Marion Fay

by Anthony Trollope

The novel contrasts two love affairs, each involving an aristocrat and a commoner. The subversive Lord Hampstead's plunge into middle class society in his passionate pursuit of Marion Fay, a Quaker and daughter of a City clerk, is balanced by the testing of his radical friend George Roden, a clerk in the General Post Office, whose bizarre experiences among the aristocracy during his courtship of Hampstead's sister Lady Frances Trafford, are employed to satirize the concept of rank. Trollope vividly evokes the dull working lives, plain homes, blank streets, and limited horizons of the dwellers in Paradise Row,using them as an ironic choric commentary on the unattainable world of rank, wealth and freedom, symbolized by life in the great country houses.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Victorian, 19th Century, Literature, British Literature, English Literature

880 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1882

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

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Marion Fay to be an enjoyable read for the most part, and fairly quick, in spite of its length.
Trollope certainly went on too long in some sections, which makes sense when you know that he was interrupted by other books during the writing of this one. The class differences and hypocrisy were the main themes, with definite comic relief coming with the gossipy women of Paradise Row, and the efforts in silly class-climbing of the lazy post office clerk Crocker. Trollope always winds up his story thoroughly, even when everything doesn't work out happily for all.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one of Trollope's better known books, but I enjoyed it and there is more to it than meets the eye. It deals in part with consumption (we can forget it was incurable at the time and it's effect has been compared to the AIDS epidemic). It also deals with love and marraige between classes and here Trollope does push the boundaries. Class is important in English history and Trollope toys with class sensibilities. It deals with radicalism in the upper classes and conservatism in the lower middle classes; with jealousy and hatred and is centred around two love stories. The characters are not one dimensional and they all have their faults and irritations and you want to give one or other of them a good talking to at regular intervals.
On the whole this is a good read and deserves to be better known; much better known.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book description attached to this edition is about as perfect a description of this novel as could be written. It does indeed involve two love affairs - romance would be a better term - each between a noble and a commoner and treats the subject with as much humor as one can expect from Trollope. He's often amusing with the occasional paragraph that elicits a good loud guffaw. I admit that I spent a few moments looking at the definition of the word "burlesque" because in my mind the connotation would be bawdy or risque, and Trollope is certainly neither. There is, however, a bit of caricature about it all, much more than is common for Trollope. Good characterization - rather than caricature - is one of his strengths.

In addition to the noble/commoner romances, there are a couple of other romances, both providing high comedy. Trollope has his usual fun with names. Lord LLdwddythlw, the heir to a Welsh dukedom, is engaged to Lady Amaldina Persiflage. He makes a point of Lldwddythlw being difficult to pronounce and never does Lldwddythlw get a nickname. The other romance, or perhaps romances, involves the young (?) Clara Demijohn, who is the gossip on Paradise Row, flitting from house to house to try to determine what is actually going on at both #11 and at #17, where the two noble/commoner romances center. Fickle Clara has had her string of "gentlemen" callers and only wants the one which will be to her best advantage.

This novel drew me in immediately. I love Trollope's prose. But I admit that this is too long and that he went on and on page after page about things he might have spoken about more briefly. I began to want to know less about some characters, and to know more about others. I have now read enough of Trollope to know that this is in his "second tier" of novels, but it might be near the top of those. It is quite good, but only 4 stars good.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rachel Ray is a five-star Trollope (to me).
The Three Clerks is a four-star Trollope.
Marion Fay is a two-star Trollope. (which is still good.)

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried until my nose was stuffy and I could hardly breathe. It reminded me of those earlier crying days when I was reading about Little Nell and little David Copperfield and Peggotty in the Dickens novels! A tear-jerker for sure.

I also enjoyed the fox-hunting adventures. (It doesn't bother me when the men are thrown and hurt under the horse, but it just upsets me terribly when they kill the fox!)

Again, Trollope does great characters, especially in the clerks' office like Crocker and the clergyman Mr. Greenwood and the gossipy ladies of Paradise Row.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the nineteen nineties I read about twenty-five Trollope novels. After about a decade of reading, I was satisfied. Since then I have I picked up a Trollope novel every year or two. (Fortunately, there are many still waiting for me to read, and as a rule their quality is high) Now I have just finished reading _Marion Fay_, one of the later novels, which I found to be a total delight. I think you might call it a "romance," since it has some modestly fanciful elements, namely a post office clerk who learns as an adult that he is in fact an Italian duke. (This plot development, which may seem far-fetched when stated outright, is actually well chosen and highly illuminating) But it is an impressive work, highly focused on a social issue, that of the intersection of marriage and social class in Britain in the later nineteenth century. It has a wider application than that, however, since marriage, even in the US in the 21st century, has a way of making families acutely aware of the class differences between marriage partners. So in this story, we have two marriageable children from a wealthy aristocratic family, that of the Marquis of Kingsbury, who choose to marry outside of their class. The eldest son, who stands to inherit the name and much of the wealth, falls in love with a nameless, moneyless, but beautiful and principled, Quaker girl. And his younger sister falls in love with the previously mentioned post office clerk, who has no wealth or social position but appears to possess a certain natural nobility. The story plays out in a mixed fashion, which is not entirely happy for those involved.

It was interesting to me that the marriage choices made by these high-born children are clearly influenced by the radical politics of their father. Political opinions have a way of playing out in real life with significant consequences. This is an important idea in the background of the story.

Nineteenth century women may have had limited say about their social roles, but at least in the setting of this novel they had the option to say yes or no to the question of "will you marry me?" In terms of the story, the aristocratic lady says yes and the low-born Quaker says no, and in each case they courageously stand their ground.

Not least among the pleasures of this book is the character of Samuel Crocker, one of the post office clerks in the story (Trollope worked for decades for the postal service), who consistently crosses social boundaries to great comic effect.

_Marion Fay_, a fine novel that I recommend without reservation.

[Sylvia J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not his best. But still so much better than most of the crap out there!

[Sean O · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should really be a two star read. The main plots are both bad: one love affair is doomed because the woman dies of consumption. The other love affair is saved because the nice but working class guy is secretly an Italian duke.

The only reason this isn’t a two star read is Trollope’s characterizations and subplots. The minor characters are doing a lot of the work here. Lady Amaldina, her intended, Lord Llwddythlw, and her parents Lord and Lady Persiflage are really minor characters, but they’re terrific. Similarly Samuel Crocker, Clara Demjohn, and Daniel Tribbledale are both charming and ridiculous.

This is not the first time where Trollope writes a bad main plot, but the subplots and secondary characters save the day. Unfortunately this is a really bad main plot. This book is only for Trollope completionists.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love most of the Trollope I have read, in varying degrees. I took this particular book with me on holiday because it was long and I thought it would last me through at least one trans-Atlantic crossing, which it did.

One of the things I frequently enjoy in Trollope is when he sets up a scenario that will be difficult to resolve, makes me fear the worst will happen, and then resolves it in a satisfactory way. I had great hopes of this situation: there were two couples facing obstacles to marriage, one a Marquess' daughter and an untitled (but otherwise unexceptionable) clerk in the Post Office, and the other the Marquess' heir (brother of the Marquess' daughter) and a simple Quaker (Marion Fay).

**Warning -- there will be spoilers**

The daughter was forbidden to marry so far beneath her and the Quaker refused to marry the heir because her mother and siblings had all died of TB and she was pretty sure that she would probably die soon too. As far as I could discern, Marion diagnosed herself out of thin air based on no symptoms whatsoever and never went to the doctor or anything. Maybe once or twice she had a heightened colour, but that could just have been love. However she died as predicted, blighting the young Lord's hopes. Fortunately the daughter's fiance found out that he was secretly the (legitimate) son of an Italian Duke, or rather society found out about it as soon as he did, because even though he refused to use the title the stepmother who had violently opposed the marriage was sort of brought around to tolerate it.

I thought I would really love the Quaker (they're temperate! they're modest! their religion starts with a Q!), but Marion's illogical intransigence irritated and bored me. The daughter and the Post Office clerk were a little more enjoyable, although not much was required of them other than to nobly bear their separation. The subplots around the stepmother and around the gossipy people who live near the Post Office Clerk's mother are more entertaining.

[Pgchuis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lady Frances Trafford has become engaged to a post office clerk called George Roden. Her brother, Lord Hampstead, falls in love with Marion Fay, the daughter of a Quaker. Their step-mother, Lady Kingsbury considers both proposed marriages to be unacceptable, as they would be "marrying down" the social classes. Lord Kingsbury was a Radical in his youth, but has become more conservative with age and the influence of his wife.

I enjoyed a chunk in the middle of this book very much, but the beginning was dull and the ending overly sentimental and not at all what I expect of Trollope.

Likes: Crocker, Miss Demijohn, the scene where Hampstead and Mr Fay try to talk at the latter's office and are constantly interrupted, the fact that the Quaker Fay was not opposed to his daughter marrying Hampstead, the evil Mr Greenwood (although I think Trollope made him persist too long at the end), the appalling Lady Kingsbury and, finally, Lady Amaldina and her surprisingly successful marriage.

Dislikes: too much repetition (especially re Marion's reasons for refusing Hampstead), too much discussion of class difference (as opposed to letting the characters demonstrate this), Marion was deeply annoying and read like a Victorian stereotype, rather than a Trollope heroine, the way she seemed to die because she decided she would, endless rehashing of her pure motives, talking of herself in the third person, etc etc.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have begun reading this novel again with the online Trollope spin-off, otherlit, in May 2016.

[Mbuye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite his prolific output and his immediate popularity, Trollope was neither a sentimental novelist nor a sensational one. ‘Marion Fay’ is nevertheless sentimental, to some extent sensational and frequently melodramatic, even maudlin. It depends a little too much on coincidence and the providential God in the machine. And in trying to work out a solution to a thorny problem in the plot, Trollope simply kills off his lead character with as much or as little compunction as ever did Dickens, and draws out the agony to the last salt drop from his readers' eyes.

For all that, ‘Marion Fay’ is memorable for its issues of class and social distinctions. When the two older children of a marquis fall in love with two commoners (a post-office clerk, and the daughter of a Quaker), all hell is loosed in the Marquis’s family, and allows for some its most melodramatic scenes, including plotting murder, blackmail, and anonymous letters where the writer happily gives their exact address and location, while signing themselves “Well-wisher.” Some of Trollope's most unforgettable comic characters make their appearance in ‘Marion Fay', both in the refined circles of the House of Lords (Lord Llwddythlw, that busy heir to the Duke of Merioneth, for one) and in the humbler station of the post office, where Mr Crocker rises up, to be remembered as your best friend. In fact, very few people escape the edge of Trollope's satire. Only the doll-like Lady Amaldina has her eyes wide open to the realities of life while batting her eyelashes at you, and gets her own way in most things.

Trollope does not forget his beloved hunt and willy nilly, we follow the Braeside Harriers across hilly, rocky terrain while Trollope discusses the fashions in hunting until a young idiot takes a fence his horse cannot leap, and is all but killed, adding a little spice, if we felt the need, to a story already overcrowded with incident and suspense.

Finally, some of Trollope's expressive letters add to the charm of the novel. A Trollope novel without correspondence, office memos, newspaper articles and the like is the same as a book ‘without pictures or conversation.’

‘Marion Fay’ is not in the front line with Trollope's best novels, partly because it lacks the firm pragmatism we have come to expect of him, partly because his characters are caricatures rather than the three dimensional ordinary men and women who figure in his books, but it still makes for great fun and excellent reading. If the ending appears on one hand to be deeply depressing, the positive ending that Trollope gives his other characters, including our poor henpecked Marquis, serves to make up for it.

[Geraldine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Class and consumption
This was one of the most rewarding stops on my long trek through all of Trollope's novels. `Marion Fay' was published in 1882 and deals with the gradual breaking down of the class system that dominated British society. It contains two main love stories - one rather tepid and one very intense - and could have been called `Three Weddings and a Funeral'. Trollope is famous for creating enjoyably awful clerical characters and the greedy chaplain in this novel is one of the worst.

The plot concerns a Marquis and his heir, Lord Hampstead, who both consider themselves to be progressive liberals. Their principles are tested when Hampstead's sister wants to marry his friend George Roden, who is only a Post Office clerk (as Trollope himself once was). Hampstead disapproves but then he falls in love with someone even more unsuitable, the delicate Quakeress, Marion Fay. Having been brought up in a Quaker family, I appreciated Trollope's sympathetic and respectful treatment of the Quaker characters in this novel. Consumptive heroines may seem a cliche of 19th century literature but Trollope was writing from painful experience since he had lost four siblings to TB. ` Marion Fay' is a very personal novel and I found it a moving one.

[Phil Atteberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a late and lesser known Trollope novel. Reading it reinforces my amazement at how consistently entertaining Trollope's novels are, in spite of the terrific number of novels he wrote.

This book contains two parallel love affairs. One ends happily, the other does not. The weakest element of the book--for 21st century readers at least--is the sappy sentimentalism near the end with reference to one of the love affairs. But the Victorians liked such sentimentalism better than we do.

Overall, however, the novel has a comic flavor and explores the evolving social structure of English society--one of Trollope's favorite subjects. Commoners mingling with nobility offers many opportunities for Trollope to poke fun at both. Intellectually, Trollope was a liberal who found the English aristocracy to be full of empty pomp. But in his heart, he was attached to the social structure he knew and had grown up in. So he writes about the English aristocracy--and the commoners--with mostly light-hearted sarcasm with also with a little affection. It's one of the interesting features of his novels.

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of Trollope's best, but then, I've already read all his best. This one tells two stories, awkwardly interwoven: the romance between Lady Frances Trafford and lowly post office clerk George Roden, and the romance between Frances' brother Lord Hampstead and lowly daughter of a Quaker clerk, Marion Fay. Of the latter it can only be said that it's Victorian in the worst way. Added to these criticisms, the novel drags. In spite of all that, I mostly enjoyed it anyway. That's Trollope for you.

If you're looking for Trollope's best, try his Chronicles of Barsetshire series or his Palliser series; his novel THE WAY WE LIVE NOW or HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT. Be forwarned, Trollope is anti-semitic. But he also has some unusually well developed and interesting women characters, and a keen eye for the way class and income influence politics, relationships, and marriage.

[Christina Dudley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wholly satisfactory Trollope novel, complete with a cast of wonderful characters, including a noble postal clerk, ambitious stepmother, icky hanger-on of a family cleric, and Quaker heroine. Be careful reading the other reviews because spoilers abound. I would love to see a BBC miniseries adaptation of this one, complete with Lord Hampstead sailing off into the sunrise.

Finally, I'd have to say Lady Amaldina and her unpronounceable Welsh fiance were my favorites--so practical, and a nice counterpoint to the earnest and so-dramatic main couples.

[Michael Baranowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Anthony Trollope, but once you get through his classics - the Barchester and Pallister series and The Way We Live Now - you're bound to eventually notice a sameness to his stories. For a while his deeply humane writing and fine character sketches make up for shortcomings of plot, but eventually you'll come across books where that's no longer the case. Such it was for me with Marion Fay, which I ended up putting down before I was a quarter of the way through it.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this late novel, published the year he died, Trollope managed to create not one, not two, but three villains worthy to stand with Mrs Proudie of Barchester Towers. Lady Kingsbury and her confidant Mr Greenwood (a clergyman!) are terrifically wicked, though the lady eventually comes to something of a “correction,” and Mr Crocker, in his hapless irrepressibility, becomes in his lesser way just as vile. Enjoy!

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty enjoyable read, but hampered by the absence of sub-plots. The romance between Fanny and George, intended as a sub-plot, actually seems like the main plot, because it is fully developed and subject to several twists and turns. The title character doesn’t even appear until Chapter XV, and then the only drama between her and her lover is to whether she will accept him. Still, Trollope is Trollope, and there is much to enjoy in the book.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even a lesser Trollope is an enjoyable, worthwhile read. Here Trollope’s views of marriage are portrayed, most notably with warmth and wisdom through Lady Amaldina and her new husband, Lord Llwddythlw.

[Dystopian Mayhem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even after a whole year, the story is still memorable,,,vaguely . Trollop  has many things that are not likable....to me at least. one of them is how he writes his heroines,but the evil in some characters was successfully portrayed.

[Lynn Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad but a nice read

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a reasonably solid Trollope dramatic romance that tackles social differences in the 19th century. Enjoyable, but not as powerful as some of his other stories, and the details are already fading from memory. I liked the addition of the characters on Paradise Row which added levity where it was needed. Marion Fay herself wasn't a particularly interesting character and I think her story was outshone by the parallel story of Lady Frances and George Roden.

[Samantha (A Dream of Books) · Rating 5 out of 5]

💕’You do not understand”, he said, “how absolutely my heart is set upon you”.

💕’She must be his altogether, from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet - and that without delay’.

One of the things that I especially love about Anthony Trollope’s writing, is the way that he is so adept at making me feel the emotions of his characters - their hopes and longings, their love and their sorrows. In Marion Fay, he does this so perfectly, that I felt like I experienced every triumph and every sadness alongside them.

Trollope contrasts two love affairs in the book, highlighting the differences between class, rank and wealth. Lord Hampstead longs for the titular Marion, the daughter of a City clerk and his sister, Lady Frances is desperately in love with George Roden, a Post Office clerk. I had a sense early on that their relationships may not both have the happy endings they were hoping for.

I absolutely adored Hampstead who passionately pursues Marion against all her objections. From the moment he sets eyes on her, he is determined to make his home hers too. Rank means nothing to him, especially if it is the thing preventing Marion from agreeing to be his wife. He is kind, loyal, romantic and honest about his intentions and his feelings.

I was rooting for them until the very end.

The story really drew me in and kept me engaged throughout. There are moments of Trollope’s wonderfully humorous touch in some of the secondary storylines and in some of the scenes set in Paradise Row, where the residents are always gossiping and peeping out the window. I also immensely enjoyed the plot involving Lady Kingsbury and the unscrupulous clergyman Mr Greenwood.

It is a tearjerker and I did cry my eyes out at the conclusion, so be warned to have a box of tissues to hand. A beautifully told story and another firm favourite by the wonderful Anthony Trollope.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Marquis of Kingsbury has two children, now adults, Hampstead and Frances. He brought them up with liberal notions, but now that their mother has died and he has remarried, he has returned to the political conservatism befitting his station in life. But, alas, those liberal notions have taken hold in his children, and Frances seeks to marry a clerk in the post office, while Hampstead courts a Quaker, the Marion Fay of the title.

This is of course familiar Trollope territory -- children seeking "unsuitable" marriages and the troubles that result. Some think that in Marion Fay Trollope resolved these problems in a particularly sentimental fashion, but there was a lot I liked about this novel. There is a good comic subplot involving incompetence at the post office (recall that Trollope spent many years as a clerk there himself). And the almost murderously conniving step-mother of Hampstead and Frances is good.

Trollope died shortly after Marion Fay was published, but, madly industrious novelist that he was, he had four more novels already finished that were published posthumously, as was his autobiography, which he had intended only for posthumous publication.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having focussed on 19th-century British literature as an English major in college, it's surprising I'd never read any Trollope before now. This is a fairly typical account of the class system in England at the time, but "typical" does not mean uninteresting. The twist is that two aristocrats--brother and sister--fall for "commoners." This gives us the added view of not only the gulf between the classes but also the gulf between the genders. While people are aghast that the sister wants to marry beneath her, and her father threatens to cut her off if it occurs, no one bats an eye at the idea that the brother wants to marry down as well...except for the person he wants to marry (the Marion Fay of the books title).

It's a bit rambling and seemingly random, as Marion first declares that, though she loves Hampstead (the brother), to marry him would be to bring him down, but then later claims the reason she can't marry him is that she knows she will die young. This disjointedness is probably due to the fact that this novel was originally published as a serial, over several years.

[Eugenia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was, to quote Henry James on another Trollope novel, a thoroughly stupid novel; there is not one thing in it that is not stupid. I guess if you are that prolific, sometimes you have a few misses. I did make it all the way through, because he does know how to tell a story, but it's a stupid, stupid story, featuring a postal clerk who turns out to be an Italian Duke, a consumptive Quaker heroine, a murderous but pusillanimous clergyman, a vindictive Countess and a great deal of misplaced quotation from Macbeth.

[Gillian James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although she is the title character Marion Fay does not appear in this book until Chapter 8, which does leave the reader a little puzzled while all the other characters are introduced. When I did finally meet the eponymous heroine she was most definitely not my favourite character and her arguments with Lord Hampstead were the most tedious part of the novel. However, there are several other excellent characters and overall the story is enjoyable. In conclusion, not Trollope's best work but still worth a read if you like classics.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lowest rating I've given to Trollope, one of my very favourite authors. The main plot is implausible and not awfully nice either, but the book is redeemed by the gloriously vulgar and irrepressible Crocker, and the villainous Greenwood. If this was the first Trollope I'd read, I probably wouldn't have bothered with another.

[Jeanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet and romantic. I like Trollope for the real time flavor of his writing.

Merged review:

I love Trollope as I like the real time sense of history and how differently relationship issues were. Sweet and romantic.