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2016-09-05 2016-09-05File Name: B01LMNVCC8
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The Unsuitable SuitorBy JanPWhile this was a good plot it was very repetitive. We heard the pros and cons of the legalities of the case from every perspective ad nauseum. There were no extenuating circumstances for Anna the child of poverty when she became Anna the lady. everybody seeemed to forget the wickedness of the father and the many years of the neglect of the Lovel family. Both suitors seeemed equally deserving but class prejudice would not let go. Wish Trollope could have written more.56 of 58 people found the following review helpful. An Incomplete SagaBy E. T. VealAnthony Trollope declared once that "Lady Anna" was "the best novel I ever wrote". Readers did not agree. Appearing between the masterpieces "Phineas Redux" and "The Way We Live Now". it sold poorly and has been neglected ever since. Trollope blamed this failure on his audiences objections to the heroines choice of a husband. though similar complaints. much more vehemently expressed. had not sunk "The Small House at Allington". (There Lily Dale remains faithful to the memory of a cad. scorning the devoted attentions of a worthy suitor. Annas wooers. by contrast. are both good men. though vastly different in rank and personality.)"Lady Anna" is. in fact. a well-knit narrative with more suspense than is usual for Trollope. Will the courts declare Anna to be Lady Anna Lovel. heiress to 35.000 pounds a year. or merely Anna Murray. a pauper? Which of her suitors. the sometimes surly tailor Daniel Thwaite or her handsome. good-natured cousin Lord Lovel. will Anna prefer? Will Daniels political principles lead to a breach with his childhood sweetheart? Will the impoverished Lord Lovel find honorable means to support his noble rank? The plot takes surprising. if not astonishing. turns; the characterization is as deft as ever; and there is a leavening of subtle humor. such as Daniels cross-purposes consultation with a quondam radical poet (a thinly disguised Robert Southey) who has evolved into an intractable Tory.The books weakness is that the leading characters are. by and large. decent folk at the beginning and. except for one who falls into a state akin to madness. remain decent. if not unchanged. to the end. Conflicts end in rational compromises. Everybody eventually sees everybody elses point of view. Even the lawyers on opposite sides of Lady Annas case get along amicably. (One solicitor does have the sense to grumble that such harmony is unprofessional.)Trollopes liking for this novel may have arisen from the fact that it is light. sunny and fresh. There may be an evil earl in the first chapter and a mad countess in the last. but how pleasant for the writer to be free for a time from the political intrigues. financial manipulations and cynical worldliness of the Palliser saga and "The Way We Live Now"! Moreover. "Lady Anna" was. in its creators mind. only a prologue. The last paragraph promises a (never written) sequel. where the characters doubtless were intended to meet sterner challenges. There are hints that the scene would have shifted to Australia and America and that the heros and heroines homegrown principles were to be put to the test in those lands. Thus the author had much in view that he never disclosed to his readers. perhaps accounting for part of the discrepancy between his opinion and theirs.No one who has not read all of the Palliser and Barset novels. not to mention "The Way We Live Now". should pick up "Lady Anna". I recommend it immediately after the last-named. It will cleanse the palate and leave a lingering regret that the rest of Annas and Daniels and Lord Lovels adventures will never be known.Incidental note: The introduction to the Oxford Worlds Classics edition. the one that I am reviewing. is an extraordinarily silly example of lit crit bafflegab. Dont read it before reading the novel. Read afterwards. its wrong-headed ideological interpretations may prove amusing.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. I wouldnt have missed itBy Monique AdamIm on my way to reading all of Trollopes novels and this is a very interesting one. but for fear of giving spoilers Ill just say it brings up some 19th century obsessions and how they play out against more enduring values. Read it!
