Product Description

Son of a bankrupt landowner, Frank Gresham is intent on marrying his beloved Mary Thorne, despite her illegitimacy and apparent poverty. Frank’s ambitious mother and haughty aunt are set against the match, however, and push him to save the family’s mortgaged estate by making a good marriage to a wealthy heiress. Only Mary’s loving uncle, Dr Thorne, knows the secret of her birth and the fortune she is to inherit that will make her socially acceptable in the eyes of Frank’s family – but the high-principled doctor believes she should be accepted on her own terms. A telling examination of the relationship between society, money and morality, Dr Thorne (1858) is enduringly popular for Trollope’s affectionate depiction of rural English life and his deceptively simple portrayal of human nature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15424 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

About the Author
Anthony Trollope (1815 - 1882) established a successful career in the Post Office whilst also writing over forty novels, plus short stories. He enjoyed considerable acclaim during his lifetime. He is best remembered for the Barsetshire Chronicles. Crime novelist Ruth Rendell was born on 17 February 1930 in London, and educated at Loughton County High School, Essex. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has received many awards for her work, including the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger (lifetime achievement award), and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.

Customer Reviews

A Barsetshire novel in Trollopes gently satirical style
This is the third of the Barsetshire novels and the first to leave behind the trials and tribulations of Hiram's Hospital. Typical of Trollope's subtle humour the first literary trick of this book is the title since the Doctor himself, though not exactly a minor character, is in many ways almost an overseer of the plot rather than the true hero of the story. That honour goes to his neice Mary, whose strange origin is the event that underlies the plot. So cleverly does Trollope bring us close to Mary and her plight that he has the reader practically wishing for the death of a character so that Mary's happiness might be secured. This book contains an array of interesting characters, as you would expect from Anthony Trollope, but is a little less complex than some of the "Palliser" and other novels.

A Visit to the Good Doctor
For this, the third in the Barsetshire series after The Warden and Barchester Towers, Trollope takes us to East Barset, and the home of the eponymous Doctor Thorne. The Doctor is a kind and gentle man, good-hearted and generous, who thinks the world of his niece, Mary. She is in love with Frank, son of the impoverished local landowner, who reciprocates her love. The problem is that Mary is without a fortune, and Frank must marry money. How these difficulties are resolved forms the basis of the novel. Trollope had no time for the mysteries that often lay at the heart of Victorian fiction; he makes it clear just a few chapters in that Mary and Frank will end up happily married, and he is scornful of those writers for whom plot is more important than character - mentioning Mrs Radcliffe by name.

Doctor Thorne is a charming, witty book with much humour. One of Trollope's great strengths is his understanding of character, which leads him to create well-drawn, three-dimensional characters who have both good and bad, dark and light, in their characters. Few people in Trollope are either wholly good or wholly bad. Thus, the Doctor has to endeavour to preserve the lives of not one but two people whose deaths would benefit his niece greatly.

I felt when reading this novel that this is truly where Trollope's world fully develops. Although he wrote forty-seven novels and many other works, including the celebrated Autobiography, the quality never suffered. The reader fully lives with the characters and their milieu, and actually cares about the people, and that, finally, is what the purpose of reading should be.

Love and money in Victorian times
'Dr. Thorne' is the third novel in Trollope's Barsetshire-series, and the first to steer away from Barchester city and the clergymen living there. The action is set in Greshambury, where Doctor Thorne is living with his 'niece' Mary, who is actually the illegitimate child of the doctor's deceased brother. Frank Gresham, son of the local squire, grew up with Mary and, now that he has come of age, is intent on marrying her. Frank's father however is virtually bankrupt, and to save the estate Frank is pushed on all sides marry 'money' and not some penniless orphan, however charming she may be...

Based on this simple plot Trollope tells a beautiful and captivating story. As always his main interest lies with the inner life of his characters, and he records their thoughts, feelings, changes of heart and emotions with infinite care and in great detail. Should Frank follow his heart and marry Mary? Or is that selfish and should he rather think of the reputation (and property) of his family and marry some rich heiress? And even though he has pledged himself to her, should perhaps Mary release Frank from their engagement since their marriage would only bring quarrels and financial ruin for the Gresham-family? With great affection for his characters and often subtle humour, Trollope investigates the implications and myriad aspects of each choice to be made.

'Dr. Thorne' gives one a glimpse into life 'as it was' for the landed gentry in Victorian times, and yet it is also very recognizable and relevant today (often I found myself thinking 'that's exactly how I would have felt'). I was very sorry to reach the end of this book, and afterwards immediately started in 'Framley Parsonage'!