The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson By One of the Firm

by Anthony Trollope

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Genres: Classics, Fiction, Victorian, Literature, English Literature, Classic Literature, Literary Fiction

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1862

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

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great fun Anthony Trollope book - quite a different one, following the antics of a small haberdashery company.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I get to rate things one star so seldom that this is very satisfying, even for a favorite author like Trollope. 😂 The only reason I persevered with this is that I want to be a Trollope completist but this was a STRUGGLE. You know at the start that the firm has failed, and I don’t like that way of telling a story. I’d rather work up to the climax. At least then there is some suspense. Only George Robinson and Mr Brown were vaguely likable. The two women were awful and the rest of the characters either uninteresting or unattractive. There was something about Trollope’s writing in this that bugged me too. It’s obviously meant to be humorous but it felt over-the-top in a repellent way. I think because the firm is terrible with its money and that always bothers me in books. They’re just plain irresponsible in a stupid way. And I don’t care at all about commerce. I much prefer other books I’ve read that are set in stores because there was interesting detail about the store and the web of relationships with the employees. I’m thinking of The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola, Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett, and High Wages by Dorothy Whipple. I’d recommend those over this one in a heartbeat.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, Mr. Trollope, you should not have published this. I am not the first to have said this, and you know I am one of your biggest fans. Even you knew this didn't compare with your others. You published it anonymously. Probably no one was deceived. Who else would call the butcher "Mr. Brisket"? I love the way you write; you have a unique style. In this, however, you couldn't decide between sarcasm and satire. Your sarcasm in the beginning is laugh out loud funny, but then there isn't enough of it. Or maybe it isn't couched properly and I missed it after the first bit.

You know this won't be my last of you, despite this being pretty much stinking. I aim to read all of your novels (only 5 to go!) and your short story collections. I probably want to read your biography of William Makepeace Thackeray, who was your great friend. I'm glad I didn't end my reading of you with this one. I'm sure there are great things ahead of me. I'm sorry, but I just can't get myself to color in more than 2 stars for this, though it's probably close to 3-stars. I hope you understand.

[Ginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Satire, often quite bitter, from start to finish. I find I need that sort of comedy in small doses--I can't watch a whole movie like that, or several episodes at once. (Like Fleabag--very well done, but hard to watch.) An entire novel, albeit a short one, with everything meaning the opposite of what is being said, is too much satire. I was one of the few Trollope novels I had not read, and I had a copy on my shelf, so that was one motivation. Reading with a group and reading it in small chunks made it more interesting.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

First sentence: It will be observed by the literary and commercial world that, in this transaction, the name of the really responsible party does not show on the title-page. I — George Robinson — am that party.

Premise/plot: Brown, Jones, and Robinson may have failed miserably in their business venture BUT George Robinson's account of their attempt is a delightful treat.

Mr. Brown is an older man, nearing retirement, let's say. He brings the money--the capital--to the business. He has two partners each with a twenty-five percent share. Mr. Jones is Mr. Brown's son-in-law. He's married to Sarah Jane, I believe. But Mr. Brown has ANOTHER daughter: Maryanne. Mr. Robinson has hopes to marry her one day. If she'll say yes and actually mean it.

You see, Maryanne has ISSUES. First, she thinks the world revolves around her. Second, she doesn't like having just one suitor begging for her hand in marriage. Third, she doesn't care WHERE or HOW her father gets the money to pay her potential groom, so long as he does it SOON. Mr. Brisket is the other suitor. And he wants MONEY before saying I do. More money than Mr. Brown has. Perhaps more money than Mr. Brown can earn in the next year.

Now don't be thinking that Maryanne is the only selfish person in the novel. She's not alone. Mrs. Jones--Sarah--is a piece of work as well. She wants what she wants when she wants it. And she's not above TAKING what she wants and hoping that no one else will notice. Her husband is like-minded. In fact, Robinson is all but sure that these two have been helping themselves to the store's money. That Mr. Brown probably WOULD have the money to pay Mr. Brisket if Mr. Jones wasn't such a scoundrel. The store seems destined for bankruptcy.

Will she or won't she become Mrs. Robinson? Will she or won't she become Mrs. Brisket? Will Mr. Brown lose his home and his business? Will George Robinson land on his feet and find happiness and success elsewhere? Will lessons be learned?

My thoughts: George Robinson is far from perfect. He has mixed up priorities. But his narrative voice is so delightful. Even when the situation is dire--serious--there's a touch of humor to be found. I enjoyed this one so much. It was a GREAT reminder as to why I love Trollope. Orley Farm was a CHORE. But this one was a treat.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

This tale of a failed haberdashery firm is definitely a lesser Trollope, but it's amusing and worth reading (if you're a Trollope fan, anyway, and most Trollope fans are the kind who will track down all of his books regardless). It's a satire on advertising, and very funny in spots, though the characters are more caricatured than usual for Trollope (but as expected given the subject and style).

Another thing unusual for Trollope is the narrator: it's told by "one of the firm" (Robinson, to be exact), and though it's third-person, it's very much Robinson's point of view rather the usual Trollopean narrator (though Trollope's voice breaks though a couple of times).

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Trollope’s shorter novels which could perhaps have been even shorter as the relationship triangle and the shop shenanigans got a little repetitive. Other than that it zipped along with narration by the advertising “genius” and frequent Shakespeare referencer Robinson providing satire and humor as the three men explore the world of “commerce” to their detriment.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of Anthony Trollope's less popular novels. And it's easy to see why. Firstly, it is constructed in a rather unusual way. As the title suggests, it is narrated by one of the three main characters, George Robinson. However, although the preface is written in the first person singular, the rest of the book is not. In fact, it is quite unmistakably written in Trollope's voice. Secondly, it is a book about failure. The three men establish a shop, which ultimately goes bankrupt. We learn a lot about how small businesses operated in the 1860s, but it is never clear whether the information about the struggles of the lower middle class is serious or just satirical.

But the most irritating part is surely the role played by Robinson's sweetheart, Maryanne, the young daughter of his partner Brown. They are engaged, but then she decides that she would be better off marrying the well-established Briskett. He renounces her. She then seems to change her mind and comes back to him, but he has to renounce her again when she flips back to Brisket. This repeats a couple of times. As a reader, this is hard to swallow after a while.

There is a serious underlying issue. Yes. Do women have to marry the man they love, or is the main objective to provide oneself with a nice home? She cannot be so selfish as to marry the man she loves — Robinson, she says somewhat paradoxically. (She probably just dislikes Robinson a bit less than Brisket.) Ultimately, she ends up with neither. As Trollope says, she sits between two stools. As the wife of one of Robinson’s friends says to comfort him, she would not have stayed lovely and “and probably take to drink”. Not the stuff Victorian readers were used too. And neither am I. So one must admire the bravery of Trollope. But the fact remains, it is just not a very good book.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trollope's main satirical target in this novel is advertising. It's too heavy handed, particularly from a novelist whose satirical touch could be appealingly light. What saved this novel for me was the competition between Robinson and Brisket, the butcher, for the hand of Maryanne Brown, although that, too, Trollope draws very broadly. Twenty years or so after reading this, I still chuckle over Robinson's excoriation of the more prosperous Brisket, when he feared Brisket was prevailing with Maryanne: "Let him revel in his shambles!"

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful read. Not at all typical Trollope, none of the usual authorial discursions, but very funny and some wonderful characterisations. I'd choose Maryanne and Brisket the butcher as probably the best, though the oily Jones and the sensible Poppins are a joy too. And as for the Goose Club, it's a tremendous vignette. In many ways this book is more like HG Wells in his marvellous Mr Polly mode - and that's some compliment!

[Allison Burris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun satire where the protagonist is just the slightest bit ridiculous. It's light, but if you like Victorian literature it's short and worth reading.

[Anthony Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a longstanding Trollope devotee, but I enjoy my excursions into his urbane, mischievous and wickedly critical view of the world in combination with his - in my limited experience - unswerving advocacy of decency and kindness. I found this short novel secondhand in the market, knew nothing of it, and thought I'd give it a go.

I haven't found it unrewarding - a sort of commercial romance in combination with a humorous rather than bitingly satirical view of advertising. The narrative, told in the third person by the George Robinson of the title, concerns the rise and fall of the haberdashery (although it seemed to me it's a sort of clothing, haberdashery amd accessories enterprise) emporium of Nine by Nine at 81 Bishopsgate Street. Mr Brown has two daughters, Sarah Jane and Maryanne whose chief interest is in screwing as much money out of him as possible. Sarah Jane marries Mr Jones who becomes a partner in the firm, and together they systematically steal from the till, thus contributing to the demise of the business but securing their future in the process. Maryanne, however, finds herself caught between the romantic but unprovided for Robinson and the butcher, Brisket, who can only see his way to marrying her on condition of a dowry of £500 in order to expand his business. Eventually, Robinson renounces Maryanne, and Brisket, finding his money is not forthcoming, abandons her as well, marrying instead the daughter of his supplier of sheep.

Much of the middle part of the novel is given over to this romantic shenanigan, and I confess to finding this a little wearing. Nevertheless, it was lightened by observations about the behaviour of customers in the shop (especially the pugnacious Mrs Morony who knows full well that the article displayed in the window will be a superior one to that which the assistants will try to foist on her), by a final showdown between the diminutive Robinson and the brawny Brisket, and a trip to the Goose and Gridiron where Robinson and his friend Poppins enjoy their membership of a debating club.

These several incidents add colour to a sound central narrative, the end of which is announced at the beginning of the novel, and Trollope's sympathetic rendition of his characters, even though he has to use the medium of the persona of his narrator. In particular I liked Robinson's self-dramatising, melodramatic self-presentation and his delusional notion that what matters is not the quality of the goods you have to sell but the efficacy of the advertising that will persuade the public to buy them. And in this respect, much of the story has a comic edge including the fake news story Robinson devises about Johnson of Manchester who, Robinson alleges, has let Nine by Nine down badly by failing to supply them as requested.

I was, however, more affected by the presentation of Maryanne. She is the younger of Mr Brown's daughters, and desperately anxious, with an ageing father and no assured financial security, to be married with a roof over her head. She has given up hoping she will be taken up by a lover, and is prepared to sacrifice love for domestic regularity and a man who can support her and a family. The sad reality of her plight is highlighted by Robinson's conciliatory visit to Mr and Mrs Brisket after the firm has been wound up and we see an ordinary tradesman with a pretty and ordinary wife able to enjoy a piece of veal and a glass of brandy with a guest. Maryanne does not think this is a bliss she will ever enjoy. This aspect of the novel was for me, by the end, more memorable than the fun Trollope has at the expense of Robinson's delusions, the Jones' veniality, Brown's feebleness and Brisket continually harping on that he 'can see his way' to marrying Maryanne if the cash is forthcoming.

It was this respect for ordinary domestic human ambitions that currently resides in my memory. It accords with my own sense of basic human happiness and seems to be one certain factions in society currently seem determined to deny to other people.

A side comment on the text is related to a conversation held recently in a U3A science group I attend. One of our members worked in the dyeing industry and he was talking about the advent of artifical dyes in the 19th century. He mentioned mauve in particular. Well, Robinson insists that Nine by Nine be painted entirely in Magenta. It turns out that this colour was invented in 1859 and 'The Struggles...' was published in 1862. So Trollope envisioned Robinson as maximising the novelty of the newly available colour - made in London, so easily available to his fictional emporium.

The final distinguishing feature of my experience of this novel is that my copy had also been enjoyed extensively by a bookworm, from cover to cover. He must have been very fat by the time he finished it.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not admired much in Trollope's lifetime (it even had trouble getting published), this one reads well, I find, in our current post-truth world. The one of the firm who tells the story (albeit in the third person) is George Robinson, whose transparent self-regard makes him an interesting unreliable narrator. He fails to grasp major facts, most notably that the primary reason for the struggles is his own lavish expenditure on advertising, in which he has absolute faith. The book satirizes the casual regard for truth in the mercantile world, coupled with a particularly on-the-nose representation of marriage in economic terms. Robinson comes briefly to doubt his philosophy in the final pages, which wasn't necessary really, since Trollope has done fine exposing his fatuousness throughout. The sort of narrative voice used here is rare for Trollope, so that is a feature of interest. And Trollope has some fun with Robinson trying to demonstrate his literary prowess (writing ad copy!) by having him frequently invoke literary classics, notably Shakespeare, as Robinson frequently likens Brown's travails with his daughters to Lear's with Goneril and Regan (sadly, there is no Cordelia). I think that some of the original distaste for the book may have derived from the fact that it is rather darker than is typical for Trollope. Nevertheless, it is not top-shelf Trollope, though even middling Trollope is worth the read.

[Gurth Bruins · Rating 4 out of 5]

It appears that Anthony Trollope himself was not too impressed by the book, meant to be funny. I will say I found the book very readable, which is the main thing I ask for always. It reminds me of Arnold Bennett's excursions into lighter novels such as 'The Regent', 'The Sharp' and others, its use of imaginative, far-fetched ideas - such as Evelyn Waugh also used in his story of outrageous self-advertisement (totally false) on the part of a would-be schoolmaster ('Decline and Fall'). Taken in this spirit, one can enjoy the almost slap-stick quality of the humour.

But for me 'B.,J.,R' also has a very serious side, albeit treated in a rather comical way: the real suffering caused by filial ingratitude and also by the madness of romantic love. I feel I am left with a powerful memory of the character and behaviour of this Goneril and Regan, and in fact also of Jones, Brisket, Brown and last but not least George/Hamlet. Not to mention the other personae dramatis. They are all interesting in their range of attitudes.

Maybe I should mention that I regard Anthony Trollope as the best of all novelists, and that he has written greater novels than this one. That's why I have knocked off one star.

[Lisa May · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever laughed out loud over one of Anthony Trollope's stories before. The absurdities of the advertising campaigns dreamed up by the junior member of the firm, George Robinson, would actually fit the 21st century better than the 1860s. There is also a hilariously serious debating club, the members of which are known as Geese, under their head "The Most Worthy Grand Goose," with all kinds of ceremonies and titles and rules. Trollope considered this his least-successful book but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Glenn Oldham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trollopes short novels are often excellent. This one is rather unusual in that it is a satire. In this case the topic of the satire is advertising.

[Maan Kawas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novel!

[John Croall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of his best, but OTOH worth a look.

[Lynn Slone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great novel. 👍

[Tanner Seitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

not the most interesting trollope

[Pgchuis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stuck with this as I am aiming to read all of Trollope's fiction, but it was hard-going. Brown, Jones and Robinson form a partnership in a haberdasher's shop, using capital Brown has inherited from his wife. Robinson, whose viewpoint we are given (albeit "edited"), blows most of the money on extravagant and false advertising and the rest is lost through poor management. Robinson's views on the importance of advertising and building a business on credit (as opposed to capital) are the subject of extended (188 pages) satire and it gets old quickly. There are some nice lines, and I liked the Goose debating club scenes, but I wish Trollope had written an essay rather than a novella about it. There were no characters to identify with, except perhaps for Mr Poppins, the faint voice of reason, and the "romantic" sub-plot was also sad and pathetic. It was also very poorly plotted - I struggled at times to remember which of Maryanne's suitors was currently in favour. I've read it and I need never do so again.

[Curt Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I especially relish satire in our catastrophic times, I asked a Trollope "completist" what he'd recommend, beyond the magnum opus of "The Way We Live Now," and he mentioned this short novel. It proved to be as amusing as he claimed, in fact hilarious when first we find out that the "Firm" is a mare's nest of sordid family hostilities, rivalries, and backstabbings, and the narrator is, in fact, a lovestruck suitor for one of the daughters. He's also a self-aggrandizing noobie in the advertising game, and part of the amusement is the description for his various campaigns to put the firm's clothing store on the London map. This was livelier and more readable than I'd expected, and while not the greatest literature, was an in interesting trip into Victorian comedy, though I'm reminded that George Meredith's"The Egoist" and Collier's "His Monkey Wife" were funnier as slightly later British satires.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

All I really remember about this lesser-known work is that it seemed unusual to have Trollope writing a novel in the first person. Also that it has a lot of satirical comment about the Victorian business ethic.

[Lynda Newman · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some fairly good ideas but that was all

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was ok, but not great. but it's part of my trollope read