Product Description

Unflagging in his pursuit of material for a lecture on the irrationality of the English, the Senator tramples roughshod over the feelings of his host and of much of the population of Dillsborough. Equally energetically, the increasingly desperate Arabella Trefoil pursues her prey to the altar.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #365050 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Customer Reviews

a very superior kind of soap.
Trollope apparently had a lot of hassle with his publishers about the title of this novel. They felt it would imply it was set in America, when it is an extremely English novel set, largely, in a rural English community. The publishers may have been right, as the American Senator in question, a Mr Gotobed, is very much surplus to requirements. He is there simply as a mouthpiece for Trollope to voice his concerns about English democracy and society. Mr Gotobed himself is almost a cartoon character, a joke American tourist constantly complaining about the British, and how we doesn't measure up to the Americans. For vast chunks of the novel he completely disappears, and I was so absorbed in the lives and loves of the other characters that I didn't notice his absence, and was quite surprised when he reappeared!

What makes this novel so enjoyable are the antics of the Dillsborough people, most particularly Larry Twentyman's hapless pining after Mary Masters, and Arabella Trefoil's ruthless stalking of Lord Rufford. This is all very absorbing stuff. In fact it's hard to realise that Trollope hated the character of Arabella Trefoil, and used her to make a savage attack on mercenary women, as he seemed to understand her so well!

What makes Trollope great as a novelist is simply his sheer ability to tell a story with very believable, all-too-human characters. Where he lets himself down is his wish to Make A Point, and the interminable descriptions of fox-hunting (his great enthusiasm), and I doubt that his weak defence of this activity would hold much water these days! There is a certain interest to be had in that some of the points absorbing political people in his day, such as the reform of the House of Lords, are still bothering us at the beginning of the 21st century! But the main interest of the novel is in the characters and their various hopes, desires and ambitions, and that's what makes it such a blinkin' good read.