Anthony TROLLOPE : Doctor Thorne - Barsetshire chronicles #3

Doctor Thorne, considered by Trollope to be the best of his works, is a telling examination of the relationship between money and morality.

It recounts the story of the son of a bankrupt landowner, Frank Gresham, who is intent on marrying his beloved Mary Thorne despite her illegitimacy and apparent poverty. Frank's ambitious mother and haughty aunt are set against the match, however, and push him to make a good marriage to a wealthy heiress. Only Mary's loving uncle, Dr Thorne, knows of the fortune she is about to inherit - but believes she should be accepted on her own terms. The third book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.

"You must marry money !"

 

For a Victorian novel written in a time when it was not respectable to talk about money, it's surprisingly all... about money ! And social criticism, noble men and women marrying rich commoners for their money, are birth and wealth worth everything, are love and goodness worth nothing ? Pride versus prejudice ? A noble man falls in love with an illegitimate daughter, nothing new maybe, but this book delighted me.

The more I read Anthony Trollope, the more I adore him. His novels are so witty and funny and the social criticism is exhilaratingly done. I'm certain he was a kind man, because even if he can be ironic and critic, he's mostly human, his characters too. Dr Thorne, who gives his name to the title, is not the main character, but his silence about something he is the only one to know is what the plot is all about.

 

"Then, indeed, there was war in Barsetshire. If there was on Dr Thorne's cranium one bump more developed than another, it was that of combativeness. Not that the doctor was a bully, or even pugnacious, in the usual sense of the word ; he had no disposition to provoke a fight, no propense love of quarrelling ; but there was that in him which would allow him to yield to no attack."

 

Ah, the war between doctors ! "Poor" Lady Arabella ! And strong-minded Mary ! And sir Roger ! Miss Dunstable and her lovers ! Honestly, the characters were wonderful. Some also had wonderful names, like "Mrs Rantaway - late Miss Gushing".

"Lady Amelia, (...) whom no de Courcy ever born was more wise, more solemn, more prudent, or more proud. The ponderosity of her qualifications for nobility was sometimes too much even for her mother, and her devotion to the peerage was such that she would certainly have declined a seat in heaven if offered to her without the promise that it should be in the upper house."

"A man raises a woman to his own standard, but a woman must take that of the man she marries."

I will add no more quotes, because I could almost rewrite the book here. I love Trollope's writing, his wonderful sense of humour, I laughed out loud many times and was kept highly entertained throughout the novel. One thing, though : maybe it was a tad too long, some repetitions, but it didn't hinder my enjoyment.

(It is to be noted that men, in Trollope's novel, cry. Manly, but they do.)

Last year, I watched the mini-series adapted from this novel and had a great time doing so. I will rewatch it soon now that I've read the novel and see if I still like it as much. I should : superb cast, great photography, Julian Fellowes strikes again.