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pgchuis's review against another edition
4.0
Arabella and her mother (despite their extreme poverty!) have been travelling in the US and met John Morton, the British ambassador to Washington and Senator Gotobed from the state of Mikewa. Arabella has become engaged to John and all four return to England and stay at John's country home. Senator Gotobed has come to observe English habits and customs and throughout the book behaves in a thoroughly annoying (both to me and to those he meets) fashion, acquiring a very superficial knowledge in a given area and pontificating on how irrational it all is in a way offensive to his host and listeners. Arabella, who has been trying to get a husband for 12 years (so she must be 30ish), goes off John and transfers her attentions to the richer Lord Rufford. Rufford kisses her but has no intention of marrying her and then the efforts she makes to entrap him and those he makes to escape take up most of the book. There is also a sub-plot involving John's cousin Reginald, the attorney's daughter, Mary, and her suitor Mr Twentyman.
This was in many ways a frustrating novel; Trollope and Gotobed had some good points about the absurdity of hunting (oh yes, pages and pages of the stuff), suffrage and church patronage and if Trollope had given Gotobed a sense of humour or an ability to appreciate nuance or to really listen, then I as reader might have been willing to listen. As it was, I longed for the chapters where the senator was absent. Arabella and Rufford started off entertaining, but the attempts to pin him down began to drag for me. Also, while she was clearly a heartless adventuress, he did behave really badly, so perhaps Miss Penge was a just punishment. Mary and Reginald, on the other hand, were lovely. Reginald's character blossomed out of all recognition and the proposal scene was very nicely done.
This was in many ways a frustrating novel; Trollope and Gotobed had some good points about the absurdity of hunting (oh yes, pages and pages of the stuff), suffrage and church patronage and if Trollope had given Gotobed a sense of humour or an ability to appreciate nuance or to really listen, then I as reader might have been willing to listen. As it was, I longed for the chapters where the senator was absent. Arabella and Rufford started off entertaining, but the attempts to pin him down began to drag for me. Also, while she was clearly a heartless adventuress, he did behave really badly, so perhaps Miss Penge was a just punishment. Mary and Reginald, on the other hand, were lovely. Reginald's character blossomed out of all recognition and the proposal scene was very nicely done.
lnatal's review against another edition
3.0
Anthony Trollope's tale of Arabella Trefoil, a clever, conniving and ruthless woman.
rosea's review against another edition
5.0
When this novel was recommended to me I had not even heard of it among Trollope's works but gamely gave it a try. I found it the easiest to get into and raced through it on holiday. I think it's probably my favourite of his novels that I've read so far. I feel like at the beginning, Trollope was very savage and was using the character of the American Senator as a vehicle to expose inconsistencies and irrationalities in British culture - and he was savage to all his characters, the Senator included. But as the novel progressed, I felt that the characters all developed and showed that it's never so simple. It's a novel with several different, connected plotlines and I'm not sure it always hangs together coherently, but if there is any theme, it is the very wise that what may stand up in principle or seem initially straight forward is in reality much more complex, whether situations or characters. I found a lot to amuse in this novel and also a lot to provoke a great deal of thought about England, about America, about the attitudes of both countries, about the author, about love and ambition and principles... It was a real treasure trove of interest. I only wish people I knew had actually read it!
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