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A review by schopflin
Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope
4.0
A classic, satisfying, Trollope tale of love, society and inheritance, occasionally brilliant in its observation of humanity.
Trollope displays his familiar paternalism and because this is also a narrative of the Irish famine, this can be jarring. But some of his expressed views - that the famine was made far worse by social structures, incompetence and political interest - are all too modern. At one point he describes as unfortunate the conviction that aid should only be given to the starving if they work for it and that it must be managed by private enterprise. How little has changed.
As in Dr Thorne, the romance also shows how radical Trollope was. In both he shows that being a good human being with honest feelings is more important than parentage, money or status.
This book was an unexpected pleasure because I thought I had read all of his non-minor works (Le Vendée, Nina Balatka and An Old Man's Love have been sitting on my shelves for years). Thank you Oxfam Petersfield!
Trollope displays his familiar paternalism and because this is also a narrative of the Irish famine, this can be jarring. But some of his expressed views - that the famine was made far worse by social structures, incompetence and political interest - are all too modern. At one point he describes as unfortunate the conviction that aid should only be given to the starving if they work for it and that it must be managed by private enterprise. How little has changed.
As in Dr Thorne, the romance also shows how radical Trollope was. In both he shows that being a good human being with honest feelings is more important than parentage, money or status.
This book was an unexpected pleasure because I thought I had read all of his non-minor works (Le Vendée, Nina Balatka and An Old Man's Love have been sitting on my shelves for years). Thank you Oxfam Petersfield!