The Small House at Allington

Written by Anthony Trollope

Narrated by Simon Vance

Squire Dale, the embittered old bachelor who lives in the great house at Allington, has loaned the nearby small house rent free to his widowed sister-in-law and her two daughters, Lily and Bell. The action centers on the strained relations between the two houses and on the romantic entanglements of the two girls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Jan 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9781433241215

Anthony Trollope

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was the third son of a barrister, who ruined his family by giving up the law for farming, and an industrious mother. After attending Winchester and Harrow, Trollope scraped into the General Post Office, London, in 1834, where he worked for seven years. In 1841 he was transferred to Ireland as a surveyor's clerk, and in 1844 married and settled at Clonmel. His first two novels were devoted to Irish life; his third, La Vendée, was historical. All were failures. After a distinguished career in the GPO, for which he invented the pillar box and travelled extensively abroad, Trollope resigned in 1867, earning his living from writing instead. He led an extensive social life, from which he drew material for his many social and political novels. The idea for The Warden (1855), the first of the six Barsetshire novels, came from a visit to Salisbury Close; with it came the characters whose fortunes were explored through the succeeding volumes, of which Doctor Thorne is the third.

Reviews for The Small House at Allington

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the 5th in the Barchester Towers series. As I continue on with this series I find myself enjoying each book more and more. I'm not sure if it's because some of the same characters continue to reappear or I have become more accustomed to Trollope's style. These books are charming and engaging. The focus of The Small House at Allington is the marriages of the Dale sisters, Lily and Bell. Neither has the requisite inheritance to help them with their choices, but, as with all Victorian heroines, they are intelligent, kind and beautiful. Great story.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've always thought there are worse things than being single, and Trollope seems to agree with this in The Small House at Allington. The book is full of love triangles and quadrangles, widows, spinsters, and confirmed bachelors. Happily married couples are hardly to be found. Some characters will only marry for love, while others seek social status or security through marriage. The characters' incompatible views of marriage make it appear almost certain that no one will get what he or she wants in a mate.Most of the characters are flawed, and while this makes them seem more human, it also makes it hard to find one to really root for. It's clear from Crosbie's behavior that Lily Dale is much too good for him, but do readers really want her to settle for John Eames instead? Not this one.Of the first five Barsetshire novels, this one seems to be the most domestic. The main object for most of the characters is securing domestic comfort, whether through marriage or simply through a change in residence. While church politics has had a prominent role in earlier Barsetshire novels, it is largely absent from this one. Differences of birth and class aren't a primary source of conflict, either. Most of the conflict revolves around money and the cost of happiness. Maybe the absence of larger concerns is why I liked this one less than the other Barsetshire novels I've read. It's still full of Trollope's insight into human character, and I wouldn't have wanted to miss passages like this:We constantly talk of the thoughtlessness of youth. I do not know whether we might not more appropriately speak of its thoughtfulness. It is, however, no doubt, true that the thought will not at once produce wisdom. It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.

[donna828 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love these little journeys with Anthony Trollope into a past way of life. It is hard to believe that people could have been so petty while being so pretentious. In Book No. 5 of the Barsetshire Chronicles, love, money, and marriage are examined carefully through the actions of two love triangles involving the lovely young daughters of the Widow Dale, Bell and Lily. Money and ancestry are all-important in the marriage game of the Victorian era; unfortunately, the Dale sisters had no money. Thanks to their uncle, the Squire of Allington, they had a comfortable place to live at the estate in the Small House. However, his generosity did not extend to providing a dowry for Lily when she was to be wed to the debonair Adolphus Crosbie, one of the most despicable characters I've come across in my reading.This book is not as predictable as some of the others in the series. Very little was said about the politics of the day and one had to look long and hard to find characters to admire, especially amongst the principals. Trollope's usual insight and wit help make up for some of the unsympathetic characters and their incomprehensible actions. I'm talking about you, Adolphus Crosbie, and your callousness, and also you, Lily Dale, with your attempt at martyrdom. I was even a little perturbed at John-Boy Eames and his prolonged hobbledeboyhood. I thought his treatment of Amelia was much like the way Crosbie treated Lily yet no one scorned him for it.Much of the book was set in the country. I loved those idyllic scenes of playing croquet under moonlight and taking meandering walks through the countryside. The contrast against the hustle and bustle in London was a brilliant way to describe the changes taking place in England at this time. There were also some memorable incidents at John Eames' boarding house in London and a hilarious rescue by him of a country Earl that involved a bull and a red handkerchief in the Earl's pocket. There is much in this book to like as there was in its predecessors. This is an absolutely delightful series, and I'm sad that it is drawing to a close.

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lily Dale falls in love with Adolphus Crosbie and they become engaged. Then he jilts her and marries Alexandrina, the daughter of the Earl de Courcy. That is one strand of the story. Then there is John Eames, a clerk in the income tax office, who also loves Lily, but who nevertheless becomes entangled with Amelia, the daughter of his landlady. John has a colleague and fellow-lodger, Cradell, who flirts with the married Mrs Lupex. Lily has a sister, Bell, who refuses to marry her cousin and accepts instead a doctor, who has loved her for years. Griselda (nee Grantley) almost flirts with Plantagenet Palliser, but doesn't. This is a long novel and not all of the strands seemed to fit well together: in particular, some of the Lupex/Roper/Cradell characters seemed to have wandered in from a different novel.I liked the Bell and Dr Crofts storyline, but it was a bit underwritten. All the scenes with the despicable Crosbie and his appalling in-laws were enjoyable. Lily was extremely annoying and needs to wake up to the fact that you can't go on loving someone like Crosbie and retain your mental health. John Eames was also rather tiresome, so maybe in the next book they will end up together and that would suit me.

[stillatim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Yet another in the long line of novels where I prefer the down to earth, solid, dependable woman to the charming, flirty, romantic woman; if Trollope's autobiography is to be believed, he agrees with me: Bell, not Lily! C'mon people! Bell's the one who recognizes that "everything that is, is wrong." Adorno in a Victorian novel? She might be my dream girl.
Otherwise, this is the second best of the Barchester novels so far. If it hadn't been written as the generic multi-volume monster, it might even have been the best: there's no cheery, happy ending but there's still plenty of Trollope's usual wit. The plot is very well done, and more interesting than Dr Thorne's- here you get all the lurv stuff, but also plenty of politics and property. The characters/caricatures are all pretty convincing. Also, I over-identified with Johnny Eames. I, too, went through a long period of hobbledehoyhood. Perhaps it continues.

[lauralkeet · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Whew. I love Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire, but this, the 5th in the series, was a long one. The Penguin Classics print edition is 752 pages, so I am happy I have this series on my Kindle. But anyway, about the book ... I enjoy being immersed in Trollope's scenes of 19th Century England, and especially village life and the relationship (or lack thereof) between the classes. Every reading session was a nice escape from my day-to-day cares. And yet, I enjoyed this book less than others in the series. There are several leading male and female characters, but I didn't feel I got to know any of them well enough to become emotionally invested in their stories. The story revolves around sisters Lily and Isabel (Bell) Dale, who are courted by various men. These men range from desirable to loathsome, and Lily is treated poorly by one of them. There is an amusing scene in which the rake gets his comeuppance, but I was annoyed with Lily for the rest of the novel. There are subplots involving Lily and Bell's mother, and various gentry, that kept things interesting. So all in all, a good read but not my favorite.

[mbmackay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful Victorian fiction set among landowners, minor gentry & civil servants. Good character with realistic foibles.Read Apr 2007

[asxz-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Longer than the previous tales of Barsetshire life as some of the action moves to London ahead of the Palliser novels. This is an odd story where the main characters are mostly flawed, priggish and generally unlikable while the peripheral characters deliver both the humour and the pathos. I do like the idea that young people can be woefully wrongheaded about love and wont to screw everything up in the shortest amount of time. The course of love does not run smooth in this novel but it was just as entertaining, regardless.

[infjsarah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well, that went places I didn't expect. Nothing much happens in this novel - it is more character studies. But id did not end as I expected - kudos to Trollope for that. I don't know why these novels work for me but they do.

[etxgardener · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The penultimate novel in Trollope’s Barsetshire series, this novel primarily concerns the Dale family:, although it also introduces us to Plantagenet Pallister, the heir to the mighty Duke of Omnium and to hi soon-to-be-wife, Lady Glencora, who will be the main characters in Trollope’s multi-volume political novels. In this book, the widowed Mrs. Dale and her two daughters Bele & Lily, live in the house of the title rent free as a gift of Mrs. Dale’s much wealthier brother-in-law, the Squire. Bell is being pursued by the squire’s nephew, Bernard (romances of first cousins seemingly very common in these novels) and Lily is worshiped from afar by John Eames, who is seeking his fortune in London.At the beginning of the novel, Bernard arrives for a visit t his uncle with his friend, Adolphus Crosbie. Crosbie is handsome and charming and soon makes an attachment to Lily. However, upon learning that she will have no dowery from her uncle, the squire, he goes for a visit to the De Cousey family in Barsetshire where the Countess de Courcy views him as fair game and a viable match for her only single daughter still of marriageable age, Alexandrina, and he ends up jilting Lily for what he perceives as greener pastures with an Earl’s daughter.Lily is heartbroken, but feels that as she still loves Crosbie, she must refuse the much more honorable Mr. Eames and remain true to the lover who has spurned her. Bell also resists the entreaties of Bernard and finds true happiness with the local doctor.As always, Trollope know the society that he is writing about and the book is full of insights into life in Victorian England as well as subtle humor to the many foibles of his characters. This book is a doorstop, but well worth your time.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The summary of this novel, which I read first, gave away a surprising amount of the story. In all honesty I think Trollope’s novels are less about the plot than they are about the social interaction and moral development of the characters, so it didn’t really bother me."Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie, Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her for the aristocratic Lady Alexandrina. Although crushed by his faithlessness, Lily still believes she is bound to her unworthy former fiancé for life and therefore condemned to remain single after his betrayal. And when a more deserving suitor pays his addresses, she is unable to see past her feelings for Crosbie.”The Dale women, Lily and her sister Bell and their mother, were wonderful. At their core all they want is for the others to find true happiness. They are fiercely protective of each other and their wishes. Some of my favorite scenes in the book are when they stand up for the decisions someone in their family has made, without asking any questions of each other. Lily talks to the local doctor, James Crofts, in an effort to secure happiness for her sister. Their mother talks to the girls’ uncle about a potential match but refuses to force or encourage her daughter to make the match against her will. They are strong women who refuse to betray each other for a shot at money or luxury.I keep finding shades of Austen in all of the Trollope I read. Both authors share similar themes and styles, though Austen's work has a bit more bite. This one reminded me so much of Sense and Sensibility. Bell is like Eleanor, steady and logical. Lily is brasher and reminded me so much of Marianne. She falls in love with an unworthy man, turning down someone who would truly be a great match. Unfortunately for Lily, unlike Marianne she never quite recovers from that love.The girls’ mother is an interesting character as well. She struggles with whether she's done right by her children, even though they love her dearly. She worries that they are possibly giving up opportunities out of a loyalty to her. It's the endless struggle of any parents, constantly asking yourself if you’re making the best choices for your kids.The male characters in this novel are a mixed bag. Eames is a worthy man, I found myself rooting for him. The girls’ uncle is harsh and struggles to connect with them. He does love them, but that feeling is wrapped deep within his other layers of formality and stiffness. He has such a hard time conveying his feelings and his actions often come across as obligation instead of love. Crosbie is just a jerk, to put it nicely. I wanted to smack him and he deserved his fate.Side note: We also get to see Griselda again and it’s a bit tragic to see what her life has become.One of the books best lines comes from Lily’s mother’s reaction when her daughter is jilted by Crosbie:“Mrs. Dale had felt in her heart that it would be well if Crosbie could be beaten until all his bones were sore.”My only real complaint about this one was that I wanted something better for Lily. I wanted her to find love. I wanted her to realize that she deserved someone better than Crosbie. I wanted a happy ending for her because it seemed like the novel was begging for one! It’s definitely not that I think everyone needs to be married to be happy, but it felt like she gave up on pursuing any happiness in some misplaced sense of loyalty for a man that didn’t deserve her.BOTTOM LINE: Another delightful read. It’s not my favorite of the series, but I once again enjoyed being lost in Trollope’s world of Barsetshire.

[brenzi_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If there is only one thing I remember about this book it will be the word “hobbledehoy” which I thought was a word Trollope had invented until I googled it and found out that it had a long history that had nothing at all to do with the master Victorian novelist. But every time it appeared, and it appeared often, I had to giggle. It’s a good description of our hero, John Eames, a country bumpkin who leaves his little country village to enter the work force in the Income Tax Office in London. And it’s one of those words that sounds like its meaning. (For the uninitiated, that is the definition of Onomatopoeia.)”There is a class of young men who never get petted, though they may not be the less esteemed, or perhaps loved. They do not come forth to the world as Apollos, nor shine at all, keeping what light they may have for inward purposes. Such young men are often awkward, ungainly, and not yet formed in their gait; they straggle with their limbs, and are shy; words do not come to them with ease, when words are required, among any but their accustomed associates. Social meetings are periods of penance to them, and any appearance in public will unnerve them. They go much about alone, and blush when women speak to them. In truth, they are not as yet men, whatever the number may be of their years; and, as they are no longer boys, the world has found for them the ungraceful name of hobbledehoy.” (Page 51)John is in love with one of the daughters of Mrs. Dale, Lily Dale, who lives in the small house at Allington. She, unfortunately, considers him a good friend but has eyes only for the much more polished and worldly, Adolphus Crosbie, who is a rising star in the government, and as such, mingles with the upper crust. But he’s very fond of Lily and eventually proposes to her. That triangle, John, Lily and Adolophus, comprise the largest part of the story, and when Crosbie proposes to a (unknown to him) penniless Lily, the main theme of the book is set in motion. Money, money, money rules the day and definitely rules the country. Another theme of the book is unrequited love and the author gives us several examples of this to chew on. Trollope goes on to point up in great detail the class differences in the novel and how hard it is to move among the classes and to move anywhere without money, boatloads of it. Poor John seems to be left in the dust even as he overcomes his hobbledehoy and becomes a mature man. And I don’t know if Trollope meant Lily to be a sympathetic character but I found her to be absolutely annoying.This is another winner from Trollope and one that covers a lot of ground as we even get our first glimpse of Mr. Plantagenet Palliser of The Paliser Novels. The best thing about Trollope is that he is such a sensitive observer of human psychology and of the world. He understands people so well. And he manages, time and again, to create a palpable sense of being someplace real and definite, whether we are in the country lanes near Allington, the drawing rooms of the earls and countesses, a seedy rooming house in the city, or in a government office in London, we are comfortably aware of our surroundings because of Trollope’s skillful drawing of the location.I was happy to get a slice of Barchester life with the reappearance of Septimus Hardy, and Dr. and Mrs. Grantly. Just one novel left in this Barsetshire series and I will shed a tear when I am finally through the last of them, they’ve been that enjoyable. But then again, I can look forward to the Paliser novels and then, of course the many, many stand-alone novels. Sheer bliss.

[petra5xs · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Pass me the sick pail. This was wall-to-wall sentimental romance dressed up with lashings of stupidity, indistinguishable characters (not that I cared about one more than the other) and leavened, as it always is in Trollope's novels, with money. Everyone seems to have their life's ambition to marry for love and money, but if that's not possible, then for money.

Recommended for die-hard romance fans who like classics and aren't too fussy about plot or the lack of it.

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Simon Vance does a marvelous job narrating this 5th entry in Trollope's Barsetshire series. Unfortunately, this novel is less amusing - more of a straightforward romance, with sickly sweet Lily Dale as the heroine.

2019 reread via LibriVox recording:
I still don't like Lily Dale!

[ctpress_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Small House at Allington is the fifth (out of six) in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series by Anthony Trollope. Having read the previous in the series I knew what to expect. Not dramatic events and a fast moving plot, but gentle humor and insightful observations on human nature - well-rounded, believable and real characters that we come to know very well. I had some problems with the household at Allington, the widowed mother and the two young daughters that are courted by various men. Lily Dale are clearly the "heroine" but she was the most annoying of them all. So delicate, so hypersensitive a nature, but also manipulative in all her servility. Ok, I suppose she is to be pitied, but it's hard to really feel for her, when she responds as she does.Johnny Eames are one of the suiters - but very wimpish - it's funny to follow his route from a young "hobbledehoy" to become a man. Specially when he's taking under the protection of Lord de Guest - also the old Squire Dale I finally loved more than all the others. These two elderly men offered a wonderful balance with their course manners and hard-headed approach to life. And the "scoundrel" Crosbie was perhaps the most interesting to follow - we almost pity him in his downfall.I can't recommend the Barsetshire-series warmly enough - and the reading by Simon Vance. It's a wonderful "shire" to be brought back to.

[lit_chick_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Small House at Allington2007, Blackstone Audiobooks, Read by Simon Vance Lily and Bell Dale, along with their widowed mother, reside in the small house at Allington, as dependents of their uncle, old Squire Dale. As the novel opens, both girls are of age to marry. The Squire wishes Bell to marry his nephew and heir, Bernard Dale. But Bell will have none of it; she loves Bernard as a brother, nothing more. Lily, however, the younger of the two, falls hopelessly in love with Bernard’s London friend, Adolphus Crosbie. Mr. Crosbie, a government official, is stylish, charismatic, socially adept, and, as it turns out, a “confounded scoundrel.” Whilst engaged to Lily, his unapologetic social climbing leads him to also engage Lady Alexandrina De Courcy – a move he will justly live to rue. Before poor Lily has time to recover herself, well-meaning but hopelessly awkward Johnny Eames, declares his abiding love and asks for her hand. Johnny, foil to Crosbie’s suave charisma, is, as Trollope wittingly informs, “hobbledehoy”:“Such young men are often awkward, ungainly, and not yet formed in their gait; they straggle with their limbs, and are shy; words do not come to them with ease, when words are required, among any but their accustomed associates. Social meetings are periods of penance to them, and any appearance in public will unnerve them. They go much about alone, and blush when women speak to them. In truth, they are not as yet men whatever the number may be of their years; and as they are no longer boys, the world has found for them the ungraceful name of hobbledehoy.” (Ch 4)The Small House at Allington is completely endearing as the inexperience of youth navigates courtship and matrimony: the dilemma of romantic love versus practical match versus financial alliance. Indeed, where love is concerned, Trollope observes that, “It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.” (Ch 14)Each time I finish one of the Barsetshire novels, I think that it must be the best one yet, so delightful have I found this series. It is no different for me with The Small House at Allington. And Simon Vance as narrator continues to push the limits of excellence. Highly recommended!

[sumariotter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love Trollope, ever since I watched the Pallisers on BBC. It is his incredible perceptiveness about people that I love and his humor and the way that he effortlessly creates a whole political and social world...I found this one totally engrossing though the ending was not the entirely happy ending I would have preferred and his heroinne Lily got on my nerves. Unlike Glencora who I love love loved! A little of that story got into this one...Trollope is a difficult author to know which book to recommend as his stories tend to overlap. I say, start by watching the Palliser series from BBC.

[thorold_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Trollope in slightly bleaker mode: this fifth book in the Barsetshire Chronicles is a caustic look at the way the marriage market works for upper and upper-middle class families in mid-Victorian England. Various young people are trying to hitch up, playing a complicated game in which affection and the prospect of future happiness have become negotiable qualities to trade off against social and financial advantage. Picking the right partner could give you financial security and the first steps on the road to power; a mistake could destroy your career or leave you on the shelf. Plus ça change. In a sense, this is the plot of all Victorian fiction: what's different about this book is the extent to which Trollope pushes the cynical nature of the participants' calculations into the foreground. And the way he makes it clear that these actions have serious, long term consequences, not just for the ambitious young men and women and their relatives (who clearly deserve what they get), but also for innocent bystanders. Not everyone ends badly: there is at least one love story that comes unspectacularly to a kind of happy-end. But this isn't a book that you should give as an engagement present.

[jensenmk82 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Too much, probably, is made of this being one of "the Barsetshire novels," seeing that Trollope did not at first include it with the five others classed in that category, and that there is no need whatsoever to have read any of them to be drawn deeply into the world of its characters -- characters the creation of whose palpable, individual realness is the author's great gift. The Small House at Allington is remarkable for the balance accorded to six different social strata: (1) the upper reaches of the aristocracy (the De Courcy family and also the first appearance of Plantagenet Palliser); (2) the minor gentry, represented by the squire Dale of Allington and his presumptive heir; (3) their respectable but somewhat impoverished dependents (Mrs. Dale and her two daughters, Bell and Lily, whose love interests provide the main substance of the plot); (4) the world of men who must work to make their way in the world (in which category fall most of the suitors of the novel); (5) those on the fringe of "respectability" (Mrs. Roper's boarding house in London); and (6) the class of domestic servants (especially one Hopkins, head gardener at Allington -- but Trollope seems to make an effort to portray other members of this class when the occasion provides an opportunity). Dozens of other minor characters appear briefly and vividly in the spotlight, each animated with the spark of life.The plot is unspectacular in the extreme, but for lovers of Trollope, the ability to understand the drama and heroism of ordinary life, as well as its tedium, pettiness, and villainy, will always be his special appeal. This novel is slow, perhaps, to seize the reader's interest -- at least, so I found it -- but in the end the volume acquires a remarkable momentum from the progress of its various subplots and possesses in the final two hundred pages a sort of urgency in its narrative momentum that carries it briskly along. For me, the "hobbledehoyhood" of Johnny Eames is sometimes hard to bear. Trollope even says at the end of the novel that "I feel I have been in fault in giving such prominence to a hobbledehoy." But biographers tell us that such was Trollope in his youth, so a grateful reader is, I suppose, bound to cherish a special feeling for Johnny Eames also.At one moment a character arrives at his sister-in-law's house in London and is obliged to wait several moments while the servant changes into livery before answering the knock at the door -- for it is thus that the daughter of an earl clings to the trappings of her rank. I love such glimpses into the ways of a vanished world, and they are one of the charms of reading Trollope. But the ways of the human heart have changed less than its outward customs, and the twenty-first-century reader will encounter the shock of recognition several dozen times in the course of reading The Small House at Allington.The handsome Oxford University Press edition, a bargain at the price, has an insightful introduction by James R. Kincaid. If only it were presented as an afterword! Is there really any point in giving away the plot of a novel?

[porius_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

one of the best things said about trollope. hawthorne admired anyhony's novels: he had written to fields the year before that they were 'solid and substantial, written on the strength of beef and through the inspiration of ale, and just as real as if some giant had hewn a great lump out of the earth and put it under a glass case, with all its inhabitants going about their daily business and not suspecting that they were made a show of.' the hawthorne was nathaniel, and the fields, i'm pretty sure was kate.

[wrmjr66 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those books where 1-5 stars doesn't do it. On a 100 point scale, it's in the high 80s. There are moments that are really wonderful, comic and insightful. Like many triple-deckers, there are moments where it drags. Trollope is clearly setting up future books; not only The Last Chronicle of Barsetshire, but also the Palliser novels that are to come. The latter case is interesting from the perspective of his career, but in this book it adds a little-developed sub-plot with no connection to the main action of the book. Still, the sisters Lily and Belle Dale are interesting contrasts in how marriage and love effect young women. It isn't quite as good as The Warden, but it measures up to the others very well.

[littlegeek_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed it, but Lily Dale gets wearing to this 21st century readers. As usual, the Trollopian way with all characters is on display. Especially delicious: the squire, the earl, Lady Julia, Hopkins, everyone at Burton Crescent.

[diefledermaus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel, the fifth in Trollope's Barsetshire series, actually takes place far from Barchester, in the country. Lily Dale, the heroine, is jilted by her fiance and spend the rest of the book dealing with it. Adolphus Crosbie - her ex-fiance - ends up marrying Lady Alexandrina of the de Courcys. Unsurprisingly, it turns out to be an enormous mistake and Trollope realistically chronicles their pre- and post- marital disintegration. Another character, Johnny Eames - Lily's close friend and would-be suitor - works in London and suffers romantic mishaps with his landlord's daughter. Although Trollope's audience loved Lily, she was rather annoying. Of course her love for Crosbie was enduring, intense, pure and selfless - all the stuff that people usually praise - but in practice it came out extremely grating. At first, when they were happily engaged, her behavior was complete devotion. She came on so strong that she was practically setting herself up for a fall. For example, she told Crosbie that nothing he could do would destroy her trust in him. Even if he hadn't dumped her, it still seems like there would have been disappointment. Crosbie could never love her as much as she loved him and while she may have been fine with this - she wouldn't be happy with herself, thinking that she caused his social position to be tarnished. Marrying her, he would never again be the man about town and would presumably end up financially strapped, with many children and always a little resentful of his country wife. Even after he married, she still spouted some creepy ideas that her and Crosbie's engagement would be the one that was recognized in heaven.Lily's reaction to Crosbie's treachery did contain some grief, but she also forgave him. Really, it happened almost immediately - not normal. She wouldn't even let anyone around her badmouth the jilter. In other non-Crosbie respects, Lily tended towards the light and flippant so she was sufficiently tolerable for a whole book.Crosbie himself had plenty of that sweet self-delusion making him out to be better than he was. No one can especially like him, given his actions, but his second engagement and wedding proved extremely interesting. Everyone knows it won't work and he did deserve unhappiness that way. He'd made a bad bargain - marrying a penniless titled woman always more expensive than one without noble connections. Then it turned out that he hated his wife's father, the earl, but couldn't appropriately express it since he married her partly for the influence. All the slings and arrows to his checkbook are accounted and worried over by Crosbie. Alexandrina, as befitting her status, is a little distant and doesn't love him. Their end is not surprising. Johnny starts out an awkward 'hobbledehoy' and apparently becomes a man at the end. His fanciful love for Lily is disrupted by her engagement to Crosbie and he later gets in trouble with Amelia Roper, his landlady's daughter. Amelia wants a husband - Trollope isn't too hard on her, she was neither the best or the worst - but Johnny clearly divides women into saints like Lily and lowly scum like Amelia.Another subplot - one more related to the de Courcy world - revolves around a possible affair between Plantagenet Palliser and Lady Dumbello (the former Griselda Grantly). Both seem unlikely for one - the work-obsessed, uptight Parliament member/heir to the Duke of Omnium and the ultrafashionable, monosyllabic, cold but socially adept wife of dim Dumbello. Griselda is apparently in danger because she talks to Palliser. He rather lamely tries to pursue her. Still, important because it's the first introduction of Palliser, who will go on to be the main character in Trollope's next series.Even though Lily is annoying, the usual good points about the novel - Trollope's superb prose and psychological characterization of people and relationships.

[uvula_fr_b4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Small House at Allington is the fifth book in Trollope's six-volume The Chronicles of Barsetshire series, although Trollope initially resisted cataloging it as part of the series; Small House really hones in on Trollope's theme of tempus fugit and sic transit gloria mundi: the old ways grudgingly giving ground to the new (when they're not forcing themselves on the new at gunpoint in anticipation of a fresh infusion of cash...). This theme is sounded in its major key in Adolphus Crosbie's throwing over Lily Dale a mere fortnight after becoming affianced to her, in favor of an alliance with an earl's daughter, Lady Alexandrina De Courcy. A secondary theme, however, is that of suicide and/or suicidal impulses: a surprising number of characters entertain them here.While I never lost interest in it, and the book was filled with interesting, dramatic presentations of Victorian mores, upper class "twits of the year" and Horatio Algeresque expectations, the book as a whole just didn't hang together for me: after I was finished reading it, I was struck at how bloody artificial it all was. No, I don't expect my fictions, even my Victorian fictions, to be tied up with a nice pink bow at the end, but I could never lose sight of Trollope's grubby auctorial paws moving the characters about here. The Small House at Allington is better written than the first book in the series, The Warden (Trollope's attempt at an anti-Dickensian novel, which shared some characteristics with Dickens' style), but its net effect is very similar. Yes, the examples of bad nobility were amusing and plentiful; yes, I was amazed at how often characters even half-seriously contemplated becoming felos de se; but "Trollope's most charming heroine, the bewitching Lily Dale" (to quote the back-cover pitch), was anything but, and her devotion to the social-climbing git who jilted her, Adolphus Crosbie, while embodying the Victorian ideal of femininity, makes her look like a hopelessly narcissistic adolescent more in love with the idea of being in love than someone who is actually in love. Lily's ego is quite strong -- as is the whole family's, and Trollope frequently remarks on the stubbornness of the Dale character, which does not always redound to a Dale's benefit -- and it is much to be doubted if her self-regard and self-involvement is less than that of her one-time fiancé. Supposedly even Trollope had begun to tire of Lily by the time he wrote the last book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, The Last Chronicle of Barset; I find it nothing short of incredible that he ever thought that much of her in the first place. (I prefer the "Oil of Lebanon" heiress Martha Dunstable, from Doctor Thorne, Framley Parsonage and, I read, The Last Chronicle of Barset; but Mary Thorne from Doctor Thorne is a more congenial heroine than Lily Dale too.)