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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Great read. My first Trollope after a while and brought back in a flourish all the reasons why I had so enjoyed good writing earlier. There is a fast pace to the story and yet your soak in the atmosphere, the characters and the manners of a lost milieu. A few passages are hilarious, almost Wodehousian in their situation and prose. Good fun!
challenging
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Don't think I'll be reading more of his books anytime soon. All his characters are like dim-witted versions of Austen's in some kind of bizarre parallel universe where everything is boring and turns out badly.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love Trollope, ever since I watched the Pallisers on BBC. It is his incredible perceptiveness about people that I love and his humor and the way that he effortlessly creates a whole political and social world...I found this one totally engrossing though the ending was not the entirely happy ending I would have preferred and his heroinne Lily got on my nerves. Unlike Glencora who I love love loved! A little of that story got into this one...Trollope is a difficult author to know which book to recommend as his stories tend to overlap. I say, start by watching the Palliser series from BBC.
The Small House at Allington is the fifth book in Anthony Trollope’s 6 book Barsetshire Chronicles and it was my choice for the category “A classic which includes the name of a place in the title” in the 2016 Back to the Classic Challenge hosted by Karen on the blog Books and Chocolate.
With its emphasis on making a “good” marriage and its loose plot surrounding two upper class but impoverished marriageable sisters, the book reminded me a tiny bit of Austen, but still written in Trollope’s endearing, witty style.
Plot-wise, I found that the book really represented a break from any previous Trollope novel read; I was so sure from the outset that I knew how it would end and I was so, so wrong. In fact, the ending is fairly inconclusive, which seems rare in my experience, in Victorian romances in general. In any case, I loved it and look forward to finishing off the series by reading the sixth and final book soon.
With its emphasis on making a “good” marriage and its loose plot surrounding two upper class but impoverished marriageable sisters, the book reminded me a tiny bit of Austen, but still written in Trollope’s endearing, witty style.
Plot-wise, I found that the book really represented a break from any previous Trollope novel read; I was so sure from the outset that I knew how it would end and I was so, so wrong. In fact, the ending is fairly inconclusive, which seems rare in my experience, in Victorian romances in general. In any case, I loved it and look forward to finishing off the series by reading the sixth and final book soon.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I most enjoyed the familial relationships, especially those with the older male characters.
This was one of the first books of Trollope I was thoroughly disappointed in. I was sos hoping that a better resolution would happen and Lily would at least have closure, but to end her life the way she did was such a comedown after all she had gone through. It was just like “Is that really it?”
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced