Doctor Thorne (1858)

I am loving Trollope. His narrative is engaging and funny, and you learn to truly love his protagonists. Here, Mary and Frank keep you rooting for them even as you watch people around them scheme about and for them. Glad I discovered these. ( )

I think I actually enjoyed this one more than Barchester Towers. You knew exactly where it was going but it was quite fun getting there. I did get a little bored towards the end and wanted it to conclude. And the whole let's tell Frank first instead of Mary herself that she is rich did make me want to throw things. But it was enjoyable. ( )

This is very much in the Trollope style with his sense of humour and ability to take the reader into his confidence. The characters are well described and there is a satisfying though rather too neat conclusion.

So it's an enjoyable read but I do find there are drawbacks to Trollope as well that are more obvious here than in the previous two Barsetshire chronicles which are more to do with clerical scheming in Barchester.

The main problem is that he paints the Tories as a noble landowning class whose serfs are all too willing to touch their forelocks to their betters and it's not a problem (in fact a boon) that the Tories oppose expanding the voting franchise and (say) allowing Jews into parliament. The more progressive Whigs are portrayed as haughty snobs yet history shows they were more concerned with the welfare of the poor than the Tories.

Mary and Doctor Thorne are two endearing and admirable characters - neither of them are perfect but you do root for them. ( )

I have never read anything by Anthony Trollope until now. Of course, I've heard of him alongside names such as Charles Dickens and an earlier generation edified by Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters.

To say that there are a lot of novels about marriages being dominated by money and status in these popular Victorian (or Regency) novels is to be laughed out of the pub for being a damn rube. I'm almost to the point in my thinking that there is NO other kind of popular novel. Romance? Check. Estates? Check. Awful people doing awful things to innocents and the innocents generally get theirs in the ends? Check.

And this one is no different. So, moving on, let's see what makes this stand out from all the rest.

It has very well-rounded characters, not blown up and made larger than life, but full of wonderful details and turns that make them feel a bit more genuine than Dickens. It's not quite as forcefully idealistic as George Elliot, and it's not as unabashedly critical of the whole system as Austen.

Indeed, the main criticisms Trollope has is about people. And he has no qualms showing the full gamut and range of what we are and what we do. The good and the bad. The shameless and the shameful and the sweet. I like it. :)

I won't say it's all that different from all the rest, but it is enjoyable AS A GENRE. Yes, as a popular genre, it's several inches above most and often on the same level in both quality and entertainment as the other authors I just mentioned.

I honestly had a good time. :) Of course, I actually like Victorian and Regency novels and I've read enough of them to never get hung up on the god-awful ALIENNESS of such a society, but that's where being an SF aficionado comes in handy. I love worldbuilding. OF course, this is our world... but we can be sooooo alien to each other. :)
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After [b:Barchester Towers|125321|Barchester Towers (Chronicles of Barsetshire #2)|Anthony Trollope|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387980968s/125321.jpg|3299857], I was really looking forward to reading this and hoping for a lot more of the same. But despite being part of the same series, this book focuses on a completely different group of people in a different locale of Barsetshire, and the Proudies, Grantlys, and the town of Barchester do not make a substantial reappearance. I was very disappointed. However, I've been told all of them come back in books later on in the series, so I won't despair just yet.

This book takes awhile to get off the ground and seems a little drawn-out in places, but once the story gets going it's an enjoyable read. Plus, Trollope has a wonderful sense of the absurd and the human pride that can lead to it, as in the argument between Dr. Filgrave and Lady Scatcherd.

Since I've brought up Dr. Filgrave, I'll note here that some of the names here are delightful. My favorites so far are probably Dr. Filgrave and the attorney Sir Haphazard. Slow & Bideawhile for a law firm is pretty good too.

A few favorite quotes:

“When one is impatient, five minutes as is the duration of all time, and a quarter of an hour is eternity.” This is also applicable when one is apprehensive.

“He had but one fault: he was not a marrying man…If other clergymen all around should declare against wives and families, what was to become of the country? What was to be done in the rural districts? The religious observances, as regards women, of a Brigham Young were hardly so bad as this!” I literally laughed out loud, then set the Kindle down and laughed even harder.
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