A flawed father, two flawed sons, an inheritance - all the ingredients for a classic Trollope easy read with its good plot and clear-eyed cynical appreciation of the importance of money, status and reputation to the middle and upper classes. Yes, there's his world's underlying anti-semitism but here this is popular cliché rather than malice and it's balanced by his sympathetic understanding of the constraints on women. Add a comical sub-plot and you have something which helps hours of confinement slip by.
(Tony Pratt - bwl 96 Spring 2017 ) |
