews better tea than a dear one.'
The story though about love and integrity and fidelity, also shows how the society then viewed as marriage the end-all for women.
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