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A review by lbrex
Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope, David Skilton
5.0
The last few times I have been sick, I've picked out a big mid-Victorian novel for comfort and distraction. Last time it was Braddon's _The Doctor's Wife_ and this time it was _Doctor Thorne_.
Trollope knows how to construct an interesting plot and he knows how to find the drama in everyday life. The source of the plot in _Doctor Thorne_ is actually rather sensational: murder, alcoholism, a disgraced woman, emigration to America, and a hidden identity. But the novel that springs from this source is one that points out the terrible ways that money and social class determine the very shape of the Victorian institution of marriage, especially the marriage of two sympathetic characters. I can't say that the conclusion is groundbreaking, but Trollope still manages to flaunt convention at the same time that he must adhere to it.
Mary Thorne is perhaps the most interesting character in this novel. Like Dickens's Esther Summerson, she comes from a compromised background, but she acts in the most rational, calculated, and thoughtful way throughout the narrative, even when all of Greshambury seems intent on shaming her. I wish that there had been a bit more focus on her, but I also have to give credit to Trollope for showing us such a wide range of interesting characters, even including the minor characters, from a young woman who attends early morning church services to seduce the rector, to a railroad contractor who ruins his life with alcohol and sees the devastation he has brought on his son only days before dying.
_Doctor Thorne_ is an accessible mid-Victorian novel that I expect will please a lot of people. I know it made the flu slightly more bearable.
Trollope knows how to construct an interesting plot and he knows how to find the drama in everyday life. The source of the plot in _Doctor Thorne_ is actually rather sensational: murder, alcoholism, a disgraced woman, emigration to America, and a hidden identity. But the novel that springs from this source is one that points out the terrible ways that money and social class determine the very shape of the Victorian institution of marriage, especially the marriage of two sympathetic characters. I can't say that the conclusion is groundbreaking, but Trollope still manages to flaunt convention at the same time that he must adhere to it.
Mary Thorne is perhaps the most interesting character in this novel. Like Dickens's Esther Summerson, she comes from a compromised background, but she acts in the most rational, calculated, and thoughtful way throughout the narrative, even when all of Greshambury seems intent on shaming her. I wish that there had been a bit more focus on her, but I also have to give credit to Trollope for showing us such a wide range of interesting characters, even including the minor characters, from a young woman who attends early morning church services to seduce the rector, to a railroad contractor who ruins his life with alcohol and sees the devastation he has brought on his son only days before dying.
_Doctor Thorne_ is an accessible mid-Victorian novel that I expect will please a lot of people. I know it made the flu slightly more bearable.