Orley Farm

Excellent read. Trollope's exposition of how a legal case is developed and prosecuted is superb. The novel is episodic and advances slowly but does not flag. The characters are wonderful, including the incidental appearance of Mr. Moulder. The mid-nineteenth English world is drawn by a master of observation, and of a canny understanding of personal motivations.

So I got to around page 229 out of 800 plus pages and I gave up. This is a story which had a lot of potential about a woman who married a much older man. The man died and she was accused of forging the codicil to his will. The problem is that the author refused to stick to that main story which when he decided to tell that story was interesting. Instead the story becomes bogged down by needless diversions about characters which were uninteresting and uneventful subplots which didn't advance the main story one bit. This is NOT a plot-driven story. In fact the plot goes at a snail's pace. I honestly don't know how this novel has received the positive reviews it has, it's baffling. Perhaps the payoff comes much later? Another thing that was irksome was the way the author chose to tell the story. He would inject himself into the story as a narrator by saying things like, "and now we shall look at such and such a character or event." I found that method of storytelling took away from the flow of the story. If the author could have stuck with the main event and told the story of the woman and whether she forged the codicil or not it could have been good. Alternatively the author chose to give us about 600 pages of unwanted filler.

This is the first Trollope book I've tried to read and perhaps it wasn't the best place to start as there are other more well-received and popular Trollope novels. I have read that Trollope has been compared to Charles Dickens and on the basis of this one novel all I can say is that the very idea of that comparison is laughable. Dickens does everything better and is the far superior author IMO. ( )

I have quite a crush on this author. I discovered the pleasure of reading his books this year and this is the 7th book I have read by him. He knows people and their motivations so well. Orley Farm contains love interests between young people, and secrets that torment people (I am being vague to avoid giving anything away), and describes living in country homes and in city houses, the rules of society then, and some humor sprinkled in. The event that pulls this book along relentlessly is the trial to see who has the right to own Orley Farm, either Lady Mason and her son Lucius Mason, who have lived there for more than twenty years, or the half brother of Lucius, Mr. Mason of Groby Park. Mr. Mason is full of rage against Lady Mason and pushes with all his might to get Orley Farm. More than that he wants Lady Mason sentenced to prison. Trollope uses some fun surnames for characters and he injects himself with humorous asides along the lines of "if I were a better author I could readily explain ...". If you are like me you will long remember some of these characters like Lady Mason, Sir Peregrine Orme, Sophie Furnival, Felix Graham and many more. Trollope's books make me happy! ( )

Lady Mason succeeded in proving the validity of a codicil to her husband's will, leaving Orley Farm to her son, Lucius 20 years ago. Her step-son, Joseph, to whom his father had promised everything, has constantly brooded over this injustice and, when evidence is brought to him supporting the claim that the codicil is a forgery, he succeeds in having Lady Mason tried for perjury. There are many, many supporting characters and sub-plots - this novel is very long!

I found the first half interesting and well-paced, but the next 200 pages or so were a bit of a drag, with things picking up again towards the end. There was far too much about Lady Mason and Mrs Orme going over the same ground again and again. I could have done with a bit less of the Moulders and a bit more of Mrs Mason and her unbelievable stinginess. As ever, there was a hunting scene, although it did, for once, advance the plot. The debate, carried on through characters in many of the sub-plots about how well the cause of justice is served by and adversarial system, was balance and interesting.

I am afraid that I had less sympathy for Lady Mason than the narrator - if she had never let slip her secret to Sir Peregrine, she would have unrepentantly taken it to her grave. Mrs Orme was the true upholder of justice and the voice of mercy here. ( )

The first Trollope novel I've read, this book kept making me think back to Dickens' Bleak House, which I read at the end of last year. Both deal with a major legal case, though each very different in nature.

It may not be a fair comparison, but I definitely preferred Bleak House, for the style and overall feeling of the story. Orley Farm felt too drawn out for much less of an overall story -- though it certainly had some of the same complexities -- and it didn't have the cozy feeling Bleak House had. I didn't feel all that attached to most of the characters, who didn't seem quite as well developed or defined, and my interest in the story waned as it dragged on. ( )