Victorian Short Stories - Courtship

by Anthony Trollope, W.S. Gilbert, George Egerton

It seems unlikely that there could be any subject to have preoccupied writers throughout the ages more than the pursuit of love. This may have reached an all time high in the Victorian era when a new age of romanticism captured hearts and minds. However, whilst love might have been the ultimate answer there were numerous questions that preceded it. Courtship and marriage were complicated transactions with a plethora of rules and customs that were enforced and could not be avoided. A good match was of paramount importance for both men and women and involved not just their families but required mutual acquaintances in order to begin or progress the relationship due to the complicated etiquette involved in introductions, home visits and all contact between the potential couple which until engagement required chaperoning. This series of short stories wonderfully captures the nuances of these rituals and includes gems from Anthony Trollope who with great flair is able to penetrate the many layers of social etiquette involved, William Schwenk Gilbert, who reveals a fascinating insight into this Victorian world and many more.

Included:

Angela: An Inverted Love Story, by W.S. Gilbert (1890)
The Parson's Daughter of Oxney Colne by Anthony Trollope (1861)
Anthony Gartin's Courtship by Hubert Crackenthorpe (1896)
A Little Grey Glove by George Egerton (1894)
The Woman Beater by Israel Zangwill (1900)

Genres: Classics

106 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1900

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_...