Mr. Scarborough's Family

by Anthony Trollope

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Genres: Classics, Fiction, Victorian, English Literature, British Literature, Literature, Ebooks

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1883

About the author

Anthony Trollope became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works, known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire; he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.

Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
One of Trollope’s very last novels and this still has many of the elements of the usual Trollope recipe. The usual convoluted plot, chapters to introduce the major characters, ends well tied at the conclusion, strong female characters, male characters who are generally weak, bad or bumbling and a strong cast of supporting characters.
The plot revolves around Mr Scarborough and his two sons. The older son, Mountjoy is an inveterate gambler who owes a great deal of money. The younger son, Augustus is a lawyer. Old Mr Scarborough has a terminal illness and will not be around long and when he dies the rather grand estate will go to the moneylenders. Scarborough announces to his lawyer Mr Grey that he and his late wife were unmarried when Mountjoy was born and produces paperwork to that effect. This means that Augustus will inherit everything and the moneylenders will get nothing. This plot and it’s working out meanders through the whole book and has a King Learish feel about it.
The inevitable romantic turmoil revolves around Florence Mountjoy, cousin to the two Scarborough brothers. She has the misfortune to be fallen in love with by almost every single male in the book, most of whom seem reluctant to take no for an answer. Her decision is in favour of Harry Annesley, much to the horror of her mother and for reasons that would probably take the length of the book to explain. Annesley is heir to his uncle’s minor estate. It must be said that even though he is meant to be the most positive male character and is portrayed as rather likeable, he is completely useless when it comes to making a living.
There are several groups of minor characters. The lawyer Mr Grey and his daughter Dolly (one of the strongest and most likeable female characters) and their extended family. The Annesley family and their uncle Peter Prosper whose run ins with Harry provide another plot line. The Thoroughbung family also provide interest and some comical moments. Another group are the moneylenders and this is problematic as Trollope portrays them as being Jewish and there is a good deal of caricature here.
This is a later novel and the role of women was beginning to change and this is reflected in the female characters. Matilda Thoroughbung is very clearly demanding a pre-nuptial type agreement relating to what she expected from the marriage and how she is to retain her own money. Dolly Grey is very clear in deciding to remain unmarried, especially as she says she has met no man who she respects enough to marry; making a clear and positive choice for solitude and independence. At this time women’s property rights were being improved and the New Woman movement was gathering momentum.
Not one of Trollope’s best and the caricature of Jewish moneylenders is unpleasant, but there are interesting moments and strong characters.

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe 4.5 - excellent novel, but there are even stronger Trollope novels out there.

[Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my 21st Trollope and he continues to delight me. To quote Nathaniel Hawthorne:

"Have you ever read the novels of Anthony Trollope? They precisely suit my taste; solid, substantial, written on strength of beef and through inspiration of ale, and just as real as if some giant had hewn a great lump out of the earth and put it under a glass case, with all its inhabitants going about their daily business, and not suspecting that they were made a show of."

This is one of Trollope's great comic novels with a scoundrel title character that you can't help but admire. The usual gallery of Trollope types show up as well: the handsome, deserving young man, the stalwart Victorian maiden he loves, a wastrel sons, etc.

There is even a miniature version of my beloved Miss Dunstable who in this book appears as a prospective bride who is not quite the pushover the man proposing to her first thinks.

There is social criticism of lawyers and the leisure class as well

A delightful read

[Duffy Pratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even middling Trollope is still very good. This book has many of Trollope's staples: a weak hero, a heroine who is simply too perfect, a disapproving parent who tries to shut away the girl from her lover, some fox hunting, and the most genial narrator in all of literature.

The central plot involves the law of entail. An entailed property is one that must go to the eldest surviving member of the family, almost always male. Thus, the holder of the property only has the use of it and its income during his lifetime. He can't get rid of the land, nor can he decide to leave it to whomever he chooses.

Mr. Scarborough hates this law, and pretty much hates the law in general. As the book opens, he is a dying man. His eldest son is a compulsive gambler. Even though the property is worth 20,000 pounds per year (an enormous sum), the son has managed to incur debts that will wipe the whole thing out. The debts are secured by "post-obit" bonds, which will allow the creditors to swoop in on the estate after Mr. Scarborough dies.

Rather than let this happen, Mr. Scarborough calls his attorney and gives him proof that he married after the birth of his eldest son. Thus, his eldest is illegitimate, and his second son becomes the heir. The creditors lose everything they lent. The only trouble with this plan is that the second son is about the coldest and most manipulative character you might ever encounter. His dearest wish is that his father now simply finish the whole business by dying.

It's fun to read about this totally dysfunctional family. The father seems to be very clever. Both of the sons think of themselves as being sharp, but they turn out to be quite stupid. The eldest loses his money again and again at cards, and never begins to realize that there might be some skill involved. The younger son is a barrister, but he makes a perfectly boneheaded decision in the middle of the book that allows a complete reversal of his fortunes. This latter mistake almost ruined the book for me, because I thought it went against his character. I still haven't decided whether the son was really an idiot, whether Trollope got his law wrong, or whether there is a fine detail that I am not getting and that Trollope did not explain.

Apart from this main story, there is the story of the hero and heroine. The hero also expects to inherit an entailed property. He doesn't seem to do anything at all with his life, has very little going from him, and seems to have no friends. The girl he loves has been intended for the eldest son forever, even though she wants no part of him, and prefers the hero. The mother disapproves. There are the usual complications and the usual resolutions. The neat thing about the side story is that the hero's expectations to inherit the entailed property might also be disturbed. His uncle, the current head of the family, comes to disapprove of our hero and endeavors to disinherit him by perhaps taking a bride. The uncle is an insufferable prig, and quite funny. But Trollope also manages to generate some sympathy for this man who at first seems totally unsympathetic.

In the end, the biggest strength of this book is Mr. Scarborough himself, and perhaps his attorney, Mr. Grey. Both are fascinating and unusual characters. It's not first rate Trollope, but its still lots of fun.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do so love reading Anthony Trollope. There is something about his prose that strikes my reading ear just perfectly. The cadence is suits me. There are other authors of course who also suit me though they might be quite different, but when I read even the opening sentences of a Trollope novel, any tension between my shoulders just vanishes.

Unfortunately, Trollope's prose is the best of this one. I also thought the plot pretty good. And though good prose is one of the elements that is essential for my enjoyment, plot is perhaps the least important. And even with a decent plot, I thought Trollope had less to say than he took up pages to say it. Lastly, his characterization wasn't up to what he has shown in the past. There was just something missing all around.

This novel was completed before he died, but not published until after his death. From the above, I decided he was just tired and feeling his age. Not that I think Trollope ever got old - I am older today than Trollope was when he died. I know I have slowed and I suspect Trollope was no longer at the top of his game in many ways. I so hoped for at least 4 stars, but this one slips below the line between 3- and 4-stars.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine a kind of King Lear story in which the main difference is that the King is, far from being an innocent, more devious than the most devious of lawyers. Instead of seeing which of his two sons (Mountjoy and Augustus) loves him best, he plays games, making his eldest out to have been a bastard and leaving his estate (via the terms of an entail) to the youngest; and, when discovering that his younger son was too presumptuous, coming forth with ironclad evidence to prove that the other was the firstborn after all, and by the terms of the entail, deserving of all the estate. By the end of this long novel, we have seen Mr. Scarborough through many lights, but in the end in a more sympathetic one:

But I think that he has within him a capacity for love, and an unselfishness, which almost atones for his dishonesty; and there is about him a strange dislike to conventionality and to law which is so interesting as to make up the balance. I have always regarded your father as a most excellent man, but thoroughly dishonest. He would rob any one,—but always to eke out his own gifts to other people. He has, therefore, to my eyes been most romantic.

As the story progresses from one surprise to another, we get some of that rich texture that is a trait of Trollope's longer fiction:

Mr. Scarborough's whole life had been passed in arranging tricks for the defeat of the law; and it had been his great glory so to arrange them as to make it impossible that the law should touch him. Mountjoy [the eldest son] had declared that he had been defrauded. The creditors swore, with many oaths, that they had been horribly cheated by this man. Augustus [the younger son], no doubt, would so swear very loudly. No man could swear more loudly than did Mr. Grey [the astonished family lawyer] as he left the squire's chamber after this last revelation. But there was no one who could punish him. The money-lenders had no writing under his hand. Had Mountjoy been born without a marriage-ceremony it would have been very wicked, but the vengeance of the law would not have reached him. If you deceive your attorney with false facts he cannot bring you before the magistrates. Augustus had been the most injured of all; but a son, though he may bring an action against his father for bigamy, cannot summon him before any tribunal because he has married his mother twice over. These were Mr. Scarborough's death-bed triumphs; but they were very sore upon Mr. Grey.

There are, in addition, a couple of subplots, one of them hinging on the love of Harry Annesley for Florence Mountjoy, the niece of Mountjoy Scarborough. Another is Harry's rather dim uncle, Peter Prosper, who, to spite Harry, his heir, plans to marry another woman in his old age and beget substitute heirs.

There is also a bit of anti-Semitism in the portrayal of several Jewish moneylenders who are tricked by Mr. Scarborough into signing away their claims on the extensive gambling debts of Mountjoy Scarborough. I would be more offended if this novel were written more recently -- but I cannot expect that 19th century authors adhere to present-day racial and political sensibilities. Hence we have Dickens's Fagan in Oliver Twist and George Eliot's Daniel Deronda.

In the end, Mr. Scarborough's Family is one of Anthony Trollope's best novels outside the Barchester and Pallister series, along with Is He Popenjoy?, Miss Mackenzie, The Vicar of Bullhampton, and The Way We Live Now. As such, it would make a good first novel for someone who is trying to determine whether Trollope is worth reading.

Of course, I can answer that in the positive: He is eminently worth reading. I have read most of his works and continue to be amazed by the excellence of his 47 novels (somewhat less so in his short stories and nonfiction).

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Trollope’s later novels, if not his last major work, Mr. Scarborough’s Family is a cynical tale of one man cheating the system and as such has a gleeful appeal. The titular character is dying and the law of entail says that when he does, his entire estate will go to his eldest son, an inveterate gambler who has borrowed so much money from Jewish moneylenders that when he does inherit, the estate will be virtually eradicated by their claims. The plot revolves around the means Mr. Scarborough uses to cheat this outcome and they are convoluted and confounding.

At the same time we have Harry Annesley, a young man who is the heir to his Uncle’s Prosper’s estate and in love with Florence Mountjoy, Mr. Scarborough’s niece. Harry himself is a bit of a bland hero but the events that occur around the possible loss of his own inheritance lead to some wonderful scenes involving his uncle while poor Florence is continually approached by one unwanted suitor after another yet manages to get what she wants in the end.

Of course there is wonderful characterization, particularly in Mr. Scarborough, the mournful and disreputable Mountjoy, and in Dolly Grey, the daughter of the put upon lawyer Mr. Grey who has struggles with his own extended family. There is also the usual Trollope humor and cynicism, although you will cringe at the portraits of Jewish moneylenders and Trollope’s consummate story telling skill is evident. The novel isn’t perhaps quite as tied up as satisfactorily as the other novels I’ve read of his but it’s a small point. His books are always a comfort and a joy (except when they’re not – Nina Balatka, I’m looking at you) and thankfully he wrote forty-five of them so there’s no chance of running out of material any time soon!

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Trollope's second-to-last novel and it was published in serial form in the months before and after his death. I find that fascinating because it means that he was working on the novel in 1882, which is of course later in the Victorian period and quite a lot later than many of his most well known works. Even so, this is very much a Trollope novel in its themes and characters, though the plot has more of a sensation/mystery feel to it at times. For example, I could see certain shared themes with Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

The main character--John Scarborough--is a schemer who hates the British law of entail and is willing to endure scandal to get his way in dividing his own (very lucrative) property between his two sons, Mountjoy and Augustus. This felt like a prodigal son story turned on its head, though Mountjoy and Augustus each take on elements of the Prodigal Son and the Elder Son at different moments in the story. This core father/sons relationship also reminded me of Isaac/Rebekah and how their sons Esau and Jacob were turned against each other. John Scarborough messes with his sons' birthrights and this creates a lot of drama in the story. I was confused about this at times because it is very dependent on British law at the time. There were also gambling debts involved with extortionate interest and that was also challenging to grasp for a 21st century reader. But I could get enough of it to catch the importance to the novel's plot.

The other main plotline involves the Scarboroughs' cousin Florence Mountjoy, her preferred suitor Harry Annesley, and Harry's family. I enjoyed this plotline immensely. Florence is absolutely committed to marrying Harry even though her whole family opposes her and throws at least three other suitors in her way. For part of the book, Florence and her mother are in Brussels with family members, and I enjoyed the dynamics of that foreign post.

Harry's family includes his rector father, his mother, and his numerous younger siblings. The only sibling who is really important to the plot is Molly, who is engaged to a local brewer, Joe Thoroughbung (yes, really). The Annesley family is so much fun. They love a good laugh, and I enjoyed Molly and Joe's characters immensely. Joe is a well-to-do brewer, not a 'gentleman' like Harry, but a thoroughly good fellow and rides to hounds to boot! I always enjoy when Trollope brings in this merchant/working class and gives them lots of personality.

Harry's uncle on his mother's side is Peter Prosper, the squire of Buston, who is in his 50s and a bachelor. Harry is Mr. Prosper's heir and has been receiving an allowance since he left Oxford (or was it Cambridge?). When Mr. Prosper hears that Harry has behaved badly towards Mountjoy Scarborough over a girl, he schemes to cut Harry out as heir by proposing to Joe's aunt, Matilda Thoroughbung. These scenes are HILARIOUS. Mr. Prosper is so much like a Mr. Collins. He's an absolute scream! Seriously, one of the fussiest, awkwardest characters. There are definite parallels between John Scarborough and Peter Prosper when it comes to their scheming about the up-and-coming generation, but one is wily as the devil and the other as innocent (and dim-witted) as a lamb.

Trollope has LOTS of characters who are spendthrifts; he has lots of characters who gamble. But this is the first Trollope novel I remember where a character who gambles is treated as a person with an addiction. Trollope never uses the word 'addiction', but it quite plain in the character's own thoughts and in how others think about him. It's really quite sad. It also throws a wrench in his father's scheming, and I can't tell exactly what Trollope is saying with this. Does it mean that all the father's scheming eventually came to nothing? There's no tidy ending for this story line at any rate.

There are a couple scenes that felt extraneous. For example, there's a conflict on the hunting field that seems totally superfluous. Also, I don't think it was necessary to bring back Florence's rejected lovers at the end. Seriously, what's so beguiling about her? She's a good heroine, but what's her superior attraction? Not sure.

All in all, an enjoyable Trollope read! I wouldn't necessarily recommend starting here with Trollope, but get some of his novels under your belt and then pick this up for some good fun.

[Rebecca Lewitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but not his best

I enjoyed the completely unique idea of the plot: a man purposely trying to get around an entail. But I feel that the ending was unsatisfactory. Too many of the characters were left hanging with no resolution.

[Pgchuis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read Oct 21.

Mr Scarborough is dying and his eldest son (Mountjoy) has, through gambling, amassed debts which will swallow up the entire estate on his father's death. Mr Scarborough suddenly announces that Mountjoy is in fact illegitimate and it is only his second son (Augustus) who was born in wedlock. The paperwork supporting the money loaned to Mountjoy is therefore worthless (since the debts were to fall due when he inherited) and the debts unenforceable. Naturally the moneylenders are not very happy about this.

Mountjoy expects to marry his cousin, Florence, but she is in love with Harry. Mountjoy drunkenly attacks Harry and then disappears. Florence's mother takes her to Brussels to get her out of Harry's way. Augustus schemes to harm Harry because he too wishes to marry Florence. Mr Scarborough has more tricks up his sleeve.

I enjoyed this novel very much, although Dorothy Grey and the Carroll family were perhaps a sub-plot too far. I was sad that Dorothy refused Mr Barry and I'm not sure what purpose this failed romance served: Mr Barry seemed perfectly gentlemanly and moral to me. Mr Prosper's attempts to get out of his engagement to Miss Throughbung were extremely entertaining, including his constant harping on whether Miss Puffle would have been a better bet.

My only real quibbles were the apparent instant fascination posed by Florence for every young man she came across and also the unlikely forethought of Mr Scarborough in laying the foundations for his schemes so many decades ahead, when the necessity for them was surely unforeseeable. Trollope does acknowledge both these points and goes merrily on.

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Trollope's final novels (the serialization was still ongoing when he died), Mr Scarborough's Family shows that Trollope still had it up until the end. While not his best novel, this one is both characteristically Trollopean but also a tad darker and pessimistic than is his norm, especially in its depiction of Mountjoy Scarborough, who will almost certainly gamble himself into poverty and suicide some short time after the end of the novel. Note that spoilers follow. The plot does depend on a rather unlikely device--that the eponymous Mr Scarborough is so inveterately opposed to the law that allows for entailment that he planned, some quarter of a century or more before the novel begins, to provide paper trails allowing him to declare whichever of his sons he chooses to be the legitimate heir, via having undergone two wedding ceremonies in different places, one before and one after the birth of his first son. When said first son proves to be so addicted to gambling that he is not only in debt but has taken loans against the property he assumes he will inherit that would in fact bankrupt the property, Scarborough invokes his strategy, declaring the eldest son illegitimate (which, were the second wedding ceremony valid, would be true). Much of the plot then follows, including Scarborough's growing disgust with his younger son to the extent that he ends up revealing the first marriage and disinheriting the younger son. This is all pretty bleak and cynical, given that it is almost certain that the property will be lost due to the elder son
s gambling addiction. As it typical of Trollope, the novel also devoted considerable time to other characters and parallel plots (e.g. Harry Annesley's similar problem with a fickle uncle who vacillates with breaking the entail on his own property, thereby disinheriting Annesley; Florence Mountjoy's various troubles with love, abetted by a mother who wants her to marry Mountjoy; and Scarborough lawyer Mister Grey's own home life). It's a typical Trollope tapestry, though considerably less sanguine about love conquering all and everything working out. Peter Prosper, Annesley's uncle, is a particularly amusing figure in his wooing of Miss Thoroughbung; the tendentious marriage negotiations between them lay base the economic implications of marriage, especially for women. Indeed, despite giving us the typical true love romantic comedy of Harry and Florence, Trollope here seems generally ambivalent (at best) about the efficacy of marriage as a social good. Nevertheless, Trollope's typical insight into the mind in conflict and into the vagaries of human nature is very much in evidence here, even if the book gets a bit flabby occasionally, perhaps as Trollope's health was declining and he composed something like half the book via dictation. Nevertheless, recommended to anyone fond of Victorian doorstop novels.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rascal Mr. Scarborough and his two sons, Harry and his love, the lawyer Gray and his daughter---great characters and a great story. I just love Trollope. This is my 24th novel, I think.

[Tommi · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5]

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Scarborough's Family is another novel written late in Anthony Trollope's life and published posthumously in 1883. The plot is one familiar to Trollope readers, the questionable marriage and its effects on the lives of the children of that marriage.

As he lies dying, Mr Scarborough gives to his lawyer, the honest and upright Mr Grey, papers which show that he did not marry his wife until after his son, Mountjoy, was born. This means Mountjoy is not eligible to inherit the estate, which entailed on his eldest son, going instead to his second son, Augustus. This causes an uproar because Mountjoy has been a reckless gambler and moneylenders hold his notes for more than the entire value of the estate.

Augustus, who is a cold fish, does not complain that his father has intended all these years to do him out of his rightful inheritance. He merely tells the old man to hurry up and die. But he is nervous about the claims of the moneylenders and so he, Mountjoy, and old Mr Scarborough together pay off the original amount lent, no interest.

The major subplot in this novel is the love affair between Harry Annesley, an acquaintance of the Scarborough sons, and Florence Mountjoy, their cousin, whose mother is intent on marrying her to Mountjoy. Failing that she will encourage a marriage to almost anyone but Annesley, who has been slandered by Augustus and whose own inheritance is in jeopardy when his uncle believe Augustus' story.

There is an excellent introduction to the novel at The Victorian Web, http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/t...

2011 No 170

[Alcornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good Victorian novel, with funny, frightening, stiff, some charming and some appalling characters. Great treatment of "moral ambiguity", the scourge of addiction (to gambling especially), utter amorality and legal twists, how to manage and negotiate conventional mores, authority and morals. Dickens has met his match in Trollope's story telling. The antisemitism portrayed is disturbing to contemporary readers; the money lending Jews are given as part of the general lack of moral compass found in so many of the characters, not only the lenders. Best not to judge this book by current standards of anti-bigotry or the whole will be lost in parsing the piece - much as the Scarboroughs lost the greater fortune in family feeling through their varied wrangling, rationalizing, and schemes. That Trollope has had his way about the legal profession is an understatement. Best among the many facets of this book was the very human turning this way, then that, the human disappointment and coping portrayed in the best and the worst of them, the genuine effort to wring from life something sufficient. I will be reading more of Trollope. This was my first, having languished on my 'to read' list for decades. I am sorry it took so long to get to him though I have a feeling for the book now that I may not have found had I read it earlier in my life. Ahem, yes, rationalizing, it's one way to deal. : )

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Scarborough's estate is entailed; the estate will pass to the elder of his two sons, the profligate Mountjoy, who is certain to gamble it away as quickly as he can. But Scarborough, determined to control his property even upon his death, is prepared to show that he married his sons' mother after Mountjoy's birth, making Mountjoy illegitimate and leaving his second son, Augustus, as the true heir.

Needless to say, this delights Augustus, but Augustus, greedy for the estate, is unable to conceal his eagerness for his father's death. Not surprisingly, this eagerness causes Scarborough to rethink his attempt to defeat the entail; he is now prepared to show that perhaps he was married before Mountjoy's birth after all.

This sounds like familiar Trollope territory of course, but it is very well done here. Particularly good is the relationship between the amoral Scarborough, who considers law merely a device to be manipulated to accomplish whatever he desires, and his lawyer, Grey, who reveres the law.

Also good is the relationship of Grey (a widower) with his loving daughter, and with his junior partner, Barry. Barry endorses Scarborough's view of the law, and Grey sadly reflects that perhaps his noble view of the law has had its day. I don't know whether I find it reassuring or the reverse that lawyers were thinking that a century ago.

[Avril · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Trollope's last novels, published posthumously. Like all Trollope's works, it provides wonderful descriptions of contemporary society, particularly the workings of the law and of marriage. Trollope provides a frighteningly accurate picture of a problem gambler, a man addicted to cards who,when the book finishes, is probably going to lose everything he has in Monte Carlo. Trollope also provides various examples of the different ways marriages were created in the late nineteenth century, fascinating for people (like me) interested in the history of marriage.

The heroine marries the right hero in the end, and she's a suitably lovely heroine, but it was the determined spinster, Dolly Grey, that I liked most. Fans of Trollope will enjoy this book, even if it is a 'minor work' when compared with the Barsetshire and Palliser series.

[Christina Dudley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew. Not my favorite Trollope, being very repetitive and therefore a couple hundred pages too long. Still, I did enjoy the Greys and the terrible Carrolls--imagine enjoying subplots more than the plot!

Rascally Mr Scarborough disinherits his older son, a hopeless gambler, claiming Mountjoy was illegitimate, and making the younger son his heir. Chaos ensues. Everyone falls in love with cousin Florence Mountjoy, but she persists in loving her rather unremarkable Harry Annesley.

[Alex Goulder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes the insipid Downton Abbey hard to watch (though I still do).

[James Askari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Scarborough, who is dying throughout the action of the novel, is a strongly loving man with no respect for conventional morality and a principled opposition to the law, especially the laws of primogeniture and entail. His eldest son, to whom his Potteries estate would ordinarily go, is a reckless gambler, who has raised post-obits on Tretton to be realised after his father's death; the consequence would be the dissipation of the value of the property, now the site of an industrial town, among mostly Jewish moneylenders, who have lent to Captain Mountjoy Scarborough at 300% and 400%. His other son Augustus is a cold-hearted lawyer. With the unwitting connivance of Mr Grey, a lawyer of the old school whose life's effort has been to make the law and justice 'run on all fours', old Scarborough devises a scheme to preserve his house: he shows that his marriage to his son's mother only took place in Nice five months after the birth of the elder, making the careful, circumspect son the rightful heir. He braves the social obloquy of having had a child out of wedlock, and of tarnishing his wife's memory, in order, as best he can, to make both his sons rich. But his schemes do not end there....

The main story is about how Scarborough sets love and the law at defiance, and is gloomy--suggesting that society is out of joint, and that there is now a severance between professional codes, such as those of the law, gambling, hunting and even friendship in the clubs, and decent feeling. There is also a main marriage plot, and two comic or serio-comic marriage sub-plots. It was always expected that Florence Mountjoy, a thoroughly upstanding young woman and the novel's heroine, would marry her elder cousin Mountjoy Scarborough, who is imperious, immoderate, dissolute in gambling, but not unfeeling or unloving, and who steadfastly loves her. In her youth she was cowed by her cousin; as a woman, she loves, and is determined to marry, the novel's middling or average-to-good hero, Augustus's Oxford friend, Harry Annesley. The son of a Hertfordshire pastor, Annesley is himself notional heir to a much smaller property. Every young male figure in the novel, and every claimant to Tretton, at some time courts Florence. In the first subplot concerning courtship, Harry's uncle, Mr Prosper, a thorough gentleman but a ninny, considers depriving Harry of his inheritance (mostly out of pique) in allying himself to an independent-minded woman of forty from a rich brewing interest. In the second, Mr Grey's daughter, a thirty-year old woman of formidable intellect and searching probity, has to weigh the advances of her father's clerk, Mr Barry, whose calculations of interest in the law firm make her consider him something other than a gentleman.

[Reet · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book there's a Squire, and his two sons. In England a squire is a man who owns a bunch of land, and there's a village in the land, there are tenant farmers, there are shops in the village, there probably could be a water mill. All those people have to pay money to The Squire because he owns the land.
The squire has two sons who are named Mountjoy, the Elder, and augustus, the younger. The MountJoy dude is a gambler: he can't be trusted with any money, the father has to constantly pay off his debts. The younger one went to college to become a lawyer and he's doing okay at first.
Well it turns out that MountJoy has made IOUs that entail the land when his father dies. In other words the people that loaned him money will get all the acreage when his father dies. His father never gave permission for that, so he sets out to cheat the "Jews" out of this money. The book makes no apology for calling out the money lenders as jews, even sometimes dirty jews. So he lays out papers that show that he was married after his Elder son was born. The mother's been a long time dead. So this means that Mountjoy is illegitimate and in England at that time they made a huge deal out of being legitimate or not. So this means that the money lenders will have no right to the land when the father dies. The younger son is angry with his father for all this time having cheated him out of being the Elder brother.
There are a lot of Side Stories: for example there's a girl named Fanny MountJoy, who loves this man named Harry annesley. But MountJoy always thought that he would be the one who got to marry his cousin( yes she's his first cousin) even though fanny never told him that she loved him.
So there's a lot of involved Side Stories. well in the end, the father produces another paper that shows he was married earlier, before MountJoy was born, so he ends up getting to keep the land for his Elder son and the money lenders have been settled with just the principal on their money, no interest.
It was fairly entertaining, though irritating at times for the stupid customs of that era: ie legitimate versus illegitimate children. And the way that that people talked about the dead mother, as if it was her fault that she got pregnant and had a supposedly illegitimate son.
Well I have all of these highlights in case you care to look into it and see my notes on my indignity.
Also, it has hunters in this story and I'm really against the fucking hunting Fox scene in england.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lovely long read from a master storyteller. As he so often does Trollope expresses the inner emotions of a dozen different characters and sets up several different conflicts between parents and their children, young men pursuing the same woman, and people with differing idealistic points of view.
He also challenges a few stereotypes — including Mr. Grey, who is an exceptionally honorable lawyer. Among other things Grey disdains his shyster client, Mr Scarborough, and decides he would prefer to retire rather help his client to further flaunt the law. But Grey is conflicted because his father had been lawyer to Scarborough’s father and he feels that loyalty is opposed to his deep moral principles.
Likewise Trollope is both sympathetic to and critical of the Jewish money lenders. There are characters who refer to those “dirty Jews” and others who recognize how badly they have been defrauded by the Scarborough family.
Also both Scarborough sons are conflicted between their emotional reactions to their father’s shenanigans and their feelings both about their possible inheritance and about each other.
Mr Grey is not the only character with an internal struggle between what they feel is an appropriate action and what they think is necessary loyalty to someone else in their life.
Mrs Mountjoy clearly wants her daughter to marry her cousin despite the fact that she loves her daughter and knows that the daughter is in love with another man.
And Mr Prosper is conflicted about his relationship with his nephew Harry despite the fact that his own actions have created the greater part of the conflict between them.
As usual I am sorry there is no sequel since I have come to be very fond of a number of the characters.
This late novel is one of Trollope’s best, although I have to say I did not like the final scene.

[Jim Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victorian writers were obsessed by the Law. Perhaps none so much as Trollope (although Dicken’s Bleak House is probably the best Victorian novel about the law). The Scarborough Family, Trollope’s last serialized novel, is a critique of entailing (the English practice of leaving all property to the oldest son). The head of the Scarborough family hates the law, in fact is a bit of a libertarian, and figures out a way to pass over his oldest son, who is an inveterate gambler with debts that will eat up the estate, to his sober, scheming second son. He is quite delighted in how he tricks creditors and overturns the law, with absolutely no concern for the family name, or how he treats his children. Trollope finds that they are all scoundrels, but he cannot help but admire Scarborough Pere for finding a way around a custom he finds distasteful (He spent a lot of time in Ireland where property was equally divided amongst children). Trollope also critiques marriage in this novel—a great many offers of marriage are made and very few are accepted. In Dorothy Grey he creates a strong, intelligent female character who has no interest in giving up her life to a man. It is far better to stay single and perhaps be lonely than become a Victorian bride, normally the only option for fulfillment for women. That is not to say that this book is a dry discourse on these topics. Trollope is not a laugh out loud comic writer, but some of the scenes in the book are brimming with ridiculousness. The scenes between Mr. Prosper and Miss Thoroughbung as they struggle to come to some kind of marriage agreement (it falls apart) are amongst his most humorous.

[Geraldine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising Victorian values
As with many of Trollope's novels, the plot of `Mr Scarborough's Family' centres on disputed inheritances. The laws of inheritance may have changed since the 19th century but the fact that close relatives often quarrel over family money has not. Much of this story seems quite contemporary. It contains a vivid portrait of a gambling addict who gets horribly into debt after borrowing money at extortionate interest rates. He contrasts with three strong-minded female characters in the novel who keep control of their finances and their independence. There is a conventional happy ending for one of these women but the other two reject marriage on men's terms.
If you imagine that all Victorians were prim, pious and respectful of authority, Mr Scarborough himself will come as something of a shock. This clever and unconventional country gentleman expresses contempt for the laws of God and England and prefers to live by his own rules. He's a fascinating character, part villain and part hero, and right up to his last scene I was never sure what he might do next.

[Trevor Harvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the delights of reading an Anthony Trollope novel is its discursiveness, the sense of immersing oneself in a story with the author's comments and observations to the fore.

However, in 'Mr Scarborough's Family', I found this approach to be tiresome.

It is Trollope's last novel and it shows; there is a tiredness, a sense of going through the motions. It doesn't help that the canvas is not that broad and the number of characters small in number, so his trademark style, which is a positive in earlier of his novels, here comes over as a weakness.

There were several occasions when I said to myself: "Oh, get on with it", as Trollope yet again rehearsed his thoughts on a particular plot development

Not one of Trollope's better novels.

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthony Trollope has his recurring fascinations, few of which are as prominent here as the law's myriad interactions with families and their fortunes. Although Mr. Scarborough's Family lacks the subtle powers of his other, similar legal novels such as Orley Farm, it does have an alarmingly good cast of characters such as Mr. John Scarborough himself, the lawyer Mister Grey, and the spirited young woman Florence Mountjoy, alongside other equally familiar but less remarkable instances. There are also some of Trollope's period baggage, such as his casual anti-Semitism which mars the whole.

Would this be the first Trollope to read? No, I would recommend an early Barchester book. But is it good and worth reading? Of course! How could a person ask.

[Eamon Doody · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main story involves an old legal concept known as the entail -
"Entailment, or entail, is a restriction limiting the inheritance of property to a specified succession of heirs. It is typically created by words of grant in a deed, such as "to A and the male heirs of his body", which restricts heirs to the male children begotten by the landowner."

The Entail is outlawed in most territories now - but in Victorian England it was a means of ensuring that estates were not split up when passing from generation to generation. In this story the legal device opens up many good plot lines - and the best of these is the twist that the Title character brings to bear on his heirs and their connections.

In spite of the legalise this book is oddly quite a page turner. I'm reading as part of an online readalong with book reviewer and "Booktube" legend Steve Donoghue during April 2020 - and I find myself jumping ahead of the weekly assigned chapters.

Heartily recommend it to anyone who has a liking for 19th century novels that poke fun at the propertied classes!!

[Robin Kobayashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was a riveting tale, and so witty, clever and perceptive. I loved all the characters, even the rascals. The side story of Peter Prosper and the loud Miss Thoroughbung had me in stitches.

[Catharine Lockhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completed the read along with Steve, what an absolute blast and a great intro into the world of Victorian literature. I’m still giggling about Mr.Prosper’s attempt at finding a wife….

[Terry Quire · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Serialized Victorian literature may not be for me. Neither of the main two plot lines were interesting enough to me (I didn't care who Florence Mountjoy was going to marry and I didn't care who inherited Mr. Scarborough's estate) but I stuck with it to see if Trollope had any tricks up his sleeve. Unfortunately, after about half way through I knew there weren't going to be any narrative surprises.