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Product Description
Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. He wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day. In 1867 Trollope left his position in the British Post Office to run for Parliament as a Liberal candidate in 1868. After he lost, he concentrated entirely on his literary career. While continuing to produce novels rapidly, he also edited the St Paul's Magazine, which published several of his novels in serial form. His first major success came with The Warden (1855) - the first of six novels set in the fictional county of Barsetshire. The comic masterpiece Barchester Towers (1857) has probably become the best-known of these. Trollope's popularity and critical success diminished in his later years, but he continued to write prolifically, and some of his later novels have acquired a good reputation. In particular, critics generally acknowledge the sweeping satire The Way We Live Now (1875) as his masterpiece. In all, Trollope wrote forty-seven novels, as well as dozens of short stories and a few books on travel.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Finally got around to reading this book that has been sitting on my shelf for years - it is one of Trollope's earlier works and I highly recommend it both for lovers of Trollope and to those who like period drama. It should be made into a BBC drama like some of his other works - its that good.
Set in Ireland it deals with the stories of 2 men from different tiers in society looking to marry for money but what turns out also to be for love and the rocky path of objections from family members. Full of humour and action, with a happy ending.
Set in Ireland it deals with the stories of 2 men from different tiers in society looking to marry for money but what turns out also to be for love and the rocky path of objections from family members. Full of humour and action, with a happy ending.
Format:Paperback
PARTIAL SPOILER INCLUDED
This is the second book Trollope published, after The MacDermotts of Ballycloran, and it is clear he was learning his craft. If you read his books in the order he wrote them there is a marked development in his ability to portray character and drive plot. Its setting in rural Ireland like several of his early works (he had spent a long part of his working life in Ireland) did not help its popularity at the time of publishing.
The Kellys and the O'Kellys are two connected families with a complex web of relations, leading to a variety of problems. There is however a happy ending unlike his first book.
This is the second book Trollope published, after The MacDermotts of Ballycloran, and it is clear he was learning his craft. If you read his books in the order he wrote them there is a marked development in his ability to portray character and drive plot. Its setting in rural Ireland like several of his early works (he had spent a long part of his working life in Ireland) did not help its popularity at the time of publishing.
The Kellys and the O'Kellys are two connected families with a complex web of relations, leading to a variety of problems. There is however a happy ending unlike his first book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Repeal
29 April 2012
Format:Paperback
Written and published in 1848, when Trollope worked for the Postal Service in Ireland, set during the time of the Irish State Trials of 1844,when Irish politicians wanted to repeal the annexation of Ireland by Great Britain and were accused of treason.
The story involves 2 Irish families with a structurally similar situation: the young man in each wants to marry a richer woman. The details are different though.
Young farmer Martin Kelly intends to marry an older woman with some money, but there are difficulties about that money. She needs to fend off her brother's attacks on her prosperity. She is Anty Lynch and as positive a character as you can find in this novel. Her brother Barry is as dark a villain as you can find in any Trollope. (Anty's goodness and simplicity is rather trying for the cynical reader. Ie me.)
The O'Kellys belong to the Irish peerage. They own land without great value. The current standing of the family is mediocre. A dishonest administrator has done much damage to the property. The family has been stuck in legal action about lease disputes. Now the young viscount has to live on a fairly meager income. He is engaged to a young lady with her own means, but the young man's life style choices endanger the engagement. He is too much involved with horses and races and gambling, which his income can't sustain.
Young Kelly's betrothed Anty happens to be the daughter of the man Lynch who cheated the O'Kellys, so her money is stolen from them.
Enough of the plot. AT's commercial successes would come later. This is a bit of a practice session.
He does look down upon the Irish, but his condescension is bearable to me, a non Irish. He is the type of the good colonialist. (In case that you question my observation about AT's condescending attitude: just look at how he describes life in widow Kelly's inn or in lawyer Daly's law practice. Poking good natured fun at the natives, poor children.)
Looking for weaknesses in the novel, it occurs to me that neither of the two good young men, Martin Kelly and Frank O'Kelly, is really convincing. They are both contradictory characters, which is normal, but Trollope spends far too much effort in explaining them.
I could also have done with less space given to the horses. After all, they like me as little as I like them...
The story involves 2 Irish families with a structurally similar situation: the young man in each wants to marry a richer woman. The details are different though.
Young farmer Martin Kelly intends to marry an older woman with some money, but there are difficulties about that money. She needs to fend off her brother's attacks on her prosperity. She is Anty Lynch and as positive a character as you can find in this novel. Her brother Barry is as dark a villain as you can find in any Trollope. (Anty's goodness and simplicity is rather trying for the cynical reader. Ie me.)
The O'Kellys belong to the Irish peerage. They own land without great value. The current standing of the family is mediocre. A dishonest administrator has done much damage to the property. The family has been stuck in legal action about lease disputes. Now the young viscount has to live on a fairly meager income. He is engaged to a young lady with her own means, but the young man's life style choices endanger the engagement. He is too much involved with horses and races and gambling, which his income can't sustain.
Young Kelly's betrothed Anty happens to be the daughter of the man Lynch who cheated the O'Kellys, so her money is stolen from them.
Enough of the plot. AT's commercial successes would come later. This is a bit of a practice session.
He does look down upon the Irish, but his condescension is bearable to me, a non Irish. He is the type of the good colonialist. (In case that you question my observation about AT's condescending attitude: just look at how he describes life in widow Kelly's inn or in lawyer Daly's law practice. Poking good natured fun at the natives, poor children.)
Looking for weaknesses in the novel, it occurs to me that neither of the two good young men, Martin Kelly and Frank O'Kelly, is really convincing. They are both contradictory characters, which is normal, but Trollope spends far too much effort in explaining them.
I could also have done with less space given to the horses. After all, they like me as little as I like them...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Trollope's sophomore novel is less gritty than his debut and is more in line with his signature style.
23 April 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Anthony Trollope penned several novels before he found success with his Barsetshire series. His debut was with The Macdermots of Ballycloran, a gritty portrayal of the poor tenants who peopled Ireland in the years prior to the great famine. While that novel garnered critical success, it was not met with much favor in the public eye. With his follow up novel, THE KELLYS AND THE O'KELLYS, Trollope retained the Irish locale which he was so familiar with, yet lightened the tone quite a bit, and relocated his scenes to what would become his trademark - the drawing rooms of the upper class. The result is a novel that feels much more familiar to fans of the author - one that could easily fit alongside the celebrated Paliser series. While KELLYS garnered more positive reviews, public favor would unfortunately continue to elude Trollope.
This is essentially two novels woven into one - both stories tell the same tale of a man attempting to land a marriage to a woman with a comfortable income, and how both run into interference from the women's guardians. In the case of Frank O'Kelly, it is the uncle who feels that O'Kelly's "extravagant" lifestyle will drain his niece's income, and who would rather give his own son first crack at the proposed marriage. In the case of Martin Kelly, it is the brother who not only does not want Kelly to get the money, but doesn't even believe his own sister is entitled to what should have been his sole inheritance.
Both stories move in tandem, and only rarely do the titular character cross paths - their stories have almost no bearing on one another - but this is by design. What Trollope is doing is exploring the same basic motif, but with two different characters in two different spheres of life - one a well-to-do landowner, and the other a less well-off tenant. There is very little deviation from these main stories, other than an extended hunting sequence (another Trollope staple) and the alternating view of events from the various connected characters.
Of these, by far the most interesting is the brother, Barry Lynch, who is one of Trollope's more loathsome villains. Motivated by insane jealousy, he moves from mental, to physical abuse of his sister, and eventually goes so far as to plan her murder. His insane and drunken ravings lend a page-turning element to an otherwise standard engagement tale. Aside from this, however, the novel as a whole doesn't really stand out from the rest of Trollope's minor works.
As I noted above, the novel is far from the tragic nature of the MACDERMOTS - aside from Barry's dark motivations, most of the writing is played in comedy or romance. It's wonderful to see that Trollope's talent existed from the beginning, for in his second novel, he already exudes a mastery over character and dialogue. I wouldn't call it the most riveting of his novels - but for the Trollope fan, it certainly marks a welcome addition to the library.
This is essentially two novels woven into one - both stories tell the same tale of a man attempting to land a marriage to a woman with a comfortable income, and how both run into interference from the women's guardians. In the case of Frank O'Kelly, it is the uncle who feels that O'Kelly's "extravagant" lifestyle will drain his niece's income, and who would rather give his own son first crack at the proposed marriage. In the case of Martin Kelly, it is the brother who not only does not want Kelly to get the money, but doesn't even believe his own sister is entitled to what should have been his sole inheritance.
Both stories move in tandem, and only rarely do the titular character cross paths - their stories have almost no bearing on one another - but this is by design. What Trollope is doing is exploring the same basic motif, but with two different characters in two different spheres of life - one a well-to-do landowner, and the other a less well-off tenant. There is very little deviation from these main stories, other than an extended hunting sequence (another Trollope staple) and the alternating view of events from the various connected characters.
Of these, by far the most interesting is the brother, Barry Lynch, who is one of Trollope's more loathsome villains. Motivated by insane jealousy, he moves from mental, to physical abuse of his sister, and eventually goes so far as to plan her murder. His insane and drunken ravings lend a page-turning element to an otherwise standard engagement tale. Aside from this, however, the novel as a whole doesn't really stand out from the rest of Trollope's minor works.
As I noted above, the novel is far from the tragic nature of the MACDERMOTS - aside from Barry's dark motivations, most of the writing is played in comedy or romance. It's wonderful to see that Trollope's talent existed from the beginning, for in his second novel, he already exudes a mastery over character and dialogue. I wouldn't call it the most riveting of his novels - but for the Trollope fan, it certainly marks a welcome addition to the library.
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