|
Loading... Can You Forgive Her?by Anthony Trollope
   Oh noes! I loved this book, my first Trollope, and his works are like 900 pages each and overfilled with 1830's type language and he's not too fond of women. What's a reader to do? Can I forgive him? (  )1   froxgirl | Apr 27, 2016 |  Excellent book about middle to upper class England in the 1860s. Some are rich, some are titled, others are younger sons and thus penniless, still others have worked for their money and become wealthy through industry or farming (can the earned rich and the inherited rich mix?). Some are in the House of Commons, others want to be (or don't want to be!). So many are living beyond their means, trying to keep up with their wealthy relatives. And there is Alice Vavasor, getting old to be single. She has two prospects in marriage: her cousin George, who by primogeniture is the heir of their grandfather. Or, Mr John Grey of Nethercoats near Ely. Who will it be? Can George forgive Alice? Can John Grey forgive Alice? Can her father forgive Alice? Can Alice forgive her cousin/friend Kate? Can Alice forgive her relative Lady Midlothian? Can Mr Cheesacre forgive Mrs Greenow? Can Plantagent Palliser forgive his wife, Lady Glencora? Can the reader forgive any of them? And the ladies aren't the only ones behaving badly. *Mr Grey lives near Ely, and catches the train there. I have taken the train to and from Ely. When this book was written and when it takes place, my 3rdgreat grandfather was still living in Welches Dam outside Ely. He could see the cathedral every day. Also, having been an agricultural laborer his entire life, he did not live in a home like Nethercoats. Welches Dam is best known for an 1849 cholera outbreak, due to poor living condition. (  )1 Dreesie | Apr 12, 2016 | It’s been a year since I finished Anthony Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire, and it was such a joy to return to his depiction of Victorian England in The Pallisers. In Can You Forgive Her?, Trollope shows the good, bad, and ugly of marriage through three different situations. Young Alice Vavasor, egged on by her cousin Kate, breaks off her engagement to John Grey in favor of Kate’s brother George. Lady Glencora “Cora” Palliser was recently forced by her family to break off a relationship with handsome, dashing Burgo Fitzgerald, to marry the prosperous and ambitious Plantagenet Palliser. Her comfortable lifestyle can’t make up for a dull and so far childless relationship. Finally, the widow Arabella Greenow toys with two different suitors and provides comic relief in the novel. Alice’s reputation is sorely damaged, yet she remains oblivious to this and insists on providing financial support to George as he runs for parliament, even though they are not yet married, the sums are significant, and he proves himself to be a cad of the highest order. John Grey, meanwhile, is never far away and continues to have feelings for Alice. Cora finds solace in friendship with Alice as her husband largely ignores her and enlists others to keep Cora in check as he focuses on his work. In an unusual move for the time, the story is told almost entirely from a female perspective. The women are strong characters with money and opinions of their own. However, Trollope cannot envision a world free from Victorian conventions, so naturally the only successful outcomes involve marriage. Still, I can forgive Trollope for being a product of his time, and I can forgive the eponymous heroines whose actions, both scandalous and annoying, made for a very good story. ( )3 lauralkeet | Mar 4, 2016 | This is the first novel in the Palliser series, and it's about as Victorian as you get. Sexist, classist, racist, peopled with ridiculous characters that are mere caricatures, replete with plot twists that make no sense and social mores that are laughable. Trollope would never write one sentence when he could write a chapter, and never write a chapter when he could write another 50 pages. At 850 pages of very small type, one might assume that some action takes place, or that at least one character might achieve at least two dimensionality, but one would be wrong. Nevertheless, I had a great time reading this novel (though I don't intend to read the other 5 of the series). (  ) wealhtheowwylfing | Feb 29, 2016 | Written in 1864, this is a wonderful view into the lives of the British lower aristocracy, or gentry, and how they relate to their cousins "born to the purple." A book of manners, with insight into the hearts, minds and motivations of the people of its time and place. The story centers around Alice, a woman of twenty-five, and her delicate sensibilities in regards to marriage. Since she is a woman who cannot make up her mind, and as soon as she does, she doubts her decision, there is a decided flavor of suspense. Trollope is one of my favorite writers of his period. He takes us deep into the characters, and helps us to see them from several directions at once. He shows us not only the surface action and dialog, but the inner dialog and the objective view as well. He does this with a gentle sense of humor, seeing the ridiculous when we take ourselves too seriously. All that being said, I'm afraid I haven't the patience for long absorbing reads any more. I ended up skimming many of the scenes which were not focused on the characters I cared about. By the end of the story, I did not care much for any of the women in it. Probably a fault of the time it was written in and what was expected of women then. I wish I knew how women received this story when it was written. Not one of these women seemed to have a lick of common sense. They were ready to throw away all they had without thought of their future on the romantic idea of helping the user men around them. I hope, I really hope that has changed, although I am afraid it is a trait of women to want to "save" men. (  )1 MrsLee | Feb 12, 2016 | no reviews | add a review
Is contained in
References to this work on external resources.
|
 Google Books — Loading...
Popular coversRatingAverage: (4.03)
 Audible.com5 editions of this book were published by Audible.com.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia in English
1