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Title: The Small House at Allington (Pengin Classics) by Anthony Trollope, Julian Thompson ISBN: 0-14-043325-2 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: No Need to Read Other Barsetshire Novels to Appreciate This
Comment: Too much, probably, is made of this being one of "the Barsetshire novels," seeing that Trollope did not at first include it with the five others classed in that category, and that there is no need whatsoever to have read any of them to be drawn deeply into the world of its characters -- characters the creation of whose palpable, individual realness is the author's great gift. *The Small House at Allington* is remarkable for the balance accorded to six different social strata: (1) the upper reaches of the aristocracy (the De Courcy family and also the first appearance of Plantagenet Palliser); (2) the minor gentry, represented by the squire Dale of Allington and his presumptive heir; (3) their respectable but somewhat impoverished dependents (Mrs. Dale and her two daughters, Bell and Lily, whose love interests provide the main substance of the plot); (4) the world of men who must work to make their way in the world (in which category fall most of the suitors of the novel); (5) those on the fringe of "respectability" (Mrs. Roper's boarding house in London); and (6) the class of domestic servants (especially one Hopkins, head gardener at Allington -- but Trollope seems to make an effort to portray other members of this class when the occasion provides an opportunity). Dozens of other minor characters appear briefly and vividly in the spotlight, each animated with the spark of life.
The plot is unspectacular in the extreme, but for lovers of Trollope, the ability to understand the drama and heroism of ordinary life, as well as its tedium, pettiness, and villainy, will always be his special appeal. This novel is slow, perhaps, to seize the reader's interest -- at least, so I found it -- but in the end the volume acquires a remarkable momentum from the progress of its various subplots and possesses in the final two hundred pages a sort of urgency in its narrative momentum that carries it briskly along. For me, the "hobbledehoyhood" of Johnny Eames is sometimes hard to bear. Trollope even says at the end of the novel that "I feel I have been in fault in giving such prominence to a hobbledehoy." But biographers tell us that such was Trollope in his youth, so a grateful reader is, I suppose, bound to cherish a special feeling for Johnny Eames also.
At one moment a character arrives at his sister-in-law's house in London and is obliged to wait several moments while the servant changes into livery before answering the knock at the door -- for it is thus that the daughter of an earl clings to the trappings of her rank. I love such glimpses into the ways of a vanished world, and they are one of the charms of reading Trollope. But the ways of the human heart have changed less than its outward customs, and the twenty-first-century reader will encounter the shock of recognition several dozen times in the course of reading *The Small House at Allington*.
The handsome Oxford University Press edition, a bargain at the price, has an insightful introduction by James R. Kincaid. If only it were presented as an afterword! Is there really any point in giving away the plot of a novel?
Rating: 5
Summary: Trollope's gentle satire works
Comment: The Small House at Allington, one of Trollope's Barsetshire novels of provincial life, does not require a familiarity with the other books in the series. Its plot device, much like the slightly superior Framley Parsonage, is to show the effects of poor choices and the way in which life sometimes gives folks pretty just desserts for the silly choices they make. As with all Trollope, though, the plot is a jaunty cover for his real theme, which is a social satire of his era in an effort to illumine human nature. Sometimes Trollope's plot devices had a different effect on the reader than he intended. Lily Dale, placed in the novel largely to illustrate the consequences attendant to self-willed dedication to victorian ideas of true love, in fact became a celebrated character in her time as an example of a perfect jilted lover. It is somewhat amusing reading the novel today, seeing how Trollope showed Lily as a stubborn girl from a stubborn family, stubbornly devoted to "Love", and then to think that in his time, Lily was seen as a perfect avatar of true love.
This is a good read--lots of rich satire of persons of both high and low station. It is not Trollope's best, but it is a good read, and well worth a Sunday afternoon read. If you have not read Trollope, prepare for a richly human story laced with satire. If you have read Trollope, then expect a wit slightly less sharp but a story a bit more engaging than his others. His character Crosbie, the "villain" of sorts, is a fine creation, and this one is worth a read.
Rating: 3
Summary: A Sad Ending
Comment: I do not expect a fairy tale, like that of Cinderella being carried off by her Prince Charming but I was quite disappointed that at the end of the story, John Eames had not managed to win the heart of his lady.
In my opinion, Trollope was unkind to portray too much of the hobbledehoyness of John Eames. He did not quite elaborate much of how John Eames came to become a man since he should be our hero in the book.
I really admired Eames's unquenched love and loyalty to L.D. Seldom we find such great exertions in men nowadays. At the same time, I do feel that Eames was a people pleaser to an extent except the time when he thrashed Apollo Crosbie and when he insisted on Sir Raffle Buffle giving him an extension of leave to stay in Guestwick Manor.
About Lilian Dale, I have to say she was a strong woman because to be jilted in the age where she existed was a great disgrace. How she managed to still sustain her love for the man who hurt and abused her, I cannot comprehend.
In conclusion, I think the book is quite okay even though it doesn't have the 'Oomnps! ' as it should have but it's sure a good way to pass your time.
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Title: Framley Parsonage (Penguin English Library) by Anthony Trollope, David Skilton, Peter Miles ISBN: 0140432132 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1985 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Doctor Thorne (Everyman Paperback Classics) by Anthony Trollope, James Kincaid ISBN: 046087604X Publisher: Everymans Library Pub. Date: 01 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Last Chronicle of Barset (Everyman Paperback Classics) by Anthony Trollope, David Skilton ISBN: 0460872346 Publisher: Everymans Library Pub. Date: 01 April, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Barchester Towers (Oxford World's Classics) by Anthony Trollope, John Sutherland, Michael Sadleir, Frederick Page, Edward Ardizzone ISBN: 0192834320 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The Warden (Oxford World's Classics) by Anthony Trollope, Michael Sadleir, Frederick Page, Edward Ardizzone ISBN: 0192834088 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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