Anthony Trollope Books

One of Trollope's later and shorter novels, this tells the story of a woman who keeps secret from her husband a previous engagement to another man; when he finally finds out about it he leaves her. What happens is this: Cecilia Holt decides to break off her engagement to the neglectful Sir Francis Geraldine. Later she meets and falls in love with George Western, who has also been jilted; he tells her about his past, but she doesn't reveal hers to him, and then they marry. But Sir Francis writes to Western and spills the beans; appalled by Cecilia's silence and soon suspicious of her motives, leaves her. By the end all is made right by Western's sister Lady Grant.

The central episode that drives the novel seems like a mountain made out of a molehill today, but Cecilia Holt is an excellently drawn character - strong and determined (maybe too much so). She refuses Western's money after he leaves her and expects him to apologize to her when he returns. Trollope's realism is in full control when at the end Cecilia has romantic notions regarding Western's return, but Trollope will have none of it; Western's stoicism is something Cecilia is just going to have to accept. Some of the secondary scenes, especially those involving Sir Francis and Miss Altifiorla, are quite humorous. This novel doesn't rank with Trollope's very best work, but it's still entertaining and interesting in its own way.

An editorial review mentioned that this is a story about the near-destruction of a marriage. I see it, rather, as the affirmation of true marriage. Both the hero and heroine--having been misled about the character of previous betrothal connections must overcome feelings of distrust and personal pride to come to a true understanding . . . Trollope uses this novel to show that honesty and integrity are not just virtues; they are essentials. In a time when so many best-sellers end in divorce, Trollope's characters come to the end of this short novel stronger and more true--and still married. And those who are untrue are exposed along the way.

I am an avid fan of Trollope, but even so, I was unwilling to work through this difficult-to-read double-column format wrapped in a garish cover. I presume the original was in a 19th century magazine and this is merely photo-offset, but the product is clumsy and wearisome to the eye.

One of the great sensibilities of American Literature, self-exiled to the Continent, returns to peruse the great naturalistic theater of his nativity, conversing with apples, musing on the Civil War, and wondering where he would be if he had exiled himself in his own native land... had remained to register the Civilization of the Adolescence of the United States. This is the perfect bookend to "The Education of Henry Adams".

Great passages and moments abound. This is prose of such beauty and delicacy that it is like reading sculpture.
The Bernini of travel literature.

James is a great literary virtuoso, in certain ways the most sophisticated and complex America has had. His intricate intelligence is complemented by an unequaled descriptive power, and a mastery of language, second to none. How difficult then to come across the passage which ruins this book for me. This is James description of the immigrant Jews on the East Side.It is the observation of the sterile aristrocatic owner of Anglo-Saxon civilization who looks with contempt and horror at the poor swarming sweatshop crowd threatening to steal his private inheritance from him.

I love Anthony Trollope's stories. When I ordered Ayala's Angel I thought I was buying the standard size paperback. This edition is larger (7x9") which is less practical to carry around and the printing is of poor quality, smudged and sometimes hard to read. I'm going to stay away from this type of paperback. But the story itself is a great portrait of an idealist, a dreamer in situations unlike any one could find oneself at present. But then, Trollope is a wonderful escape into a world of romance, harsh reality and limited possibilities for women. And you can't beat the good ending.

Ayala's Angel is much lighter and more lyric than many of Trollope's novels. Ayala is a dreamer, and Trollope wants us to respect her for that. The pace and the humor are typical Trollope. I enjoyed it very much, though it's hardly his most profound commentary.

I could see where this book might have appealed to a Victorian audience; as a modern reader, I found it tough going, though not as much so as much "Alice Dugdale" - a real yawner.
The supporting characters carry the story pretty much, but I could've used a bit more mouth-foaming zealotry from the aunt to jazz it up even more.

Appearing anonymously as "By the Author of Nina Balatka", "Linda Tressel" was the second and last installment in Anthony Trollope's attempt to establish an alternative literary persona that could deviate from the Trollopian staples (not that the deviation was very startling; maidens urged to marry men whom they don't love are not exactly an unknown subject to our author).

Like the earlier book, "Linda" takes place in a foreign city that the author had recently visited, in this case Nuremberg, and deals with the effect of religious bigotry on love and marriage. This time, instead of violently opposing a union, the bigoted aunt is trying to promote one, and the heroine struggles to escape into either spinsterhood or the arms of a more acceptable lover than the middle-aged boor who has been picked out for her.

The personae of "Linda Tressel" - all odd ducks except for Linda herself - belong to comedy, and a work in that vein might have succeeded. Trollope chose, however, to write a tale that becomes progressively grimmer, eventually toppling the lightweight characters. The book was not a total failure. It drew praise from Henry James (who guessed the author's identity from stylistic clues) and has both lively and pathetic moments. On the whole, though, one does not, after putting it down, feel deep regret that the "alternative Trollope" had no further literary career.

This is the sixth and last book in the Pallisers series by Anthony Trollope. After reading (and enjoying!) the first five, how could I not read this one?? But, if like me, you want to own a copy of books you enjoy, get a DIFFERENT copy of this one! This particular edition is RIDDLED with typos of ever kind! (The three star rating is meant to reflect the quality of THIS edition, more than the actual storyline) There were repeated words, repeated sentences, paragraphs run together and SO many mispelled or missing words, even ones that spell check would have caught, though many were just the type spell check would not catch, such as "he" when it was obvious the author meant "she"--that sort of thing. There was barely a page that went by that didn't have some sort of typo.

Having said that, did it interfere with the story? Not really. I sometimes had to stop and think a bit about what was supposed to have been meant, but I don't think I missed anything important. It was just very irritating, especially as this is a particularly expensive edition.

As for the book itself, I enjoyed it, though Trollope continues with his incessant and lengthy repetition of each character's angst at the decisions and troubles facing them. I wonder if he couldn't have done the whole series in three or four books if he just hadn't felt the need to remind us so very often, throughout the series, of the mental turmoil each character was facing!

As to the story, many of the favorite characters have returned, some in smaller roles, with of course new ones, in the form of his children and their friends and loves, being introduced. (And it won't give anything away to say that it was fun to see a few characters introduced from one of his other novels--The Way We Live Now, and think of all these characters' lives intersecting.)

I'm a sucker for long, involved novels and I enjoyed getting to know this group of characters and will miss them all! Who knows, maybe I'll come across some of them in one of his other novels!

In the late 1850s, British postal employee Anthony Trollope travelled though the Caribbean Islands and Central America on Official Business. In his free time he wrote a book about what he saw and what he thought about it. He undergoes the usual travel woes (terrible boats, worse food), and spends considerable time discussing the projected Nicaragua Canal (not worth the expense). But most interesting are his views on the recently emancipated blacks of the British colonies.

Writing on the eve of the American Civil War, Trollope's feelings are ambiguous. As a Christian, he knows that emancipation was, in the abstract, a good thing. But he clearly feels that the days of slavery were the Good Old Days (he uses that actual phrase) when the islands were prosperous. The free blacks, to Trollope's annoyance, insist on working only enough to supply their own wants, which are relatively few. All this fertile land is going to waste for lack of labor because there's no way to force the blacks to work. (At this time in Britain, a worker could not quit his job without his employer's permission.)

The issue for Trollope is not just economic. Idleness is a sin and a sign of barbarism. Of course you didn't see Trollope himself toiling away in the hot sun--or even in the cold rain, since it was widely believed that physical labor in the tropics was fatal to white people. It's a fascinating glimpse of mid-19th century racial attitudes, as long as you can keep your historical perspective. If you become angry because Trollope refuses to think like a 21st century liberal, you won't learn anything.

This little book (180pps) is certainly not Trollope's best. But even on this small stage we see displayed two of the author's favorite themes: the plight of women in a Victorian age who are treated like chattel and the conflict between inclination, on the one hand, and self-restraint and duty, on the other -- "aristocratic virtues" as de Tocqueville called them, and values we seem to have lost. We see Trollope's chauvanism at its worst, as the heroine must choose between the weak man her well-meaning uncle has selected for her and the "manly" man she prefers, the man who will be her lord and master and reduce her to the submissive position Trollope seems convinced women prefer.
But there is no one who saw more clearly, or felt more deeply, the agonies of a Victorian age (for all its faults) that was in its death throes, with capitalism and industrialism bearing down and the sense of something outside the self, something to whom or to which we have a duty, weakening in the face of self-absorption. The book is worth reading, but not as a sample of Trollope at his best. For that I recommend The Warden or, perhaps, La Vendée.

This book is about a young girl called Mally Trenglos. She collects seaweed to sell as manure for her uncle who is now to old to do the job himself. A young man named Barty decides to collect the seaweed himself instead of paying for it. This leads to a disagreement between Barty and Mally. They decide to have a contest to see who can collect the most seaweed. Barty falls in and knocks himself unconcious. Mally saves his life, and as he awakens he asks to see Mally. He thanks her. They then get married and Mally moves in with Barty. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy late 1600 stories and love stories.

With few readers for Anthony Trollope's greatest novels, it doesn't seem worth a lot of trouble to steer a potential customer away from what is surely his slightest book. But I'll take a moment to do so. Trollope is hardly ever uninteresting; he is a master of creating unique and formidable characters and letting them bang into each other and documenting the results. But this book is indeed a struggle. Possibly the satire is too much of its time, though I doubt it. Even if that were the case though, the mostly whiny and boring one-dimensional characers who inhabit this book are almost without any interest. Satire needs to be a bit over the top; this is tame and plodding stuff.

It is often said that lesser novels make better movies. The nuance, the vastness, the gentle description and evocative detail are often lost in the transfer to film. Masterpiece Theater has filmed a couple of Trollope's finer tales. After the long-ago and far-away 27 episode panoply devoted to the Pallisers, they've scrimped in length and offered pallid versions of great books. Maybe this novel, which, despite its flaws has a some vivid scenes and interesting bits, could, with skillful crafting, make a pleasant TV series. It sure didn't make a good read.

this was recieved with great excitment only to find that the second tape was recorded so low that it is impossible to hear and therefor the listener has abanded the whole set and we do not know the quality of the rest of the set