Part 1
E-text prepared by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.
Copyright (C) 2013 by Taylor Prewitt
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THE WAY THEY LIVED THEN
Serious Interviews, Strong Women, and Lessons for Life in the Novels of Anthony Trollope
by
TAYLOR PREWITT
Westfield Press
Copyright 2013 by Taylor Prewitt
All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First Edition
ISBN 978-0615866420
Westfield Press Fort Smith, Arkansas
For Mary and Kendrick, Ellen, and Sally
CONTENTS
Introduction
Required Reading for the Seminary _The Warden_
The Church in Peace and War _Barchester Towers_
Trollope's Alter Ego _Doctor Thorne_
An All-Star Cast _Framley Parsonage_
The Swell, the Hobbledehoy, and the Small House _The Small House at Allington_
The Victory of the Righteous _The Last Chronicle of Barset_
Can You Forgive a few Additions to the Text? _Can You Forgive Her?_
English Politics 101 _Phineas Finn_
A Cunning Woman _The Eustace Diamonds_
How the Women Took Care of Phineas _Phineas Redux_
"Are Not Politics Odd?" _The Prime Minister_
The Old Order Passeth _The Duke's Children_
Ruins, Ruin, and Ruined _The Macdermots of Ballycloran_
The Irish as Others See Them _The Kellys and the O'Kellys_
A Tale of No City _La Vendée_
The Office _The Three Clerks_
The Proud Young Lovers _The Bertrams_
Coping with Starvation _Castle Richmond_
The Lady Faces Them Down _Orley Farm_
Lear Revisited _The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson: By One of the Firm_
Bringing Good Beer to Devon _Rachel Ray_
"He Cometh Not; I Am Aweary" _Miss Mackenzie_
The School of Self-Assertiveness _The Belton Estate_
Love Conquers All, In the Ninth Inning _Nina Balatka: The Story of a Maiden of Prague_
More than Soap Opera, More than Fairy Tale _The Claverings_
Several Degrees of Stubborn _Linda Tressel_
The Downside of Chivalry _He Knew He Was Right_
The Prodigal Daughter _The Vicar of Bullhampton_
A Terminal Affection _Sir Harry Hotspur_
The Heir and the Bastard _Ralph the Heir_
A Hard Case _The Golden Lion of Granpere_
How to Become a Lady _Lady Anna_
Territory Folks Should Stick Together _Harry Heathcote of Gangoil_
The Way They Lived Then _The Way We Live Now_
What's a Poor Girl to Do? _The American Senator_
Lesser Barchester _Is He Popenjoy?_
Too Near the Precipice _An Eye for An Eye_
What Happens in Australia . . . _John Caldigate_
A Gifted Child _Ayala's Angel_
Keeping the Old Acreage Together _Cousin Henry_
What to Do About Muddy Boots _Dr. Wortle's School_
The Curse of Consumption _Marion Fay_
The Dog That Wouldn't Stay Under the Bed _Kept in the Dark_
The Advance Directive _The Fixed Period_
Details about Entails _Mr. Scarborough's Family_
Promises, Promises _An Old Man's Love_
Running in Full Stride at the End _The Landleaguers_
INTRODUCTION
Several pleasant hosts wearing the blue and orange scarves or bow ties of the Trollope Society were circulating through the crowd on a May evening at the Knickerbocker Club in New York, making conversation and bringing the outliers among us into small groupings to join in. These board members were faithfully performing their task of "pushing the ball along," as Trollope sometimes put it, at the society's annual dinner. Comparing notes as to what Trollope novel we had last read was the default gambit. One of the books mentioned was _Kept in the Dark_; another was _He Knew He was Right_--a bit beyond the entry-level Barsetshire and Palliser series.
These reviews of all forty-seven of Trollope's novels were written somewhat in the spirit of such dinner-table chatter as one might hear at a meeting of the Trollope Society--appreciative, mostly, but not without a word of criticism here and there. The guests I met were stockbrokers, booksellers, doctors, retirees; and these reviews were written by and for such a reader as one might encounter at a cocktail party--whose interests are a bit more informal than those of grad students searching for original information and insights for their dissertations.
It so happens that my wife and I were introduced to Anthony Trollope through Simon Raven's BBC production of _The Pallisers_ in 1974; a few subsequent television series have brought in other novels. This may qualify as a response to the public media. But if there is any common thread among the faithful readers of Trollope, it is a willingness to pick up something to read that is not on the current best seller list, hardly on a book club list, not something that everyone is talking about.
The better-known and more frequently read of his novels are pretty long. A few have told me that they have read all six of the Barsetshire series, or all six of the Palliser series. A few have stepped out beyond these familiar confines to the relatively uncharted void of his other thirty-five novels. A couple of these, the acclaimed _The Way We Live Now_ and _He Knew He Was Right_, are available as video copies of television productions. Several others are sitting there on the shelf, waiting for some genius to bring them forward in similar fashion. I have entertained myself at times with generating my own candidates: among these are _Orley Farm_, _The Claverings_, and _The American Senator_.
Trollope sabotaged his own reputation with his disclosure of his writing habits, and it may never recover. The very idea that anyone could approach writing without appealing to the muse, just getting up every morning and doing it--two hours every morning, with a self-imposed quota of words to write! The muse was not amused, and her devotees have been unforgiving. If this confession had been well known during his years in service, I suspect that his advancement would have been significantly curtailed. The public requires its geniuses to be seized by the spirit. It's not as if just anybody could do it. An inspired author must rise from a dinner table full of guests when gripped by his muse, as did Charles Dickens, and, as if in a trance, transcribe the words dictated by the spirit.
Any respectable agent, if Trollope had had one, would surely have warned him about the risks of overexposure. Even the great and prolific Dickens wrote only about a dozen novels. Jane Austen wrote six. George Eliot and the Brontes only wrote a few.
A prodigious writer must necessarily have a little tool box, deploying and mixing different plot devices, assumptions about society, views on current issues, and references to the way they lived then--which was different in many ways from our own world, and similar in others.
One of his favorite tools was the Serious Interview, and few writers have used it to such advantage as did Trollope. He introduces this device in a chapter entitled "The Serious Interview" in _Barchester Towers_, one of his early novels, in which Archdeacon Grantly makes the strategic error of engaging his sister-in-law Eleanor Bold about his suspicion that she is about to accept a marriage proposal from the sly and scheming Rev. Slope. The components of the Serious Interview are present in this prototype:
The _prologue_, in which Trollope explains to the reader that there are some who delight in offering advice or administering rebuke, and that the archdeacon is among these.
_The entry of the combatants._ In this instance Eleanor's usually mild demeanor was absent, and the archdeacon "almost wished he had taken his wife's advice," i.e., not to speak to her.
_The opening statements._ Here he assures her that she has no sincerer friend than he.
_The initial sparring._ He accuses her of having received a letter from Mr. Slope, and she admits it.
_The counterattack._ She tells him he may read the letter, and she hands it over to him. She over-reacts, however, in claiming that Mr. Slope is an "industrious, well-meaning clergyman."
_The author's commentary._ In a paragraph beginning, "Here undoubtedly Eleanor put herself in the wrong," Trollope indulges in a review of the defender's tactics--her assumption of the "prejudice and conceit of the archdeacon" leading to her error of going too far. "She would neither give nor take quarter."
_The attacker's final thrust_, in which the archdeacon says that Mr. Arabin (who is destined to marry Eleanor in one of the last chapters) agrees with him and his wife "that it is quite impossible you should be received at Plumstead as Mrs. Slope."
_The defender's final reaction._ Her look was one Dr. Grantly "did not soon forget," and saying, "How dare you be so impertinent?" she hurriedly leaves the room--with the standard reaction in private: "and then, locking the door, she threw herself on her bed and sobbed as though her heart would break."
_The postmortem._ "By some maneuver of her brain, she attributed the origin of the accusation to Mr. Arabin," and she lay awake all night thinking of what had been said. "Nor was the archdeacon a bit better satisfied with the result of the serious interview than was Eleanor." He understood that she was angry, but it never occurred to him that Eleanor viewed the supposed union with Mr. Slope with as much disgust as did he. "He returned to his wife vexed and somewhat disconsolate."
_The morning after._ Eleanor sent word that she was not well enough to attend prayers. "Everyone walked about with subdued feet." The sisters (Eleanor and the Archdeacon's wife) were peeved with each other, but after a bit of diplomacy by their father Mr. Harding, they "sat down each to her crochet work as though nothing was amiss in all the world."
As noted, the author often serves as a guide to the reader, offering his own critical observations on how each of the participants played their hand. Indeed, most of his novels include at least one of these confrontations that serve primarily to entertain the reader, but also to unveil hitherto unappreciated character traits and to advance the story.
Trollope enjoyed using his stories as little Clinics in the Lessons of Life, injecting himself as an observer, critic and instructor in other everyday matters. In _Ralph the Heir_ he explains how the beauty of Mary Bonner afforded her the Priority of Service that is the due primarily of beauty, but also of money, political position, and noble birth. A diligent worker himself, he extolled the virtues of hard work in _Castle Richmond_: "It is my opinion that nothing seasons the mind for endurance like hard work. Port wine should perhaps be added."
Victorians wrote letters, and they mailed them by post, and Trollope as a veteran of the postal service used letters and the service of mail delivery to advantage, again often with editorial asides as to how something may have been better phrased. In another little lesson of life in _The Bertrams_, he offered another too-frequently-neglected lesson: "Sit down and write your letter; write it with all the venom in your power . . . and, as a matter of course, burn it before breakfast the next morning." He goes on to extol pleasant letters, concluding his advice for letter writing: "But, above all things, see that it be good-humored."
The development of character is generally one of Trollope's strengths. His observations were probing and acute; these are transformed into portrayals of certain characters who are so life-like that the reader comes to know them and their foibles as well as he knows his own friends and neighbors. Certain character traits must have particularly fascinated Trollope because they recur in several of his novels. Among these is the trait that might be referred to as terminal stubbornness, most obviously shown in Louis Trevelyan and Emily Rowley, who becomes Trevelyan's wife in _He Knew He Was Right_. Emily receives frequent visits from an older family friend, Colonel Osborne. Her husband Louis considers these to be inappropriate and an affront to his honor, whether they represent any misbehavior by his wife or not. She has been raised to be an independent spirit and refuses to follow his command. This difference is pursued to the end, literally, with Trevelyan finally succumbing to his madness.
Other couples demonstrating a reluctance or refusal to come to terms with each other appear in _The Bertrams_ (Caroline Waddington and Arthur Wilkinson), _Kept in the Dark_ (Cecilia Holt and George Western), and _Cousin Henry_ (Isabel Brodrick and Reverend William Owen).
Several plots rely on a woman's determination to remain true, no matter what, to a man whom she once agreed to marry--most notoriously in the case of Lily Dale, in _The Small House at Allington_. Forsaken by a handsome rake who subsequently makes a more advantageous marriage, Lily considers herself consigned to spinsterhood, refusing to consider any other suitor, particularly the devoted Johnny Eames. Occasionally these self-sacrificing women can be persuaded to get a life for themselves, but it's never easy and often impossible. Some of these steadfast heroines are Florence Mountjoy in _Mr. Scarborough's Family_ and Lady Anna, Linda Tressel, Rachel Ray, and Nina Balatka in the novels bearing their names. Of these, Linda fails to survive. Emily Hotspur also succumbs after being forbidden to marry her worthless cousin George Hotspur, a somewhat ordinary rake, in _Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite_.
The Victorian woman suffered a number of disadvantages that no longer apply to today's woman, and Trollope explored these features of the world of his day, illustrating them so that today's reader cries out at such injustices. Trollope himself never acknowledged any sympathy for the feminist movement, and indeed he sometimes parodied some of its more ardent advocates, but a number of his works can be read as feminist texts for exposing the problems that women faced. Lady Laura Standish, in _Phineas Finn_, refuses Phineas's gallant offer of marriage, even though she loves him, because neither of them has enough money to support his political ambitions. However, she devotes herself to furthering his political career, hoping to use him as a mouthpiece for her own political interests. Caroline Waddington in _The Bertrams_ suffers the powerless state of a married woman before the appearance in England of rather modest reforms.
Trollope's insight and skill in presenting women was such that the faithful reader is tempted to sort them into bins--not an unfair analysis of a writer who was so workmanlike in his approach to his craft that he wrote regularly and prolifically. Some of his women appear as rather one-dimensional role players, even though they may be designated as "heroines"; others are developed in such depth that the reader feels that he knows them as long-time friends. Individuals, even fictional creations, defy classification, but the all-too-conscientious reader cannot resist creating a few tentative file folders:
The Faithful Woman, exemplified by Lily Dale, has already been mentioned.
There are a few Women Who Can't Make Up Their Mind, among whom Alice Vavasor of _Can You Forgive Her?_ is the prototype. Others include Lady Clara Desmond in _Castle Richmond_ and Clara Amedroz of _The Belton Estate_.
The Husband Hunter (one is tempted to refer to her as the Gold Digger) is the woman who sets out to marry well; Arabella Trefoil of _The American Senator_ stands out among these. Another is Lizzie Greystock of _The Eustace Diamonds_, who does not become Lady Eustace for love of the sickly Florian Eustace.
The Senior Dowager is well represented by Lady Lufton, who stands down the elderly Duke of Omnium in _Framley Parsonage_. These are some of the most entertaining of the women, who also include Lady Aylmer in _The Belton Estate_.
A somewhat younger variant is the Woman of Independent Means. Miss Martha Dunstable is undaunted by the Archbishop's wife in _Barchester Towers_, gently declines the proposal of Frank Gresham in _Dr. Thorne_, and eventually marries Dr. Thorne in _Framley Parsonage_. Others are Miss Todd of _The Bertrams_ and the eponymous Miss Mackenzie.
Trollope seemed to have had a particular fondness for The Little Woman Who Could, exemplified by Lucy Robarts, who rose to the occasion to assert herself when challenged by Lady Lufton in _Framley Parsonage_. Mary Thorne in _Doctor Thorne_ and Florence Burton of _The Claverings_ were a few other of these courageous young women.
And then there is the American Woman, described as "exigeant" by Charles Glascock in _He Knew He Was Right_. (Would "high maintenance" be the current equivalent of "exigeant"?) Trollope had personal experience with the American woman in his close friendship with Kate Field and aspects of her personality must have surely appeared in some of his American women: Caroline Spalding, the woman who was tarred with the "exigeant" brush in _He Knew He Was Right_; Isabel Boncassen (_The Duke's Children_); Rachel O'Mahoney (_The Landleaguers_); and Lucinda Roanoke (_The Eustace Diamonds_).
Is there a classification for Lady Glencora Palliser, who dominates the society of the Palliser novels, even after her death, and for Mrs. Proudie, who also exerts the power of her personality throughout the Barsetshire series? I prefer to think of these women as Unclassified. And a list of memorable Trollope women must include a few who appeared in only one novel--Dorothy ("Dolly") Grey, daughter of the attorney Mr. Grey in _Mr. Scarborough's Family_, Lizzie Eustace of _The Eustace Diamonds,_ and Lady Mary Mason of _Orley Farm_.
Trollope's own interest in politics evidenced itself in the glorification of an ambition to serve in Parliament--as in Mr. Grey and also Plantagenet Palliser in the Palliser series. However, he was disgusted by rotten boroughs and the corrupt practices of buying votes. We see these practices as a potential path to ruin for several of his characters, including George Vavasor in _Can You Forgive Her?_, Sir Thomas Underwood in _Ralph the Heir_, and Butler Cornbury in _Rachel Ray_.
Much depended on birth in the Victorian world. The eldest son, by right of birth, got it all. This was of such importance that there was sometimes a question as to who was the oldest son--that is, who was the oldest legitimate son. Alleged weddings on foreign soil were particularly suspect, as in _Marion Fay_, _Lady Anna_, and _Is He Popenjoy?_ The questions of birthright could be complex in the extreme and could foster blackmail and fraud. _Castle Richmond_ and _Mr. Scarborough's Family_ show us how family secrets could be exploited.
The beginnings and endings of novels have been considerably streamlined since Trollope's day. Just as movies no longer show the credits before the action starts, today's writer knows to start the story as late into the action as possible, picking up background information along the way--or never at all. Trollope sometimes apologized to his readers for his lengthy introductory chapters, and today's readers do have to pay their dues by slogging through family trees and historical details before being allowed to read the story. However, this obligation is often mitigated by capsule summaries that are concise, ironic, and satirical.
Concluding chapters have also gone out of style. No one ever gets married at the end of a love story any more. The lovers may be seen gazing at a tropical sunset, or they may be the only ones left standing, but the reader has to supply the details. Trollope did his duty, though, devoting one or two chapters to wrapping up all the loose ends, sometimes apologizing for having to do so. And these do indeed provide a bit of closure for the reader who has faithfully followed the trials of the principals through eight hundred or so pages. I doubt that many of even the most modern of readers will close the book with a shrug and skip the author's conclusion.
Trollope was an ardent sportsman, and many of his stories include fox hunting episodes, given with such enthusiasm and authority that the reader welcomes these outings as much as the author obviously did. Sometimes an injury or a bit of stupidity will be an important part of the ongoing story, but the reader understands that the hunt is more for fun and sport than for business.
But if the New Criticism, which was the prevailing approach during my undergraduate years, taught us anything, it is that the work stands on its own merits. We know very little about how the great cathedrals were built--we know few names of architects or engineers. But there they are. How would our assessment of these great accomplishments be modified by greater knowledge of the details of their conception and construction? Would we rearrange our pecking order of their superiority? Sometimes we can know too much.
But in the case of Anthony Trollope, we do know that he produced forty-seven novels, and other assorted writings--another of those examples of the great energy of the Victorians. Certainly there are clunkers in the lot, particularly among his earlier works, such as _The Macdermots of Ballycloran_ and _La Vendée_. And the results were mixed when he attempted to get away from the English countryside, as in _The Fixed Period_. But I began going through them for the sleepers--the underappreciated novels that deserve more recognition. And sure enough, there are a significant number of these. It's been fun to look--as though I were rummaging around in a trunk full of books in a dusty attic to see what's in there. This is a report of what I found.
Taylor Prewitt Fort Smith, Arkansas
REQUIRED READING FOR THE SEMINARY
THE WARDEN
While touring Sussex in 2007, Mary and I came across a building near the Long Melford church with the following plaque:
HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY AND BLESSED TRINITY ESTABLISHED IN 1573 BY SIR WILLIAM CORDBELL OF MELFORD HALL AS AN ALMSHOUSE FOR 12 AGED MEN AND A WARDEN AND STILL SERVES ITS ORIGINAL PURPOSE. TODAY IT ALSO PROVIDES ACCOMMODATION FOR WOMEN AND MARRIED COUPLES. IT IS AN ENDOWED CHARITY ADMINISTERED BY A BOARD OF TRUSTEES.
We knew all about an almshouse for twelve aged men and a warden. We had read _The Warden_. This is the first in the Barsetshire series, six novels dealing with the clergy in and around Barchester Cathedral. Although I have often thought the Barsetshire series should be required reading for all seminary students, _The Warden_ is perhaps less pertinent to today's church, because it exposes the disproportionately high incomes earned by some of the clergy in the Church of England, and the disproportionately small amount of work done by some. Since this is an infrequent issue in today's churches, some appreciation of the concerns in Victorian England is gained from a tabulation of clerical incomes in the novel, converted into an approximation of 2013 currency values:
Mr. Harding's income As Precentor £80/yr £6,112 As Warden £800/yr £61,120 As Crabtree vicar £80/yr £6,112 Paid to Rev. Smith At St. Cuthbert's £75/yr £5,730
Archdeacon Grantly's Income as rector of Plumstead Episcopi £3,000/yr £229,200
Bishop's income £9,000/yr £687,600 (pretax)
As of September, 2013, the conversion rate was $1.60 per pound. This shows that the Bishop's income was more than a million dollars a year before taxes. In the absence of concern about the income and bonuses of corporate CEO's in Victorian England, it's understandable that this issue led to efforts at reform.