The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope

 

In April of 2021 I set out on a quest to read strictly dystopian novels during that month. As a result, I read 15 novels with a dystopian theme. I had previously read a few of the books that would make my list, but most were new to me (though not exactly new books). The last book in that series was first published in six installments in Blackwood's Magazine in 1881–82 - The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope . That book turned out to be one of my favorites in the dystopian series.

Reading a Wikipedia article on The Fixed Period, I learned that this was Trollope's only Sci-Fi/futuristic novel. He is best remembered today for two six book series of novels - the Chronicles of Barsetshire and the Palliser novels (AKA - the Parliamentary novels ). In May of that year, I began reading Chronicles of Barsetshire. After reading the 4th novel in the series, I decided to take a break from Trollope. I began reading the entire collection of Agatha Christie's mystery novels and soon forgot about Trollope.

He was forgotten until his books were mentioned by John Podhoretz on the Commentary Magazine podcast recently. Podhoretz highly recommended Trollope's Palliser novels and I felt I needed to finish the last two books in Chronicles of Barsetshire before I could read something different by Trollope.

I started book five - The Small House at Allington. I'm glad I did. This one is my favorite (so far) of Trollope's novels.

Generally, I'm not one for spoilers but I want to compare parts of The Small House at Allington with an earlier novel in the series, Doctor Thorne . In the earlier novel, a Mr. Moffat breaks off his engagement to Miss Augusta Gresham because he had found a more "advantageous match." To avenge his sister, Frank Gresham and one of his friends horsewhip Moffat within an inch of his life. Most of the characters in the novel appear to be OK with the beating, as does Trollope, for that matter. In The Small House at Allington, after Adolphus Crosbie jilts Lily Dale in order to marry Alexandrina de Courcy, Crosbie is simply given a black eye by John Eames.

In his autobiography, Trollope is amazed by the number of letters he'd received from readers of the installments of The Small House at Allington who loved Lily Dale (who he considered a prig) and wished that Trollope would have Lily and John Eames marry. Trollope did not unite the two. Several of the characters from The Small House at Allington return in The Last Chronicle of Barset. Judging by Trollope's comments, I would be very surprised to see the couple marry in the final book.