Reading 1001 discussion

3 Stars

This was my first Trollope and I wasn't actually looking forward to it indeed when I saw the length I was more dismayed than enthusiastic however when I started reading I realised this was actually a story I could get lost in.

At its heart I would class this as a family saga initially we start with Louis and Emily Trevelyan and from there it sprawls out to encompass their friends and family as everyone becomes embroiled in their domestic disagreement.

While at points in the book I wanted to slap both Louis and Emily and to tell them just to speak to each other it was the other relationships that spring up around them that provided the real reward in reading.

Louis (he who "knew he was right") was a complex and sad character who more than anyone else on the whole book destroyed his own happiness. Yes the "other man" helped in this mission but not more so than Louis himself.

Reading this reminded me of reading Dickens. Trollope uses the same play on words when naming his characters and also explores the society of the time. In this case Trollope is more concerned with the well to do than with the poor and it did make for interesting reading particularly the situation with the French sisters.

Here are some of my favourite quotes:

"Nora Rowley has been properly brought up, having been made to understand by the best and most cautious of mothers, that in the matter of falling in love it was absolutely necessary that bread and cheese should be considered"

"The unpleasantness of this world consists, chiefly in the fact that when a man wants wages, he must earn them."

"had she ever heard that any guest in her house was reading in bed, she would have made an instant personal attack upon that guest" Remind me never to visit

"Trevelyan shook his head and became cross. His old friend would not at all do as old friends are expected to do when called upon for advice."

"Men whose business it is to detect hidden and secret things, are very apt to detect things which have never been done."

"The news about the bank arrangements, though kept of course as a great secret, soon became common in Exeter"

"Do none confess but the guilty? What is all that we have read about the Inquisition and the old tortures?"

Louis Trevelyan and his young wife Emily are both rather stubborn people, so when he gets it into his head that she is allowing another man to become too familiar with her, she tells him he is being ridiculous and does not change her behaviour. Slowly we watch their marriage break down. At the same time, other characters are embarking on their own rosy or thorny paths to matrimony.

I wouldn't say this is Trollope's best novel by any means, but I enjoyed listening to it as an audiobook. It is very long, and if I'd been reading a physical copy I might have rated it lower, but there is a lot to like, including much on the difficult and powerless position of married women in England just before the Married Women's Property Act gave them any possibility of independence.

Reason read: 1st Quarter Read, Reading 1001
This is a story of epic study of pride, forgiveness and its lack, and pathological jealousy. Trevalyn could be diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder. The story has many characters and subplots and I read that Trollope did not really like this story. I think the many characters and subplots were stronger than the main story or at least gave the reader relief from the irritating Louis. This was a retelling of Othello/Shakespeare.
I also listened to the audible version through Libby. I did not find it hard to engage with the story. It is long so always glad when I can find an audio version.

quick review: I found the themes of following and disobeying the social script based on class and gender to be interesting but I wasn't over the moon into it and gave it 3 stars

This epic story of how inflexible social conventions coupled with pride and jealousy can bring a family to ruins reflects the times it was written in well. The primary plot line involves Louis Trevelyan and his wife Emily, who can not communicate in any straightforward fashion about the primary issue; that of jealousy and a wife's accepted role of obedience in a mid 1800's household. I found this plot was beyond frustrating. The subplots that reflect stretching the accepted lines of behavior in the young women Nora and Dorothy were all more enjoyable. Although it does parallel a retelling of Othello, I did not find that it did it very well. I suspect that the psychological issues the book addressed would be better understood by someone in that field. The reader comes to question which part of Louis' anger, paranoia and jealously are from being lead to believe that his wife owed him absolute obedience per the social conditions of the day or if he really had true mental health issues. Overall, I didn't particularly enjoy the reading.

***

Well, I'll try to be more succinct than Trollope in penning a review. Actually, this was one of the things that annoyed me most in the novel: rather than describing a simple situation in a concise manner, he would fill pages in analyzing it through all its possible and impossible angles, like the most fastidious lawyer trying to prosecute a lost cause or, rather, waxing excessingly in arguments over an unlosable matter. A prime example of being paid by the page! Yet, despite its lengths, the novel portrays some of the consequences of being too paranoid/jealous and also not at all at a time when modern psychology was a nascent field. It also gives a thorough indication of social etiquette and of women's (slowly) developing status in the Victorian era. It could definitely have been better written in less than 800 pages.

I truly enjoyed this book and finished it early than I excepted because I really wanted to see how it turned out. I love Trollope’s sense of droll sense of humor and the many wonderful characters he created. I look forward to reading more by him.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I listened to an Audible version read by Nigel Patterson.I agree with Patrick that Trollope was excessively wordy in analysing his characters foibles and the book would have been better with some astute editing. Nevertheless his theme of gender roles in mid=eighteenth century England had enough satire to keep me interested.