Anthony Trollope's Best Novel, "Can You Forgive Her?"

All Trollope aficionados are periodically asked The Big Question: Which of Trollope's books should a newcomer read first? Even with 47 novels to choose from it's difficult to answer that question. I think you have to have read all of Trollope and be re-reading him before you truly appreciate his books. But of course you have to start somewhere.

Can You Forgive Her? should be the place to start. It has everything that makes Trollope so beloved. There's a love story in which a young woman has to choose between marrying the man she loves or the man her family wants her to marry. In fact, there are two of them, with very different women making very different decisions. There's a hunting scene, one which is exciting to read and which throws light on one of the love plots. There is an election story, where the candidate we are following must put a lot of money into the hands of questionable lawyers and innkeepers in order to bribe the voters.

There is not one but two trips to Switzerland. Trollope liked to send his characters abroad to places he had recently visited and use the scenes and atmosphere of those places to enhance his stories. There's a wonderful inheritance plot, always interesting and important in Trollope novels. There's political negotiating for important jobs in a new government, if there is to be a new government. And there are house parties where the characters get to like one another - or in some cases to loathe one another.

Most important in Can You Forgive Her? the reader is introduced to one of literature's most scintillating characters, Lady Glencora Palliser, the richest woman in Britain aside from the Queen, who is in love with one man but must marry another because she is too young to fight the countesses and marquesses who are her guardians and carries too heavy a weight of wealth. What she makes of that marriage and how is, in my opinion, one of the finest stories in Victorian literature.

What about the title? Whom are we being asked to forgive and for what? Ostensibly we are judging Alice Vavasor, who breaks her engagement (a serious sin in itself) with the man she loves and becomes engaged to her cousin because she can't face the boring life she would lead with her beloved in Cambridgeshire, a place Trollope apparently felt was the most cheerless in England. By accepting her cousin's proposal she feels she can be part of his political campaign and have some interest in life aside from housekeeping and babies. And those dreary fens.

But we are aslo asked to judge Lady Glencora who marries a man she doesn't love, a cardinal sin in Trollope. She then obsesses on the possibility of running away with the man she really loves. This is almost beyond possibility in Trollope as in most Victorian novels. Whether she elopes with this other man or not, can the reader ever really forgive her for even thinking of it?

All of these delights make Can You Forgive Her? the ideal Trollope novel for a beginner except for one thing. It is about 1,000 pages long. Perhaps 50 years ago you could hand this to a reader inexperienced in the 19th century novel. But today could you seriously expect someone with no feel for the measured language and slow pace of the book to enjoy it - or even to finish it? Do you think they would forgive you for recommending it?

2012  No 16

This is, according to my records, the seventh time I've read the novel. I've also re-read parts of it many times. It's my favorite Trollope.

Comments

[ChrisCross53]

I like different Trollopes on different days - it depends on my mood. But I always enjoy The Eustace Diamonds.

[Mary]

I have all of Trollope on my Kindle, Chris, so that like you I can read whatever suits my mood.

[Pamela Thomas]

Well, the Penguin version is 848 pages, long enough, LOL. But I never noticed it was so long because it was so fascinating!! You are right, it has it all. I try to start friends with "The Warden" if I think they are the patient types, or "The Eustace Diamonds" if they are sure they won't like Trollope.

I recently looked over my Trollope list and realized I am down to only a dozen of his novels I haven't read - and went into a mild panic. But they are quite rereadable, so I am sure I shall manage somehow.

[Mary]

I saw a comment the other day from a woman on the Trollope Facebook page who said she had finished reading all the Trollope novels and had lost the will to live. Actually, the second (and third and etc) readings are every bit as wonderful.