Although works by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch faded from the public’s favor soon after his death in 1944, they had been extremely popular in the author’s day. When his publishers Messrs J. M. Dent chose to mark the centenary of “Q,” they did so by reissuing his 1888 novel, The Astonishing History of Troy Town. Q. referred to the novel in a preface to a later edition as “this indiscretion of my youth,” then explained his total devotion to Fowey in Cornwall, the model for Troy, the town he “pokes fun at” in the book.
While the book was not Q’s favorite, its humorous tone, imaginative scenes, and what Professor Basil Willey describes fondly as an “irresponsible story,” seemed to fit the celebratory occasion designed by the publishers. Its protagonist, Mr. Fogo, offered some gravity to the plot, mainly through a tongue-in-cheek irony, but it is his attendant, the boatman Caleb Trotter, for whom the novel is known. His misuse of language in the tradition of Richard Sheridan’s celebrated character Mrs. Malaprop and rustic temperament celebrate an Arcadian innocence that Q’s contemporaries found endearing. Although not representative of the larger body of Quiller-Couch’s more seriously toned work, it well captures his fondness for place and for country life.
The cast populating Troy includes the blustery Admiral Buzza and his wife, Emily; Miss Priscilla Limpenny; the portly antique vicar; blind Sam Hockin and his Mrs.; Bathsheba Merryfield; the wooden-legged Cobbledick; Mr. Moggridge; the poet, Caleb Trotter; the twins Peter and Paul Dearlove; and their sister Tamsin, who live upriver from Troy, where they operate an inn called Kit’s House.
Into this mix wanders Mr. Philip Fogo, a man seeking peace and quiet in Troy, who is bewildered to be met by a marching band playing “The Conquering Hero.” The town will not listen to his protests until finally he is allowed to explain to the insulted admiral that they must have made a mistake in their welcome. When the admiral discovers he is not the Honourable Frederic Goodwyn-Sandys who is arriving to inhabit the villa known as “The Bower,” he must suffer the townspeople’s laughter as the crowd “cast its April folly, as a garment, upon the Admiral’s shoulders.”
When the celebrated Goodwyn-Sandys does arrive, he is accompanied by his beautiful young temptress wife, Gertrude, and the foolish intrigue begins. The town members rush to supply the Goodwyn-Sandys with everything needed, even though they never pay their bills. They eventually discover what readers have already learned, that the refined couple are actually revolutionaries who use Troy as a place to store dynamite. They plan to use the explosives to blow up St. Paul’s in London, a scheme the good folk of Troy do not discover for some time.
Gertrude even convinces Moggridge and Sam to unwittingly aid in the plan by unloading the dynamite, stored in tea canisters, from Sam’s schooner. The alluring Gertrude tempts each by confessing she hates her husband, promising to marry them. Fogo becomes the hero the town had sought in Goodwyn-Sandys, although his heroism is accidental. While seeking to sample the tea, he creates an explosion that destroys a good deal of the dynamite on the schooner. This causes him to lapse into a fever through which the good Tamsin nurses him, and they fall in love and marry.
With the truth about Mr. and Mrs. Goodwyn-Sandys revealed, the townspeople rush The Bower to recover all the goods and furnishings they had “sold” their distinguished visitors, both of whom disappeared, never to be found. Lest the story grow too serious on Fogo’s account, it concludes with his most ungraceful toss by the twins into a train car filled with clay on his wedding day, when he almost misses the train where Tamsin awaits him.
Bibliography
Willey, Basil. Introduction to The Astonishing History of Troy Town, by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. London: Dent, 1963, v–xi.