He Knew He Was Right

by Anthony Trollope, John Sutherland (Editor)

Widely regarded as one of Trollope's most successful later novels, He Knew He Was Right is a study of marriage and of sexual relationships cast against a background of agitation for women's rights.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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

992 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1869

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

[Axl Oswaldo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel that reminded me of some previous experiences reading other Victorian novels, such as Middlemarch, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and North and South. Actually, if I had to describe He Knew He Was Right by using a few words, those words would be: Victorian, Victorian and Victorian.

I'm not going to lie, I truly enjoyed reading this book from cover to cover, not only because Anthony Trollope's prose is genuinely beautiful and quite readable, but also because the main plot made me keep my eyes—should I say 'my ears' since I mostly listened to the audiobook?—on the multiple stories we have here. Almost 1000 pages that, at the end of the day, felt as if I had read only 500 or so pages, basically because it was impossible for me to put the book down.
As I said before, this book is so Victorian, basically what a typical Victorian story is about: marriage, old customs and new customs, social position and status, women's and men's role in society, and so on and so forth; since I am a total sucker for Victorian literature I was a bit skeptical about He Knew He Was Right being a good novel in terms of the content and the writing style—besides, my first experience reading a Trollope novel was regular only—but it turned out to be a great book, where the author really depicted the stories (both main plot and subplots) in a profound and a realistic way. That being said, I must confess there are some subplots that have nothing to do with the main plot—there is no a strong relation between them—and consequently they become boring at times, even disappointing if you are expecting to find something rather meaningful by reading those stories.

I have recently realized that Trollope wrote quite a few novels, and perhaps this one is not Trollope at his best—I would say it was still better than my first pick, Cousin Henry—but I can also tell it is actually a compelling, fascinating and at times intriguing book, which I would recommend to anyone who loves reading a lot of Victorian classics. Now, I'm not quite sure if this would be a good choice to kick off your Trollope journey with, perhaps you should try other shorter books first, and then come back to this one. In my case, I found myself gravitating toward the world Trollope is building in this novel; also, things such as being able to picture the Victorian society—mainly the countryside—throughout his book, finding some characters' relationships well depicted and, of course, a good, enjoyable style of writing – I guess I couldn't have asked for more.
If I had to say something negative about this book that would be the fact that the author is rambling on some topics that are not necessarily important for the sake of our main characters—it is nonetheless rambling stuff I also enjoyed reading—and the ending, that was somewhat abrupt and very, very optimistic (not a big surprise though, you can expect anything when it comes to Victorian endings).

Finally, I'd like to share something else: it is a shame we don't have a lot of Trollope novels in Spanish translation—this novel, for instance, is not translated into Spanish, and I actually found it by spending some time on LibriVox, saving future readings, looking for future favorite narrators, and the like—which makes me think of the amount of books and authors we are missing because of those translations we don't have. It is really a shame to see many Victorian authors on LibriVox who I didn't know before, and whose works don't have a translation in my mother language. Somehow this situation just makes me want to keep reading in my second language in order to improve those reading skills that are so necessary for you to enjoy those stories and authors you care about. It sounds simple, maybe, but it is actually a long yet exciting journey.

By the way, he WAS NOT right. (I let this statement here without any context, so you can tell me in the future whether or not you agree with me, once you pick up and finish this novel of course).

“The reading of poetry together, out of the same book, with brows all close, and arms all mingled, is very sweet. The pouring out of the whole heart in written words, which the writer knows would be held to be ridiculous by any eyes, and any ears, and any sense, but the eyes and ears and sense of the dear one to whom they are sent, is very sweet – but for the girl who has made a shirt for the man that she loves, there has come a moment in the last stitch of it, sweeter than any that stars, haycocks, poetry, or superlative epithets have produced."

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful novel.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

He Knew He Was Right begins with an engaging enough premise, one that will have you discussing with friends and family the merits of communication, relationships, and sacrifice in love. It’s more interesting as a writing prompt than many other novels from the same period. But then… it goes on. And on. And on. Over 900 pages, my god.

This is pure, unadulterated Victorian diction. Five, six, maybe even seven storylines are started and kept going for the duration of the novel, and this was ultimately the downfall of the book for me. The main characters within the book feature in what feels like 20% of it. Secondary and tertiary characters get as much “page time”. To be fair to Trollope, a couple of these characters were well-constructed, evoking lots of positive emotion on the part of the reader. But the weaving in and out of the storylines did not work here – Trollope was not in control of the overall plot (and if we assume that this was a serialized novel, as I am sure it was, you could make some excuses for it). There were certainly many questions left unanswered at the end. Lots of moral pandering that I personally did not agree with, lots of harsh fates prescribed to characters which were out of pocket. There was no payoff or resolution that even came close to satisfying (and by that, I don’t mean positive or negative, just enough to have justified the length of the book).

I am sure Trollope has many better books than this, despite what the back of the Oxford edition says, that the book is “widely regarded as one of Trollope’s masterpieces”. At 930 pages, this comes in at a whopping bore. When the spark of the premise wears off, you are left slogging through mud. You can probably skip this one.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite things about Anthony Trollope's novels is his talent for penetrating psychological portraits, and He Knew He Was Right is one of Trollope's best in this respect. Here, he examines Louis Trevelyan, a man who unjustly accuses his wife Emily of infidelity, and his descent from jealousy and rage into madness. Trollope himself disliked the novel, feeling that he'd failed in his effort to create sympathy for the troubled Trevelyan, yet I felt that he did succeed; the portrait of Trevelyan's disintegration, particularly in his relationship with his wife and their little son, was deeply moving.

In addition to the Trevelyan family, the novel is filled with sharply drawn characters, including some of Trollope's best women: the spinster Miss Stanbury, her sharp-tongued niece Priscilla, and Emily's sister Nora Rowley, who refuses to give up the man she loves in spite of the threat of poverty. There are a lot of characters and a lot of subplots, but Trollope manages to keep them all going without detracting from the story of the Trevelyans' failing marriage; in fact, for me the novel was more about the predicament of women in Victorian society than about the titular hero. Trollope does poke fun at feminists in the person of Wallachia Petrie, the American poetess, but he clearly understood and sympathized with women's plight in a society in which they were largely subject to the wishes of men.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, it's partly my anachronistic reading as a twenty-first century feminist, but it's also the strain of being over eight hundred pages long when it only could support around two-thirds that length: I loved this book at the halfway mark, and kind of resented it by the end.

Initially this struck me, like many nineteenth-century British novels, as a black comedy about a crisis created by the extremely unequal status of men and women, whose individual personal relationships were supposed to form the basis of society. Mr and Mrs Trevelyan are a young married couple blessed with all that sweetly smiling Fortune can offer, until a petty jealousy and mutual headstrong refusals to give ground or admit fault unravel the marriage and ultimately destroy their lives. Meanwhile, there is a constellation of unmarried young lady characters and their beaus whose romances start off fun but then are resolved rather early on, leaving us with hundreds of pages of treacly excitement about inevitable and uninteresting weddings to come... zzzz.

So while this book started very strong, ultimately I was disappointed and then relieved when it finally ended. The main problem was that there was way too much endless rehashing and repetition to no purpose at all: the same topics were considered and reconsidered and discussed by the characters so much it seemed Trollope must have been paid by the word -- or the page. And while I'm certainly no expert on the nineteenth-century British novel, I still couldn't help comparing Trollope unfavorably to other major writers: If Thackeray weren't so viciously funny, if Austen weren't such an astute creator of complex, breathing characters, if Dickens weren't such a fierce social critic and weren't very good at making up funny names... Based on this book, I must say Trollope's most stunning talent, the place he surpasses all his peers, is in his incredible, wonderful, inimitable titles. You can't do much better than He Knew He Was Right, unless it's with Can You Forgive Her? (dare we even mention perhaps THE greatest title in Western literature, The Way We Live Now??), and in my view no one has.

Okay but so, while by the end I was tired of the worn material that I didn't think stood up to the mileage and I'd burned out on the simpering heroines and long-anticipated, predicable resolution of some but not all the loose ends... the fact remains that I haven't read any books at all in a very long time because an MFA program and the demands of motherhood seem to have destroyed my capacity to engage with fiction. Yet I sat down happily with this book whenever I had the chance and tore through it, which hasn't happened to me with anything in a very long time and I mostly enjoyed and am grateful for it. Initially I found the central Trevelyan conflict interesting but those two characters the most flat and dull, and I was very interested in the fates and doings of all the novel's many single ladies, who seemed more interesting and more carefully drawn; by the end, that feeling had reversed and I'd lost interest in those other characters but was finally impressed by Trollope's rather nuanced depiction of one man's mental illness. So yes, his tiresome efforts at satire and much else in this novel did drag on way too long, but while it didn't live up to its initial promise on the whole I enjoyed this book and do plan to give Trollope another try.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long, but brilliantly insightful into the nature of mental illness and obsession. The family law issues it covers are still relevant today.

But in the midst of all this, it has some delightful and very funny subplots, particularly involving Miss Stanbury and Mr Gibson.

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

In the marriage ceremony, the woman promises "to love, honor and obey." When asked to be obedient, Emily Trevelyan agrees to obey in all things except the one thing which has been demanded. Such is the point around which this plot revolves. It makes the novel more full of drama than most of his I have read.

I have said elsewhere that Trollope does a better job with women characterizations than most male authors, especially those 19th Century authors I have read. But even I did not expect this: "The lot of a woman, as she often told herself, was wretched, unfortunate, almost degrading. For a woman such as herself there was no path open to her energy, other than that of getting a husband." Nor this: "'It is a very poor thing to be a woman,' she said to her sister. 'It is perhaps better than being a dog,' said Nora; 'but, of course, we can't compare ourselves to men.'"

Trollope always has his sub-plots. It can be expected with Trollope that he gives us plenty of comedy relief. One of the many romances (and there are several) is one of them. "Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned" and the fury that follows brought many smiles to this reader.

As a young man, and for many years, Trollope worked for the Post Office - first as a clerk and then as a postal inspector. He wrote in the early hours before heading to his "day job." He is credited with developing and introducing the red letter box, which I believe still exists. It was with this knowledge that I read:

The post used to come into Nuncombe Putney at about eight in the morning, carried thither by a wooden-legged man who rode a donkey. There is a general understanding that the wooden-legged men in country parishes should be employed as postmen, owing to the great steadiness of demeanour which a wooden leg is generally found to produce. It may be that such men are slower in their operations than would be biped postmen; but as all private employers of labour demand labourers with two legs, it is well that the lame and halt should find a refuge in the less exacting service of the government. The one-legged man who rode his donkey into Nuncombe Putney would reach his post-office not above half an hour after his proper time; but he was very slow in stumping round the village, and seldom reached the Clock House much before ten.

I enjoyed this, but it's hard to equate it with some of his best known works, especially with either of the best of his two series. Nearly all of Trollope is a 5-star read for me, but I won't pretend that I think you will find this of that quality. For that reason, I'm giving it 4 stars.

Posted on the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Anthony Trollope (April 24, 1815 - December 6, 1882).

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

He Knew He Was Right is very long but always compelling and never dull. As always, Trollope gets the balance between humour and drama just right.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great story from the first page to the last!

Louis Trevelyan is the first character introduced and his story is the main theme throughout. Trevelyan, at 24 years old is a very handsome, intelligent man with secure investments. In his travels to the Mandarin Islands, Louis falls in love with Emily Rowley, the eldest daughter of four in the Rowley family. The two set off for England and marry, and settle in on Curzon Street, a nice, comfortable life, good society.

Ah, Curzon Street, “where life is beautiful all the time and I’ll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats . . . and they’re coming to take me away, ha-haaa!” Yes, this is where Louis and his wife Emily start their lives together. The comforts of a nice home, good society – life was so good. They have a child together, Louey, a beautiful baby boy. But, what happened? What events start to change all this serenity? Aha, a good friend of Emily’s father appears at Trevelyan’s front door, a gentleman by the name of Colonel Osborne. Maybe “gentleman” is too kind of an adjective. From the descriptions of the public on Curzon Street, he is described more as a libertine.

Colonel Osborne, a man in his 50’s-- a few years older than his good friend Sir Marmaduke Rowley, visits the “newlywed” couple to see Emily after many, many years. He hadn’t seen her since she was 4 years old. Oh, how she has grown. How beautiful she has become. He just wants to strike up a friendship – after all, he is very good friends with her father. She is accepting of his visits, of his friendship – she is flattered with his attention. Hmm. And so the story begins.



Trevelyan pondering

The sub plots of this story are creative. Several families are introduced and you might think it difficult to follow, but the character development is so well accomplished you will easily distinguish each family member and his/her unique meaning to this story. The interconnection between all is very well done.

There is a political aspect within this novel that delivers a good dose of spice. Trollope brings in a compare/contrast between America and England. How he works this made me chuckle. He introduces a few female characters from America, one of whom is a true women’s rights activist– Miss Petrie. Oh how extreme she is depicted; it is hilarious. You see Trollope’s ridicule of Americans within this part of the story.

Even though the portrayal of the American woman was a little harsh as I stated above, overall Trollope does portray women in a positive light. His theme from the start is the right of a woman’s choice (choice of men that is). A storyline brings two people together of different monetary stature, and they fall in love. Oh, this is not acceptable to the older generation. A woman should not be marrying a man who cannot provide for her. But, when a woman and a man fall in love, how can you tell them it is not to be just because the money is not proper. The development of independent thinking within these young women is priceless.

As I mentioned above, there are love encounters within this story. These encounters keep your interest high. High in the sense of unpredictability; you expect one scenario to occur and the plot takes off in a completely different direction to confuse the thought process. My page turning became faster and faster.

I felt anger in parts of this book in favor of Louis Trevelyan, and rooted for him throughout this story. I did feel he was right, but poor Louis did go a little too far with his convictions. . . "and, they’re coming to take me away, ha-haaa.”

If you are a skim reader, you may miss the subtle humor within. There were a couple of spots I read a few lines and stopped and said, “Wait, what was said here?” and then, laughed out loud!

This is a great read! I highly recommend it!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five huge stars!!! Will definitely be writing more.

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific novel! Okay, having said that though, I have to admit that the primary tale of the disintegration of the Trevelyan's marriage through the increasing madness of Louis Trevelyan because of his belief that his wife was cheating on him did become a bit tiresome after a while. I was much more engaged in the lives and affairs of all of the novel's other characters. But I think Trollope wrote the novel generally knowing that this response would occur in each of his readers. In other words, the portrayal of the hell that was the Trevelyan marriage is superbly counter-balanced by the wonderful romantic relationships and eventual marriages that spring up among many of the other characters. The 'dark-comedy' of the French sisters and the cleric, Mr. Gibson, was priceless and almost felt like something that Dickens would have crafted.

Oh, and for all of you Palliser fans, there was one, and only one, reference to a party at which Lady Glencora attended. I love how Trollope drops those little tidbits into his novels!

Solid 4 of 5 stars for me.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louis Trevelyan has everything he could wish for. He has money, a respected place in society and a wife, Emily, he deeply loves and who loves him too. He becomes obsessed with Emily's friendship with Colonel Osborne. The Colonel is an older man with a reputation. Osborne is very aware of the problems he is causing between Louis and Emily and he decides to play on their emotions and delights in the game.

Louis and Emily will not compromise and stubbornness and hurt on both sides causes anger and disappointment. The novel is scattered with letters of correspondence between characters and there are numerous sub-plots which add a lighter feel.

Trollope writes with great sensitivity and shows his interest in troubled minds and the destructive effects of uncontrollable jealousy and paranoia. A power play within their marriage begins!

[liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

so it’s an 800+ page trollope that gets me out of my reading slump

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is rather hard upon readers that they should be thus hurried from the completion of hymeneals at Florence to the preparations for other hymeneals in Devonshire; but is the nature of a complex story to be entangled with many weddings towards its close. In this little history there are, we fear, three or four more to come.

Trollope begins this book by recounting the story of the Trevalyans: Emily, Louis and their baby boy. The Trevalyans have been a love match, only two years married at the beginning of this story. Emily is the oldest of eight daughters of Sir Marmaduke and Lady Rowley, and as she has not had any fortune of her own, her parents have been delighted about their “pearl” of a son-in-law. Indeed, Louis seems the perfect man, cultured, handsome and rich. Unlike his wife, he is an only child and without any parents who might object to his penniless wife. He does have one flaw, though, as his mother-in-law notes: He likes to have his own way. Unfortunately, so does his wife.

This is one of Trollope’s longer novels - my edition has 823 pages - but by page 100, the Trevalyans have managed to become entirely estranged from each other from a matter which could have been easily resolved with some flexibility on either side. At this point, I couldn’t imagine quite how Trollope could spin out this story for so many more pages, but I should have had more faith. He does so by introducing a rather large cast of characters who all touch the Trevalyans’ lives in some ways.

As a counterpoint to Louis Trevalyan, Trollope introduces the character of Miss Jemima Stanbury - an elderly woman who has received a large fortune after being jilted by her fiancé. Miss Stanbury is a great personage in the town of Exeter, and because of her money and unimpeachable reputation, she is able to bestow her favours and charity as she may. At one point, her nephew Hugh Stanbury has been the object of her patronage, but when he chooses to leave the profession of law and write for a penny newspaper, Miss Stanbury decides to sever the connection.

Although they don’t seem to have much in common - other than the connection of Hugh Stanbury - Louis Trevalyan and Miss Stanbury are similar in that they are both autocrats. They are both charming and generous, but they absolutely insist on having their own way. They also think highly of their own judgement, even when both personal and public opinion goes against them.

In many ways, Trollope seems like the least romantic writer; but for all of his practicality on financial matters, he does ascribe - at least within his plots - to the importance of romantic love as a basis for marriage. As he jokes himself, in the quoted excerpt, he has to bring together a number of couples with this story; and although each match has its own complications of love, family and money, we can trust that he will wrap up matters tidily by the end.

In an important sense, though, this is NOT a predictable Trollope novel. It is memorable - and also disturbing - for just that reason. Generally, one reads Trollope for an appreciation of his observations and his dry wit. He has a keen understanding of human nature, but generally he doesn’t require us - as readers - to become too deeply involved with his characters. I don’t want to reveal too much about this plot, but I will say that Trollope plumbs some interesting and unusual psychological depths in this storyline. As much as I enjoy Trollope’s novels, many of the plots and characters dim in my mind not long after reading them. I don’t think that will be the case with this particular book.

[Cleo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, Trollope does not disappoint. This time, his subject matter is somewhat deeper, as in an Othello-type presentation, he delves into the depths of jealousy and obsession, how it works on the human soul and the decay it produces among everyone it touches.

Emily Rowley meets Louis Trevelyan in the Mandarin Islands where her father is the English governor. They fall in love, marry and return to England where they have a son. But a visit from an old friend of Emily's father, Colonel Osborne, sparks a disagreement between husband and wife and to what each owes to the other. Does Emily owe unquestioning obedience? Is Louis being overly demanding in his requests? And is Colonel Osborne's behaviour truly innocuous or is there some sort of nefarious intent behind it?

Meanwhile we also meet Nora, Emily's sister, who resides with her and is given the choice of two possible beaus. Likewise, we are introduced to Dorothy Stanbury, the sister of Hugh Stanbury a close friend of Louis, and who also has two beaus as possible marriage partners. In each case, money plays a tempting role, each in very different ways.

And we also have Aunt Stanbury, a crotchety old lady, who has inherited money that perhaps should have gone elsewhere, and a myriad of other characters.

While being rather long, Trollope's narrative is once again delightful and takes us on a romp through various locations and emotions to bring us to a satisfying end.

[Genia Lukin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is way too misogynistic for me. The whole premise of a husband who is overjealous but a wife who "owes obedience" and by refusing to give it drives him insane is just... too obnoxious for words. I do understand this is 1860s, I just don't have to like it or think it should deserve as much leeway as we give it. After all, what's it all about? The woman sees a guy who is known for being a bit too cozy with the ladies because he's an old family friend. The husband isn't incensed so much because he loves his wife and it's some sort of burning jealousy of this other man who may be her friend - but because his pride and possessiveness of her was damaged. Ugh. Seriously, ugh. If this were a 20th century book, I'd be telling the heroine "divorce the sucker, lady."

Plus any book who can present the sanctimonious, self-righteous, obnoxious bully Miss Stanbury in a half-positive light deserves to be one-starred to oblivion, in my humble opinion, anyway.

[Richard Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read some 20 of Trollope's novels, but this is the first one I've read twice. For me this is one of Trollope's best, if not the best--a study of pathological jealousy with lots of fun, mainly thwarted love affairs that come right, thrown in. I cared a lot about many of the characters, and enjoyed the usual array of strong minded women and gormless men. The non-judgmental, mildly amused tone of the books is attractive, which is why Trollope is so loved and "such a comfort."

[Cphe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lengthy tale where the secondary characters became more engaging and offered more investment than the primary ones. No surprises as to the ending of the novel. Couldn't help but feel that the disagreement between Emily and Louis would have happened regardless some time or other because Louis, well..........."He Knew He Was Right."

[Ricardo Moedano · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first the story struck me as though alternate, extended versions of a small event and a similar situation in Vanity Fair - with Colonel Osbourne somehow reprising the role of the Marquis of Steyne, whose intimacy with Becky Sharp brought trouble between her and her husband Rawdon. In Trollope´s novel Louis Trevelyan is driven over the egde by jealousy of the Colonel and obduracy towards his wife Emily (he banishes her from his house, hires a detective to spy on her, arranges to kidnap their child and flees abroad with him). And then, there is Jemima Stanbury, the old maiden aunt with a fortune that many people covet, albeit, contrary to her fellow harridan Miss Crawley in Thackeray´s tale, who picks a favourite among her relatives too, demanding absolute submission in all matters according to her whims for the sake of her money... contrary to her, I say, the other Stanburys do not grovel at Miss Jemima´s feet in order to find their names written on her will. And when her astute endeavours to marry her niece Dorothy to some clergyman fail (a clergyman already engaged to a family of two daughters of the neighbourhood) and Dorothy falls instead for Brooke Burgess, Miss Jemima´s new chosen heir, who stands his ground against Miss Jemima´s threats to disinherit him should he stick to his purpose in regard to Dorothy, she ends up, after much quarrelling, solitude and illness, accepting the match and forgiving the affronts.

Indeed, Trollope here shows that you just can´t put a price on love, which lesson is given also by Nora Rowley to her prig parents and sister by preferring Hugh Stanbury, a poor, earnest journalist (Hugh was his aunt´s original favourite until he abandoned the bar and took to reporting for a radical paper), over Charles Glascock, a peer of the kingdom.

As to the work as a whole, I feel it more focused and well-rounded than The Eustace Diamonds (Trollope´s version of his friend Collins´s The Moonstone if you may), whose protagonist Lizzy Greystock, furthermore, seems to have been cast in a Becky-Sharpian mould. Then, if you condone me a quick, last digression to crown my argument, approaching the end of Can You Forgive Her?, Glencora Palliser catches a glimpse of the scampish Burgo at some casino in the continent - another parallel to the closing of Thackeray´s magnus opus, when Amelia´s brother chances on Becky, now among a gypsy caravan, in the same setting. And yet, in He Knew He Was Right Trollope did manage to merge the roots from which it stemmed while ministering his own style freely to make it flourish.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some say this is Trollope's greatest novel. The story is about a couple who struggle for control in what is obviously not a very strong marriage. When the innocent wife refused to say she had an affair with another man as her husband demanded, he broke up their home and slowly went mad because he knew he was right.

This is my fourth recorded reading of the novel, but I may have read it a fifth time back in the 1960s. A fine novel but not my favorite.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthony Trollope is one of my favorite authors - he writes with such familiarity that you get sucked right into the story, no matter what it is.

[Grier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aunt Stanbury is my new favorite Trollope character.

[Helynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite its length (99 chapters) and myriads of characters and subplots, this is a smooth, easy and compelling read, beautifully written. I found it to be such a page-turner that I did not give Trollope’s style the attention it deserved. This is the kind of book that should be savored in a second and probably third read. The title of the novel comes from the attitude of young Louis Trevelyan, who loves his wife Emily and their small son, but who cannot quell his suspicions when she receives innocent visits from Colonel Osborne, an old family friend. It’s true enough that Osborne was presumptuous and indiscreet in his number of visits and that Emily could have been more accommodating to her husband’s fears and prejudices for the sake of peace in their marriage. But it is Louis’s stubbornness and paranoia that will remain at the forefront of the story, eventually causing separation, sorrow, and trauma for himself, his family, and his friends as well as his own inevitable demise. From Chapter 37: “Now Trevelyan was, in truth, mad on the subject of his wife's alleged infidelity. He had abandoned everything that he valued in the world, and had made himself wretched in every affair of life, because he could not submit to acknowledge to himself the possibility of error on his own part.” And it only gets worse. Subplots include the romance of Emily’s sister Nora Rowley with Hugh Stanbury, a writer for a liberal newspaper. Nora’s parents are furious at her for turning down a proposal of marriage from wealthy aristocrat Mr. Glascock and taking up with this “penny scribbler.” Chapter 71 is a key essay in that contains Hugh Stanbury’s eloquent defense of the journalism profession to his future father-in-law Sir Marmaduke. “We who write for the press think that our calling is recognized. . . There must be newspapers, and the people trained to write them must be employed. I have been at it now about two years. You know what I earn. Could I have got so far in so short a time as a lawyer, a doctor, a clergyman, a soldier, a sailor, a Government clerk, or in any of those employments which you choose to call professions? I think that is urging a great deal. I think it is urging everything.” Hugh has also enraged his rich aunt Jemima Stanbury who put him through law school, then disowned him when he threw all that over to work for a newspaper. Jemima is bossy and meddlesome, and is now trying to push Hugh’s sister Dorothy into an undesirable marriage to the local vicar, Mr. Gibson, who is simultaneously being pursued by two local birdbrained sisters, Camilla and Arabella French (with some near-homicidal consequences). Dorothy, meanwhile, has met the man of her dreams, but the aunt will not hear of their union. Jemima at least has the endearing quality of being able to admit (more than once) when she is wrong, and ends up exhibiting the proverbial heart of gold. The convoluted plot of the novel will follow several of the key characters to Italy and back to England before the story resolves itself happily for most of them, but not for all. There is also a stint in Florence where the Trevelyans, Rowleys, Stanburys and Glascocks meet some American friends, and the conversation dwells upon social differences of people on both sides of the Atlantic and how unlikely it is that there could be a successful intercultural marriage. (Predictably, there will be such a marriage, but not before there is a lot of doubt and hand-wringing about its viability). An intriguing, though not particularly sympathetic, character is the American poetess Miss Wallachia Petrie, whose feminist ideas are ahead of her time, but which put her on the outs with the majority of more traditional English folk. Again, this is a marvelous novel and uncommonly enjoyable to read, so five stars to Anthony Trollope for his masterful writing style, for creating such realistic and compelling characters and for intertwining their stories so skillfully together.

[Ruthiella · Rating 4 out of 5]

April 24, 2015 will mark the bicentennial of Anthony Trollope’s birthday and Karen at Books and Chocolate is planning a celebration on her blog Books & Chocolate to encourage her readers to pick up as much Trollope as possible between now and then. I had planned already to read the forth book in the Barsetshire Chronicles this year as part of Karen’s Back to the Classics 2015 challenge, so I could have doubled up, but I felt that instead I should take this opportunity to read one of his stand-alone novels instead.

At first I was worried that this novel would be 800 pages of a back and forth argument between a jealous husband and a headstrong wife (it is actually that - SPOILER ALERT- almost to the last page), but it is interspersed with several parallel story lines, almost all to do with marriage and courtship. And when about 50 pages in to the story I was introduced to Miss Stansbury, I knew this book would be a winner. And it was. The increasingly serious and tragic story in the title is tempered by the humor and romance of the other narratives. And I loved Miss Stansbury as a character. She can be petty and obstinate, but she is also warm-hearted deep down and very, very funny. I won’t go into the plot here, just read the goodreads summary if you want to know, but there a great feminist undertones throughout this book which touch on the absurdity and double-sided unfairness of Victorian upper/middle class society in its treatment of women. And as so many have noted, Trollope’s female characters are so much more three dimensional than those in Dickens’ novels.

So, over all a really enjoyable and page turning read, in particular all the scenes in Essex, where Miss Stanbury lives. I always say I hate romance, but I sure loved this book which was virtually nothing but romance. I am a little sorry that Colonel Osborn did not get his comeuppance; I will just have to invent one off the page. But let’s face it, he was over-the-hill already, just hanging on by the hairs of his dyed whiskers. No doubt, a few years later, he becomes completely obscure, no woman finds him charming and he dies a sorry, solitary death.

[Richard R]

He Knew He Was Right is concerned with one relatively simple question: does a woman have the right to determine their own relationships or must this be ceded to their husband, parents or other relatives? I've written before about Trollope's qualified liberalism and it's often the case here that he clearly can have a low opinion of his female characters: "Priscilla was a young woman who read a great deal and even had some gifts of understanding what she read."

Nonetheless, it's a question that is fairly straightforward to answer in the question of the marriage of Nora and Hugh, where Hugh's employment in the relatively new profession of journalist causes consternation with her parents. The same goes for the marriage of an English aristocrat to an American woman, despite observations that "American women always are clever... they want the weakness that a woman ought to have... we are accustomed to less self assertion on the part of women than is customary with them." The novel also mounts a critique of marriages entered into without romantic attachments, in the case of Mr Gibson's somewhat transactional relationship with Arabella and Camilla.

It's more complex in the case of the existing marriage between Trevelyan and Emily, given the assumption that "when a young woman is parted from her husband the chances are ten to one that she has been very foolish." By rights, Trevelyan's view that he had an absolute right to dictate his wife's affairs was a widely supported one, which does mean that Trollope's criticism that "he was quite unable to look at the whole question between himself and his wife from her point of view," is a fairly radical one. Equally though, there's a nervousness in the novel about not allowing such notions to get out of hand: Mr Glascock denies any knowledge of Mill's writings while another character opines that "They say women are to vote and become doctors, and if so, there's no knowing what devil's tricks they mayn't do!" As with a lot of Trollope novels the relationship between American and European (a phrase that irritates the English characters) is one of criticising unduly radical new world ideas.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

Opening lines:
When Louis Trevelyan was twenty-four years old, he had all the world before him where to choose; and, among other things, he chose to go to the Mandarin Islands, and there fell in love with Emily Rowley, the daughter of Sir Marmaduke, the governor. Sir Marmaduke Rowley, at this period of his life, was a respectable middle-aged public servant, in good repute, who had, however, as yet achieved for himself neither an exalted position nor a large fortune.


3* Mrs. General Talboys
3* Christmas at Kirkby Cottage
3* The American Senator
3* Orley Farm
2* Miss Mackenzie
2* The Barchester chronicles
2* He Knew He Was Right
TR The Way We Live Now
TR Lady Anna
TR Castle Richmond
TR The Prime Minister
TR Cousin Henry
TR Travelling Sketches
TR Three Clerks

Palliser series
4* Can You Forgive Her? (Palliser, #1)
3* Phineas Finn (Palliser, #2)
3* The Eustace Diamonds (Palliser, #3)
TR Phineas Redux
TR The Prime Minister
TR The Duke's Children (Palliser, #6)

Chronicles of Barsetshire series
2* The Warden
TR Barchester Towers
TR Dr. Thorne
2* Framley Parsonage
2* The Small House at Allington
4* The Last Chronicle of Barset

About Trollope:
TR Anthony Trollope by Hugh Walpole

[Chrystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I can always turn to Trollope for comfort and long-lasting entertainment!

HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT is nominally about the Trevelyans and their short, tempestuous, and sad marriage. The book would be a tragedy if it were written by some other novelist, but since this is Trollope, that great author blessed with the dual gifts of whimsy and charm, we know he will start off with one story and end up with half a dozen others. Hence the nearly 900 pages of this book.

But who cares about length when we are being tossed from one group of eminently captivating characters to another, some of them in agonies, others in the throes of romance. I could have done without the long interlude in Italy with Mr Glascock and the Americans, but forgave him when he turned to Mr Gibson and his numerous love affairs. The scene where the fickle clergyman pounds his head, rips his waistcoat open and throws himself on the floor had me in stitches. Oh me! I'm still laughing.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my fourth Trollope novel.I have not really cared for any of them, sadly. The Warden and Barchester Towers were okay, but I really hated The Way We Live Now. I like Trollope’s writing well enough, but I always have a hard time because most of his characters are so unlikeable. Trollope himself was not fond of He Knew He Was Right because Louis Trevelyan was so unsympathetic. I have to agree. It’s not good if I like the subplots better than the main plot of a novel! I could not sympathize with Emily either. Yes, she was technically more “right” in the beginning than Louis, but the situation got out of hand largely due to her obstinacy as well as Louis’s. The two really needed to have a frank discussion without constantly blaming the other for everything. I do not hesitate in saying this will be my last Trollope novel, since I do not own any others.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so loved this book: really his most brilliant. Good solid prose as always, well-balanced but more passionate and angry than any of his others. One of my top 25 favorites of all books, ever (so far).
Ellie NYC

[Bronwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let’s not talk about how long this took me to read (I wound up using the LibriVox recording to help finish, and it happened to be read by a former host of one of my favorite podcasts) and instead talk about how annoying Louis Trevelyan is. He’s a big part of why this took me so long (and it’s *so* long). I know Emily has no choice but to put up with him, but man is she a saint.

All the side characters and their stories are what made this interesting and were the parts I liked best. I would stall as soon as I’d get back to a Louis bit because he’s just exhausting.

I will likely try Trollope again as I have a few others, but I’ll go with something shorter and funnier. There’s some of his humor here, but not like I hear in others. Maybe Doctor Thorne, I liked that adaptation a lot, costumes aside.