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Available
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Publication
Oxford University Press, USA (1985), Paperback, 450 pages
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: Anthony Trollope's novels often explore the ways that wealth�??and the promise of it�??can impact human behavior. In Orley Farm, a protracted probate case spanning several generations ultimately tears a family apart. A must-read for fans of Trollope's unflinchingly realistic portraits of the dark undercurrents of Victorian life
User reviews
LibraryThing member ivanfranko
Excellent read. Trollope's exposition of how a legal case is developed and prosecuted is superb. The novel is episodic and advances slowly but does not flag. The characters are wonderful, including the incidental appearance of Mr. Moulder. The mid-nineteenth English world is drawn by a master of
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observation, and of a canny understanding of personal motivations. Show Less
LibraryThing member ritaer
We usually think of the great change in morality between the 19th and 20th centuries as affecting largely our sexual practices and attitudes. However, in this novel Trollope creates a protagonist who is roundly contemned by the author and by all the other characters in the story. She is the second
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wife of a propertied man who is resolved on leaving all of his property to the son of his first marriage. She forges a codicil to his will reserving one piece of property, the Orley Farm of the title, for her son. The forgery is not discovered for twenty years, she is acquitted by the jury but has confessed to her friends and son and he returns the property to his greedy and completely unsympathetic half brother. Would Trollope have anticipated a future reader who would regard his protagonist as a heroine for trying to secure a future for her son against the totally unChristian behavior of his father and half-brother? He does seem critical of the adversarial nature of the British legal system, although he does not suggest any reforms. Indeed, his one character who is interested in reform is tamed by marriage to a judge's daughter. Show Less
LibraryThing member pgchuis
Lady Mason succeeded in proving the validity of a codicil to her husband's will, leaving Orley Farm to her son, Lucius 20 years ago. Her step-son, Joseph, to whom his father had promised everything, has constantly brooded over this injustice and, when evidence is brought to him supporting the claim
I found the first half interesting and well-paced, but the next 200 pages or so were a bit of a drag, with things picking up again towards the end. There was far too much about Lady Mason and Mrs Orme going over the same ground again and again. I could have done with a bit less of the Moulders and a bit more of Mrs Mason and her unbelievable stinginess. As ever, there was a hunting scene, although it did, for once, advance the plot. The debate, carried on through characters in many of the sub-plots about how well the cause of justice is served by and adversarial system, was balance and interesting.
I am afraid that I had less sympathy for Lady Mason than the narrator - if she had never let slip her secret to Sir Peregrine, she would have unrepentantly taken it to her grave. Mrs Orme was the true upholder of justice and the voice of mercy here.
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that the codicil is a forgery, he succeeds in having Lady Mason tried for perjury. There are many, many supporting characters and sub-plots - this novel is very long!I found the first half interesting and well-paced, but the next 200 pages or so were a bit of a drag, with things picking up again towards the end. There was far too much about Lady Mason and Mrs Orme going over the same ground again and again. I could have done with a bit less of the Moulders and a bit more of Mrs Mason and her unbelievable stinginess. As ever, there was a hunting scene, although it did, for once, advance the plot. The debate, carried on through characters in many of the sub-plots about how well the cause of justice is served by and adversarial system, was balance and interesting.
I am afraid that I had less sympathy for Lady Mason than the narrator - if she had never let slip her secret to Sir Peregrine, she would have unrepentantly taken it to her grave. Mrs Orme was the true upholder of justice and the voice of mercy here.
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LibraryThing member mbmackay
Another gem from Anthony Trollope.
Trollope has a wonderful, almost forensic, eye for describing and building his characters. While the setting is Victorian, I find it easy to spot contemporary real-life characters with similar nuances.
Unusually for Trollope, in this book the plot make a significant
Read Feb 2018
Trollope has a wonderful, almost forensic, eye for describing and building his characters. While the setting is Victorian, I find it easy to spot contemporary real-life characters with similar nuances.
Unusually for Trollope, in this book the plot make a significant
Show More
contribution. Although we are early informed whether the will has been forged, the reader is left to the end for the outcome of the court case. I found this one of Trollope's best books - best of a good bunch.Read Feb 2018
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LibraryThing member linenandprint
A big and burly Victorian novel where all is not tidy in the end. It gives you a wonderfully detailed look at a very broad group of people who for the space of a few months interact. You want to follow each of them off the page. Highly recommended.
LibraryThing member thornton37814
Lady Mason wanted her son to inherit Orley Farm rather than her husband's older son by a previous marriage. She found a means to do this which was contested both at the time and twenty years later. Your sins will find you out. I did not enjoy this book. The overdone prose and slow-moving plot kept
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me wanting the three chapters a day to be over long before I completed the first chapter. Boring! Show Less
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
When her son Lucius was an infant, Lady Mason defended the codicil to her much older husband’s will which left his Orley Farm property to Lady Mason’s son, Lucius. Sir Joseph’s heir, Joseph Mason of Groby Park, nursed a grudge against his stepmother and half-brother for two decades. Upon
In the face of a new trial, Lady Mason turns to her closest neighbors for support – Sir Peregrine Orme and his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Orme. Lady Mason was defended by barrister Furnival in her previous trial, and she once again seeks his services. Mr. Furnival has an eye for a pretty lady, and he unhesitatingly accepts Lady Mason’s appeal for his services, to his wife’s great dismay.
Lucius Mason is one of a group of young people whose affairs of the heart become entangled. Lucius is in love with Mr. Furnival’s daughter, Sophia, whose hand is also sought by Judge Stavely’s son, Augustus. Sir Peregrine Orme’s grandson, another Peregrine, is hopelessly in love with Madeline Stavely. His rival for Madeline’s affection is Felix Graham, a young attorney who is too honest to succeed in his chosen profession.
Trollope had a point to hammer in this novel regarding the English justice system and the disconnect between legal guilt and innocence and moral guilt and innocence. For all intents and purposes, Lady Mason is the protagonist, with Madeline Stavely and her suitors and Sophia Furnival and her suitors as subplots. Yet Trollope writes as if (or perhaps as if his readers will expect that) the young people are the central characters. I think this is why the pacing felt uneven to me. Lucius’ character also seems underdeveloped given his importance to both his mother’s central dilemma and the romance sub-plot. Lucius was more absent than present so that I feel like I saw his persona and not the inner man.
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taking possession of the property at age 21, Lucius Mason decides to turn out tenant Samuel Dockwrath from two fields that he has farmed for years. Dockwrath, who is also a lawyer, sets out in revenge to wrest the property from Lucius Mason and put it in the hands of Joseph Mason of Groby Park.In the face of a new trial, Lady Mason turns to her closest neighbors for support – Sir Peregrine Orme and his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Orme. Lady Mason was defended by barrister Furnival in her previous trial, and she once again seeks his services. Mr. Furnival has an eye for a pretty lady, and he unhesitatingly accepts Lady Mason’s appeal for his services, to his wife’s great dismay.
Lucius Mason is one of a group of young people whose affairs of the heart become entangled. Lucius is in love with Mr. Furnival’s daughter, Sophia, whose hand is also sought by Judge Stavely’s son, Augustus. Sir Peregrine Orme’s grandson, another Peregrine, is hopelessly in love with Madeline Stavely. His rival for Madeline’s affection is Felix Graham, a young attorney who is too honest to succeed in his chosen profession.
Trollope had a point to hammer in this novel regarding the English justice system and the disconnect between legal guilt and innocence and moral guilt and innocence. For all intents and purposes, Lady Mason is the protagonist, with Madeline Stavely and her suitors and Sophia Furnival and her suitors as subplots. Yet Trollope writes as if (or perhaps as if his readers will expect that) the young people are the central characters. I think this is why the pacing felt uneven to me. Lucius’ character also seems underdeveloped given his importance to both his mother’s central dilemma and the romance sub-plot. Lucius was more absent than present so that I feel like I saw his persona and not the inner man.
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LibraryThing member japaul22
I liked this standalone novel by one of my favorite authors. The plot of Orley Farm centers around a 20 year old disputed will. At issue is whether a codicil that granted Orley Farm, one small portion of the estate, to the only infant son of a second marriage was forged by this baby's mother, Lady
The crux of this book is the ethics of defense lawyers defending clients that they know or assume to be guilty. Also, of course, forgiveness, redemption, and fairness even when the fair outcome doesn't benefit the parties we might wish based on personality.
I really liked this one and I think the strong focus of the plot might make it a more memorable one of Trollope's novels for me. I believe this is the 18th novel I've read by [[Trollope]].
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Mason. When Lucius Mason grows up and tries to kick a tenant off his land, this tenant discovers old documents that throw doubt on the codicil being authentic. A new trial ensues. The crux of this book is the ethics of defense lawyers defending clients that they know or assume to be guilty. Also, of course, forgiveness, redemption, and fairness even when the fair outcome doesn't benefit the parties we might wish based on personality.
I really liked this one and I think the strong focus of the plot might make it a more memorable one of Trollope's novels for me. I believe this is the 18th novel I've read by [[Trollope]].
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LibraryThing member burritapal
I loved this story of a young widow, persecuted by her deceased husband's oldest son for trying to do right by her baby. Trollope creates some characters so endearing and realistic, that you the reader feel what was his love for his creation. The ups and downs of a handful of lives of a little
"Peregrine did as he said, and went abroad, extending his travels to many wild countries, in which, as he used to say, anyone else would have been in danger. No danger ever came to him - so at least he frequently wrote word to his mother. Gorillas he slew by scores, lions by hundreds, and elephants sufficient for an ivory palace. The skins, and bones, and other trophies, he sent home in various ships; and when he appeared in London as a lion, no man doubted his word. but then he did not write a book, nor even give lectures; nor did he presume to know much about the huge brutes he had slain, except that they were pervious powder and ball."
P.735
I could have said"farewell" to this work of love easily without knowing about the beautiful animals that a disappointed spoiled little rich boy murdered, Trollope.
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country community in England made me become so entwined in the story, that I had more than once to remind myself that they were fictional. And yet, sadly, in the end, trollope did me dirty when he spoke of a rejected young man who took himself off to Central Africa to forget his sorrows by taking the lives of more beautiful creatures than he surely ever was:"Peregrine did as he said, and went abroad, extending his travels to many wild countries, in which, as he used to say, anyone else would have been in danger. No danger ever came to him - so at least he frequently wrote word to his mother. Gorillas he slew by scores, lions by hundreds, and elephants sufficient for an ivory palace. The skins, and bones, and other trophies, he sent home in various ships; and when he appeared in London as a lion, no man doubted his word. but then he did not write a book, nor even give lectures; nor did he presume to know much about the huge brutes he had slain, except that they were pervious powder and ball."
P.735
I could have said"farewell" to this work of love easily without knowing about the beautiful animals that a disappointed spoiled little rich boy murdered, Trollope.
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1861 - 1862
Physical description
450 p.; 7.3 inches
ISBN
0192817132 / 9780192817136