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Nina Balatka and Linda Tressel
The heroines of these two short novels combat intense social pressure for the sake of love. The Catholic heroine of Nina Balatka loves a Jew. In Linda Tressell a stern Calvinistic matriach tries to ensure her niece's spiritual salvation by marrying her to an old man. Both novels are fascinating and sympathetic portrayals of young women driven to the brink of insanity by religious and cultural intolerance.
398 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 1991
50 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Trollope
2,291 books1,760 followersAnthony 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_...
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_...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 27, 2025
Four stars for Linda Tressel! (I reviewed Nina Balatka elsewhere.) I’ve just finished reading an excellent nonfiction work by Heidi White called “The Divided Soul” about how a central human conflict is between what we should do (duty) and what we want to do (desire). It’s a brilliant book on many levels but one thing I particularly liked about it is how Heidi reminded me that duty can be corrupted as well as desire. It’s so easy for us to know exactly how desire can lead us astray. The Prodigal Son from the very beginning is corrupted by his desire when he asks his father for his share of his inheritance. It’s much more subtle how the dutiful elder brother to the prodigal has also gone astray. As I was reading Linda Tressel, it slowly dawned on me that it’s a novel of corrupted duty. And it really packs a punch.
Set in Nuremberg in the 1860s, Linda Tressel is an orphan who has been raised by her aunt, Madame Staubach. They live together in a house left to Linda by her father. Her father’s old clerk, Peter Steinmarc, lives with them and rents rooms. Madame Staubach is a very religious woman (Trollope calls her a Baptist), and consequently her understanding of proper behavior and duty is very narrow. She expects obedience from Linda a la the fifth commandment since she has been in the place of a parent. Linda has a friend in the neighborhood who buys ribbons and goes to dances but Linda’s aunt frowns on such things. When Linda comes to a marriageable age, it occurs to Madame S that Linda should marry Peter Steinmarc. How convenient! He already lives in the house and then these two females would have a male to protect them. Though Peter is much closer to Madame S’s age (he’s 52), she doesn’t have any desire to marry again. But her niece is young and pretty and even owns property. Very suitable! Of course, Peter rather likes this idea as well. He’d then own the house and have a young wife too.
As you can imagine, a 20-ish age Linda doesn’t think much of this idea. Marry an old man with a bald spot and big creaky shoes? She also has a fancy for a young man named Ludovic Valcarm who has a steady job but is something of a political rebel and seems a hothead. And so begins Linda’s steady denial to her aunt’s and later to Peter’s marriage proposal. The more Linda denies them, the more pressure her aunt and Peter and later even folks in the town put on her. Her aunt is convinced that God has told her this is what he wants for Linda and so the pressure is also religious. If Linda follows her own inclinations to desire marriage to a young man her own age, Madame S believes she is sinful and corrupt.
Trollope consistently makes us sympathetic to Linda as she resists marriage to Peter and as she resists her aunt’s call to duty in marrying Peter. Linda should have a chance to marry for love! She simply doesn’t love Peter. They’re not a good match. Her desire to marry for love is a good thing and protects her from marrying Peter right away when she knows in her heart that she could never do her duty by him let alone love him. At several times in the novel, Linda is driven by this perverted duty of her aunt’s to an almost destructive desire to be away from Peter.
Trollope loves to hate his religious fanatics. (So did his mother!) His psychological insight into Madame S is particularly fascinating. She truly believes that by crushing Linda into obedience, she will save Linda and make her behave. She hates any hint of salvation through works but condemns Linda for her refusal to marry Peter for the good of her soul. The hypocrisy is very subtle. Trollope is generally trustworthy for a happy ending but this story has the feeling of a Shakespearean tragedy. Though it’s heartbreaking, it fits the intensity of the theme. Just as wanton desire leads to bad ends, so does duty that is blind to the goodness of desire. As Heidi so eloquently writes, duty is the form and desire is the meaning. Duty rightly ordered keeps us on the path and desire rightly ordered leads us to goodness, truth, and beauty.
Set in Nuremberg in the 1860s, Linda Tressel is an orphan who has been raised by her aunt, Madame Staubach. They live together in a house left to Linda by her father. Her father’s old clerk, Peter Steinmarc, lives with them and rents rooms. Madame Staubach is a very religious woman (Trollope calls her a Baptist), and consequently her understanding of proper behavior and duty is very narrow. She expects obedience from Linda a la the fifth commandment since she has been in the place of a parent. Linda has a friend in the neighborhood who buys ribbons and goes to dances but Linda’s aunt frowns on such things. When Linda comes to a marriageable age, it occurs to Madame S that Linda should marry Peter Steinmarc. How convenient! He already lives in the house and then these two females would have a male to protect them. Though Peter is much closer to Madame S’s age (he’s 52), she doesn’t have any desire to marry again. But her niece is young and pretty and even owns property. Very suitable! Of course, Peter rather likes this idea as well. He’d then own the house and have a young wife too.
As you can imagine, a 20-ish age Linda doesn’t think much of this idea. Marry an old man with a bald spot and big creaky shoes? She also has a fancy for a young man named Ludovic Valcarm who has a steady job but is something of a political rebel and seems a hothead. And so begins Linda’s steady denial to her aunt’s and later to Peter’s marriage proposal. The more Linda denies them, the more pressure her aunt and Peter and later even folks in the town put on her. Her aunt is convinced that God has told her this is what he wants for Linda and so the pressure is also religious. If Linda follows her own inclinations to desire marriage to a young man her own age, Madame S believes she is sinful and corrupt.
Trollope consistently makes us sympathetic to Linda as she resists marriage to Peter and as she resists her aunt’s call to duty in marrying Peter. Linda should have a chance to marry for love! She simply doesn’t love Peter. They’re not a good match. Her desire to marry for love is a good thing and protects her from marrying Peter right away when she knows in her heart that she could never do her duty by him let alone love him. At several times in the novel, Linda is driven by this perverted duty of her aunt’s to an almost destructive desire to be away from Peter.
Trollope loves to hate his religious fanatics. (So did his mother!) His psychological insight into Madame S is particularly fascinating. She truly believes that by crushing Linda into obedience, she will save Linda and make her behave. She hates any hint of salvation through works but condemns Linda for her refusal to marry Peter for the good of her soul. The hypocrisy is very subtle. Trollope is generally trustworthy for a happy ending but this story has the feeling of a Shakespearean tragedy. Though it’s heartbreaking, it fits the intensity of the theme. Just as wanton desire leads to bad ends, so does duty that is blind to the goodness of desire. As Heidi so eloquently writes, duty is the form and desire is the meaning. Duty rightly ordered keeps us on the path and desire rightly ordered leads us to goodness, truth, and beauty.
May 3, 2018
Nina Balatka:
Nina, a poor Catholic, is engaged to Anton, a rich Jew. At the beginning of the story their engagement is a secret until Anton can obtain the title deeds of certain properties including the house Nina and her father live in. These are rightfully his, but are in the possession of Nina's uncle. This alone set off alarm bells for me: Trollope's heroes never prioritize monetary transactions above true love. Later in the story Anton makes it clear twice that he suspects Nina might be deceiving him and twice she is outraged and twice she forgives him. This is, of course deeply annoying, but also problematic to me in the context of Trollope's work generally: his non-Jewish heroes would never act in this way - above all it would be "ungentlemanly".
Since Nina and Anton get their happy ending, I assume that Trollope intends to be sympathetic to their "mixed" marriage, but he nevertheless clings to many unflattering "Jewish" stereotypes. In fairness, I suppose I should point out that Nina's Christian relatives are uniformly hideous too (and not particularly clean, amusingly). The Catholic priests are treated reasonably kindly. In case it is not clear, I would NEVER have forgiven Anton myself.
On the plus side, the description of life in Prague was interesting and well-done. I found Rebecca's character inconsistent and cloying towards the end. The scene where Nina contemplates suicide was well-done, but long; by the end I just wanted her to jump and get it over with.
Linda Tressel:
Linda lives with her aunt Charlotte and their lodger, Peter. Ludovic, a cousin of Peter's has told Linda that he loves her, but she has made no reply. Charlotte and Peter hatch a plan that Peter should marry Nina, despite the fact that she is 20 and he is 51. Nina refuses Peter and tells him she can never love him. The rest of the novel consists of Charlotte telling Nina that it is her duty to marry Peter and Nina giving in at last but then backing out (three times - or maybe only twice - it all blurs together). At one point Nina even runs away with Ludovic, but repents of this immediately and returns to her aunt for more of the same. The ending was completely dreadful (but perhaps typical for the period). Peter was splendidly hateful, Charlotte claimed to love her niece but did not one single loving thing to or for her and Nina was so spineless and passive that it was hard to root for her. Possibly the most repetitive Trollope I have read (or maybe that was "Lady Anna").
Nina, a poor Catholic, is engaged to Anton, a rich Jew. At the beginning of the story their engagement is a secret until Anton can obtain the title deeds of certain properties including the house Nina and her father live in. These are rightfully his, but are in the possession of Nina's uncle. This alone set off alarm bells for me: Trollope's heroes never prioritize monetary transactions above true love. Later in the story Anton makes it clear twice that he suspects Nina might be deceiving him and twice she is outraged and twice she forgives him. This is, of course deeply annoying, but also problematic to me in the context of Trollope's work generally: his non-Jewish heroes would never act in this way - above all it would be "ungentlemanly".
Since Nina and Anton get their happy ending, I assume that Trollope intends to be sympathetic to their "mixed" marriage, but he nevertheless clings to many unflattering "Jewish" stereotypes. In fairness, I suppose I should point out that Nina's Christian relatives are uniformly hideous too (and not particularly clean, amusingly). The Catholic priests are treated reasonably kindly. In case it is not clear, I would NEVER have forgiven Anton myself.
On the plus side, the description of life in Prague was interesting and well-done. I found Rebecca's character inconsistent and cloying towards the end. The scene where Nina contemplates suicide was well-done, but long; by the end I just wanted her to jump and get it over with.
Linda Tressel:
Linda lives with her aunt Charlotte and their lodger, Peter. Ludovic, a cousin of Peter's has told Linda that he loves her, but she has made no reply. Charlotte and Peter hatch a plan that Peter should marry Nina, despite the fact that she is 20 and he is 51. Nina refuses Peter and tells him she can never love him. The rest of the novel consists of Charlotte telling Nina that it is her duty to marry Peter and Nina giving in at last but then backing out (three times - or maybe only twice - it all blurs together). At one point Nina even runs away with Ludovic, but repents of this immediately and returns to her aunt for more of the same. The ending was completely dreadful (but perhaps typical for the period). Peter was splendidly hateful, Charlotte claimed to love her niece but did not one single loving thing to or for her and Nina was so spineless and passive that it was hard to root for her. Possibly the most repetitive Trollope I have read (or maybe that was "Lady Anna").
May 2, 2025
I requested this book in the afterglow of reading Trollope's superb
Autobiography
. Determined to read more of his novels, I was intrigued by these two particular titles because of their origin story: Trollope, at the height of his fame, published them anonymously to see if they would sell without his name.
They didn't sell, and though I'm sure they would have done better under his illustrious name, the first at least certainly isn't Trollope at his finest. According to his own account, he attempted to disguise his style and chose unusual settings (Prague and Nurnburg) so as to make his authorship less obvious. More and more intriguing! But reality didn't live up to the intrigue. To me the book reads as 100% Trollope, but our dear English Trollope doesn't take well to transplanting in Continental soil.
I only read Nina Balatka and barely slogged through the 200 pages before the loan period (6 weeks) ended. The premise is that the heroine, once wealthy but whose father has fallen on hard times, is engaged to a Jewish man. A small handful of friends and relatives (there are very few characters) attempts to separate her from him by means of a legal document that no one can put their hands on. Alas, both plot and characters seemed thin and ill-developed. There is some pleasing local color (Trollope wrote the book right after a trip to Prague) in terms of city layout and architecture. There are also a few lovely, dramatic scenes. But the actors feel like typical English novel characters masquerading as Bohemian Catholics and Jews, and most of the narrative is tedious.
They didn't sell, and though I'm sure they would have done better under his illustrious name, the first at least certainly isn't Trollope at his finest. According to his own account, he attempted to disguise his style and chose unusual settings (Prague and Nurnburg) so as to make his authorship less obvious. More and more intriguing! But reality didn't live up to the intrigue. To me the book reads as 100% Trollope, but our dear English Trollope doesn't take well to transplanting in Continental soil.
I only read Nina Balatka and barely slogged through the 200 pages before the loan period (6 weeks) ended. The premise is that the heroine, once wealthy but whose father has fallen on hard times, is engaged to a Jewish man. A small handful of friends and relatives (there are very few characters) attempts to separate her from him by means of a legal document that no one can put their hands on. Alas, both plot and characters seemed thin and ill-developed. There is some pleasing local color (Trollope wrote the book right after a trip to Prague) in terms of city layout and architecture. There are also a few lovely, dramatic scenes. But the actors feel like typical English novel characters masquerading as Bohemian Catholics and Jews, and most of the narrative is tedious.
April 25, 2024
I read Linda Tressel as part of the #tonyandfanny2024 readalong. The novel was first published anonymously as Anthony Trollope wanted to see if the story would be successful without his name attached. He also set it outside of England, in the city of Nuremberg, but I could nevertheless detect Anthony’s distinctive writing style. It may also have helped that I recently read one of his short stories, La Mere Bauche which seems to form the blueprint for Linda Tressel.
Much darker in tone than most of his other books, I simultaneously loved the story and also felt incredibly angry at the actions of the characters. The plot centres around a young girl who is pressured by her aunt into agreeing to marry a much older man. The aunt is a religious fanatic and convinces herself that she is doing the right thing by claiming that her niece will otherwise be damned to eternity. Poor Linda is assailed from all sides and beaten down psychologically. My heart broke for her. I desperately wanted her to stand up to her aunt but although she resists the marriage, she has been brought up in such a strict religious household that she doesn’t seem to realise that she can’t actually be forced into marriage by anyone. Her proposed husband, Peter Steinmarc, was also thoroughly despicable and had his own motives for wanting Linda to marry him.
Dark and emotionally draining, this was still a standout read. Trollope’s prowess as a writer means that he masterfully draws us into the thoughts and minds of the characters and provokes an emotional response in the reader. I shed a lot of tears at the end! Although I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one if you are new to Trollope, in my opinion, it’s a must read for die hard fans.
*****
I read Nina Balatka as part of the #tonyandfanny2024 readalong. There were a lot of similarities between this story and Linda Tressel so it was interesting to compare the two. Both were published anonymously and were written in a different style to Trollope’s usual work.
The story concerns a young Catholic woman who wishes to marry the man she loves who just happens to be Jewish. Set in the city of Prague, it explores the religious prejudices that conspire to keep them apart.
Overall I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Linda Tressel which surprised me as I nearly always prefer a happy ending. I can’t quite put my finger on why. I still found it an extremely poignant story however and it focused brilliantly on the psychological pressure that Nina and her lover Anton are made to face.
Plus being Trollope there are some wonderfully romantic lines in the book -
“… I love her better than all the world beside. She is to me my cup of water when I am hot and athirst, my morsel of bread when I am faint with hunger. Her voice is the only music which I love. The touch of her hand is so fresh that it cools me when I am in fever. The kiss of her lips is so sweet and balmy that it cures when I shake with an ague fit.”
Much darker in tone than most of his other books, I simultaneously loved the story and also felt incredibly angry at the actions of the characters. The plot centres around a young girl who is pressured by her aunt into agreeing to marry a much older man. The aunt is a religious fanatic and convinces herself that she is doing the right thing by claiming that her niece will otherwise be damned to eternity. Poor Linda is assailed from all sides and beaten down psychologically. My heart broke for her. I desperately wanted her to stand up to her aunt but although she resists the marriage, she has been brought up in such a strict religious household that she doesn’t seem to realise that she can’t actually be forced into marriage by anyone. Her proposed husband, Peter Steinmarc, was also thoroughly despicable and had his own motives for wanting Linda to marry him.
Dark and emotionally draining, this was still a standout read. Trollope’s prowess as a writer means that he masterfully draws us into the thoughts and minds of the characters and provokes an emotional response in the reader. I shed a lot of tears at the end! Although I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one if you are new to Trollope, in my opinion, it’s a must read for die hard fans.
*****
I read Nina Balatka as part of the #tonyandfanny2024 readalong. There were a lot of similarities between this story and Linda Tressel so it was interesting to compare the two. Both were published anonymously and were written in a different style to Trollope’s usual work.
The story concerns a young Catholic woman who wishes to marry the man she loves who just happens to be Jewish. Set in the city of Prague, it explores the religious prejudices that conspire to keep them apart.
Overall I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Linda Tressel which surprised me as I nearly always prefer a happy ending. I can’t quite put my finger on why. I still found it an extremely poignant story however and it focused brilliantly on the psychological pressure that Nina and her lover Anton are made to face.
Plus being Trollope there are some wonderfully romantic lines in the book -
“… I love her better than all the world beside. She is to me my cup of water when I am hot and athirst, my morsel of bread when I am faint with hunger. Her voice is the only music which I love. The touch of her hand is so fresh that it cools me when I am in fever. The kiss of her lips is so sweet and balmy that it cures when I shake with an ague fit.”
October 17, 2018
Two short novels in one volume, both dealing with young women and marriage. Nina Balatka also presents an astonishing (for the time) indictment of anti-semitism, as a Jewish man wants to marry a Christian woman. Linda Tressel is a much sadder book, with two of Trollope’s most heinous villains, one a pompous ass of a man motivated almost entirely by greed and self-importance, the other a woefully misguided religious fanatic who presents a striking portrait of the maliciousness, whether intended or not, of strident Calvinism.
May 3, 2018
2 1/2 stars. I was so annoyed at the end of Linda Tressel I wanted to throw the book across the room.
May 13, 2024
A very different Anthony, I think. I didn't read the second book in this collection, because I heard from the discussion chat that it was very much like the first. And I barely got through Nina, so I didn't want to punish myself by trying to read Linda very quickly.
I won't say it was difficult to read - when I say I barely got through it, that's probably more down to me than the book. It was certainly well done. It had all the hallmarks of a true Anthony. The heroine was distraught, there was a love affair that was not socially approved, there were questions all along the way about what she would do.
What I would say is that the writing at first felt stilted. I wasn't sure what he was trying to do here, and it seems as though he was actually trying to write anonymously. These two novels were not published under his name at first. I expect to learn more about this when I read his autobiography. I am sure it had something to do with his wanting to see how things fared on their merit - without his name attached. But also, it seems he wanted to try something different.
I will also say that Nina felt much darker than a lot of the other books I've read (Barchester, Palliser, and several standalones). One scene in particular had me sitting on the edge of my seat, and gasping. I was quite surprised to see that in one of Tony's books, although he has dealt with hard topics before.
The story itself was gripping, in a romantic kind of way. It also dealt a lot with antisemitism, in its true form - modern readers may be shocked to find how segregated things used to be based on religion. It was hammered home again and again - and again - in this story, and perhaps the emphasis on that curbed my enjoyment somewhat. I am not someone who would normally get squeamish about that. Many of the people in our group appeared to do so.
This is one story that relies heavily on a romantic plot. There were not a lot of subplots to keep the reader going. If you don't like romance, you will probably not like this. However, as a true Anthony fan, I am glad I read it. It had a lot of cultural information, and the heroine was one that I could get behind.
I couldn't read Linda Tressel because I had to return the book to the library, but I may get it back, as it seems that it was a precursor to another book. Let it not be said that I don't give Anthony a fair shake!
I won't say it was difficult to read - when I say I barely got through it, that's probably more down to me than the book. It was certainly well done. It had all the hallmarks of a true Anthony. The heroine was distraught, there was a love affair that was not socially approved, there were questions all along the way about what she would do.
What I would say is that the writing at first felt stilted. I wasn't sure what he was trying to do here, and it seems as though he was actually trying to write anonymously. These two novels were not published under his name at first. I expect to learn more about this when I read his autobiography. I am sure it had something to do with his wanting to see how things fared on their merit - without his name attached. But also, it seems he wanted to try something different.
I will also say that Nina felt much darker than a lot of the other books I've read (Barchester, Palliser, and several standalones). One scene in particular had me sitting on the edge of my seat, and gasping. I was quite surprised to see that in one of Tony's books, although he has dealt with hard topics before.
The story itself was gripping, in a romantic kind of way. It also dealt a lot with antisemitism, in its true form - modern readers may be shocked to find how segregated things used to be based on religion. It was hammered home again and again - and again - in this story, and perhaps the emphasis on that curbed my enjoyment somewhat. I am not someone who would normally get squeamish about that. Many of the people in our group appeared to do so.
This is one story that relies heavily on a romantic plot. There were not a lot of subplots to keep the reader going. If you don't like romance, you will probably not like this. However, as a true Anthony fan, I am glad I read it. It had a lot of cultural information, and the heroine was one that I could get behind.
I couldn't read Linda Tressel because I had to return the book to the library, but I may get it back, as it seems that it was a precursor to another book. Let it not be said that I don't give Anthony a fair shake!
February 13, 2023
One of those most genuine and touching stories of love reigning despite religious and cultural differences.
And the greed of relatives who abandon their destitute kin.
And the greed of relatives who abandon their destitute kin.
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