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A review by smalefowles
Cousin Henry by Anthony Trollope
4.0
I live with a Victorianist, so I'm contractually obligated to give any Trollope at least four stars. This is actually my first time reading Trollope (baby's first Trollope), so I chose a "short" one.
Honestly, I don't even know what I read. It felt like a modernist pseudo-detective story; the would-be protagonist doesn't really function as a protagonist, and the plot mostly involves nothing happening. There was a surprising amount of interiority, in a weirdly Poe mode (v neurotic). To a 20th c. Americanist, this book reads like Kafka, but is that how Victorianists read it? Is this normal?
Anyway, I did like it. And whoever chose the painting for the cover deserves a promotion--so on point.
Honestly, I don't even know what I read. It felt like a modernist pseudo-detective story; the would-be protagonist doesn't really function as a protagonist, and the plot mostly involves nothing happening. There was a surprising amount of interiority, in a weirdly Poe mode (v neurotic). To a 20th c. Americanist, this book reads like Kafka, but is that how Victorianists read it? Is this normal?
Anyway, I did like it. And whoever chose the painting for the cover deserves a promotion--so on point.