This is generally reckoned as Trollope's finest novel, at least outside the Barchester and Palliser series, though it is rather less well-known than any of them. I can't say I have read enough of Trollope's prodigious output to be sure of that, but it is certainly a very fine and enjoyable novel, to compare with Vanity Fair and the best of Dickens.
Like many of Trollope's and Dickens' novels, it was published in instalments in a magazine, and an episodic structure results, although Trollope did not favour the end-of-chapter cliffhangers that Dickens used. No doubt Trollope's need to supply sufficient copy explains why this novel stretches to over 900 pages in this edition: and also explains why it has such substantial sub-plots. But it is the richness, variety and attention given to these sub-plots that so enhance this novel's satisfying complexity and enjoyability. At times the sub-plots seem to have developed too much a life of their own, overshadowing the main plot perhaps, but on the whole they are well integrated.
The main plot concerns Louis Trevelyan, a gentleman of independent means, who marries Emily, the eldest daughter of the colonial governor of some remote tropical islands, Sir Marmaduke Rowley. The second daughter, Nora, also comes to live with Trevelyan in London, as was common in those days. Having been brought up outside London, Emily is rather naive: she is unaware of the rakish reputation of her godfather Colonel Osborne; and she does not realise that in London it is insufficient to be proper, one has to be seen to be proper. Accordingly she allows Osborne to visit more often than is good for her and her husband's reputations. Trevelyan attempts to prevent this, but in doing so overreacts hamfistedly. From Emily's indignant response to this, Trevelyan wrongly infers that there is more to the liaison than the reality. The disagreements go from bad to worse, resulting in a separation. As Trevelyan's perception becomes further detached from reality, he engages a private detective, Bozzle, a fine comic creation, to watch on Osborne and his wife, and to try and obtain custody of his son from Emily.
The main sub-plot, itself substantial enough for a novel, (indeed very reminiscent of a Barchester novel) revolves around Jemima Stanbury, an elderly and wealthy spinster living in Exeter with her niece, Dorothy Stanbury. If the main plot is a tragedy, this plot is romantic and comical. Miss Stanbury is often described as Trollope's finest comic character, being dragonish with a tendency to try and plan the lives of her relatives and friends in directions they do not wish to follow. The connection to the main plot is through her nephew Hugh Stanbury, a journalist friend of Trevelyan's, who is asked to place Emily in a safe place with Stanbury's family in a small Devon village, and who falls in love with Nora. But there is also much concerning the wider romantic intrigues in Miss Stanbury's circle, and the feud between Miss Stanbury and the Brooke family from whom she inherited her money. A particularly witty comic device in the novel, mainly deriving from this plot, is the repeated occurrence of young women turning down advantageous or desirable marriage offers. Bozzle's tracking of Osborne to Devon as he seeks to visit Emily is another fine comic scene, climaxing when Stanbury runs into both Osborne and Bozzle at Exeter station.
A second romantic subplot surrounds the fabulously wealthy Charles Glascock, who falls in love with, and is turned down by, Nora Rowley. He moves on to Italy, where his father, Lord Peterborough, is dying. On the way he encounters a declining Trevelyan who has come to escape his torment, and a fascinating young American woman. The Rowley family later come out to Florence, ostensibly to try and reason with Trevelyan, but also to tempt Nora into accepting Glascock.
Late in the book, when it finally looks like the certain resolutions are inevitable, Trollope addresses the reader to suggest that in fact the resolutions will turn sour, and Stanbury will turn out to be Glascock's lost elder brother, so robbing him of his fortune. It is obvious to the reader that none of this will happen. Trollope is clearly satirising and distancing himself from Dickens, since twists and implausible coincidences are very much part of the Dickens genre. It is reminiscent of a similar passage in Barchester Towers, where Trollope addresses the reader (this time accurately) to reassure them in advance that Miss Harding will not marry the awful Rev. Slope. In Trollope novels, people do mainly do what you expect of them, and contrived devices are avoided. The interest lies in how they do it, and in the study of character on the way. Perhaps the final ending of this novel is a bit happy-ever-after (though really not quite), but it could hardly be otherwise. And 900 pages is quite the right length for it.
John Sutherland's extended footnotes add considerably to one's appreciation and enjoyment of this book, since Trollope refers to many contemporary matters which would otherwise be quite missed by most readers.
