Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Oxford University Press, USA (1992), Paperback, 592 pages
Description
First published in serial form in the Graphic (1881-2), Marion Fay is half tragedy, half romantic burlesque, and one of Trollope's most detailed scrutinies of the workings of the English class system. Based on the first three-volume edition of 1882, the novel contrasts two love affairs, each involving an aristocrat and a commoner. Trollope vividly evokes the dull working lives, plain homes, blank streets, and limited horizons of the dwellers in Paradise Row, using them as an ironic choric commentary on the unattainable world of rank, wealth, and freedom, symbolized by life in the great country houses.
User reviews
LibraryThing member pgchuis
Lady Frances Trafford has become engaged to a post office clerk called George Roden. Her brother, Lord Hampstead, falls in love with Marion Fay, the daughter of a Quaker. Their step-mother, Lady Kingsbury considers both proposed marriages to be unacceptable, as they would be "marrying down" the
I enjoyed a chunk in the middle of this book very much, but the beginning was dull and the ending overly sentimental and not at all what I expect of Trollope.
Likes: Crocker, Miss Demijohn, the scene where Hampstead and Mr Fay try to talk at the latter's office and are constantly interrupted, the fact that the Quaker Fay was not opposed to his daughter marrying Hampstead, the evil Mr Greenwood (although I think Trollope made him persist too long at the end), the appalling Lady Kingsbury and, finally, Lady Amaldina and her surprisingly successful marriage.
Dislikes: too much repetition (especially re Marion's reasons for refusing Hampstead), too much discussion of class difference (as opposed to letting the characters demonstrate this), Marion was deeply annoying and read like a Victorian stereotype, rather than a Trollope heroine, the way she seemed to die because she decided she would, endless rehashing of her pure motives etc etc.
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social classes. Lord Kingsbury was a Radical in his youth, but has become more conservative with age and the influence of his wife.I enjoyed a chunk in the middle of this book very much, but the beginning was dull and the ending overly sentimental and not at all what I expect of Trollope.
Likes: Crocker, Miss Demijohn, the scene where Hampstead and Mr Fay try to talk at the latter's office and are constantly interrupted, the fact that the Quaker Fay was not opposed to his daughter marrying Hampstead, the evil Mr Greenwood (although I think Trollope made him persist too long at the end), the appalling Lady Kingsbury and, finally, Lady Amaldina and her surprisingly successful marriage.
Dislikes: too much repetition (especially re Marion's reasons for refusing Hampstead), too much discussion of class difference (as opposed to letting the characters demonstrate this), Marion was deeply annoying and read like a Victorian stereotype, rather than a Trollope heroine, the way she seemed to die because she decided she would, endless rehashing of her pure motives etc etc.
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Language
Original publication date
1881-12-03 to 1882-06-03 (serialized)
1882 (book)
Physical description
592 p.; 7.17 inches
ISBN
019282855X / 9780192828552