Reviews
4.5 stars
Ah, what is there to add in honour of this beautiful book? It is very funny, that is the first thought that crossed my mind whilst reading it and I have had it ever since. I didn't expect it to be this witty, semi-sarcastic wealth-centred story, for I never read Trollope before now. This book is primarily about the holy matrimony of wealth and rank/blood and how it can get people to such an extent hypocritical, that they find themselves completely changing their treatment of those whose fortune has been significantly altered for better or for worse. The book is also about love, as the utterly unselfish cause and mender of all the things wrong with the world. The personal traits of Dr Thorne, Marry Thorne, Frank, the squire - have occupied my sincerest admiration at times and their hearts will stay within my memory for good. Anthony Trollope has such a way with sentences; they are witty, long and say much. The characters are so well built, described in such a way as if they were real people (maybe they are!). I must say that, after reading this one, I am completely convinced that, alongside honourable Dickens, Gaskell and Brontës, Anthony Trollope is to be my dearest 'Victorian' author. Now, there are so many books to read, and authors to fall in love with, that I feel it is past the time I shall be making myself a respectful reader of a new book. If you haven't read this, read it. End of discussion quotes: "They managed to pass in the world for beauties till they were absorbed in the matrimonial market, and the world at large cared no longer whether they were beauties or not." "I find that I cannot make poor Mr Gresham hem and haw and turn himself uneasily in his arm-chair in a natural manner till I have said why he is uneasy." "It is so difficult for a young man to enumerate sententiously a principle of morality, or even an expression of ordinary good feeling, without giving himself something of a ridiculous air, without assuming something of a mock grandeur!" "Yes," said Mary, "I know he is rich; and a rich man I suppose can buy anything—except a woman that is worth having." "I'll tell you what, Thorne, when a man has made three hundred thousand pounds, there's nothing left for him but to die. It's all he's good for then. When money's been made, the next thing is to spend it. Now the man who makes it has not the heart to do that." "There was nothing royal about Louis Philippe Scatcherd but his name." "Let it be told with some shame as to the squire's conduct, that his first feeling on hearing this was one of envy—of envy and regret that he could not make the same uncivil request. Not that he wished to turn his wife absolutely out of his house; but he would have been very glad to have had the power of dismissing her summarily from his own room." "You married, sir, before you were one-and-twenty," said Frank. Yes, and repented before I was two-and-twenty. So did not say the squire. "But were she an heiress, the world would forgive her birth on account of her wealth." "The world is very complaisant, sir." "Was it in fact true that she had nothing to give? Her maiden love, her feminine pride, her very life, and spirit, and being—were these things nothing?" [image error]
