John Caldigate by Anthony Trollope (1879)

I enjoyed reading this late Trollope novel.  Excellent, complex characters and a very engaging and suspenseful plot.

[image error]John Caldigate graduates from Cambridge and being estranged from both his father and his family's estate, decides to cash out his inheritance and use his fortune to mine for gold in Australia.  On the two-month-long sea voyage there he meets a charming beautiful woman named Mrs. Smith.  She captivates John with her intelligence and he falls in love with her, despite the warnings of fellow passengers and even the ship's captain, who are all sure she is an untrustworthy adventuress.  Once in Australia they live together as man and wife, although do not officially marry.  But her lust for gold (and brandy) ends their affair, and John returns to England with an even larger fortune.  He reconciles with his father and reclaims his inheritance and marries Harriet Bolton, a young woman he has loved ever since first seeing her before he left England when she was only 16.

But no sooner are they wed and the parents of a baby boy then Mrs. Smith returns to England, claiming that John married her in Australia and that she is the only legitimate Mrs. Caldigate.  The remainder of the book involves the trial for bigamy and the prolonged and difficult restitution of John's good name.  The resolution of John's calamity gets a bit bogged down with details pertaining to judicial bureaucracy, religion, and postage stamps, but this is an excellent Trollope.