Before I get a late night drunken phone call from a rather "puckish" character and end up with shattered eardrums and plunging self esteem, let me explain what I meant by not adoring The Duke's Children.
First of all, this book is, I believe, the fifth in a series. I've not read those that came before. Although that is not necessary to understand the action in this story, there is a lot of background in the characters' lives that I don't know. The editors have done their best to fill in the missing information with textual notes, but that's not enough for me. I'm curious, I guess. For example, I'm told that the Duke had his doubts about Mrs. Finn's motives in befriending his wife, but by the time this story starts he is over them. However there is still an underlying discomfort and I just don't understand it; it all took place in a previous novel. A minor problem, sure, most readers probably wouldn't even care, but I do. I want no secrets from my big, fat, Victorian novels.
Over that (almost), I read on and encounter more rocky ground. Like most manatees, I can't tell a Whig from a Tory and there's a lot of political babble in this novel. Lord Silverbridge, naughty son number one, is running for Parliament and his father does not approve of his political views. I am so lost that the surrounding waters could be the Gobi desert. I know it's a fault in my reading abilities, but when Trollope starts talking politics, I start thinking about whether the devil really does wear Prada.
Ditto, Major Tiptoe and horse racing.
However, when Trollope starts talking about the relationships between father and offspring, offspring and romantic partners, romantic partners and their rivals, my interest perks right back up. Silverbridge, with his father's blessing, sort of proposes Marriage (yes, I meant the capital "M") to Mabel Grex, a poor but well bred young woman. Mabel Grex is sort of in love with Frank Tregear. Frank Tregear used to love Mabel Grex (but they are both poor so tough luck to them) but now is engaged to Mary Palliser. Mary Palliser is the sister of Lord Silverbridge. Her father does not approve at all of her engagement. Oh yeah, it's the girly stuff that gets to me. All I need is an illicit affair or an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and I'll be over the moon.
That is all I have for today. But tell me what you're reading. I really want to know!
4 comments:
You can tell a Whig from a Tory--it's easy, if you use my crude, probably hugely inaccurate method! A Whig is a liberal, bent on reformations that empower the working classes and bring chagrin to landed Tories, who are old-guard conservatives.
It should be pointed out that, despite the construction of that sentence by Beepy, Mabel Grex is not, in fact, engaged to Lady Mary - that would be a very different kind of Victorian novel.
Steve, I disagree. Frank Tregear is the subject of that sentence and remains so after the "but". Perhaps you are just an inattentive reader.
Though trying to write my own book better, faster and just plain MORE, I am crawling through Battle Royale, gleefully wondering how some of its sentences made it through alive. Viz Media might just be a high school business class project.
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