Monday, July 13, 2020

Back to the Classics #13

I read this book for my round two of the Back to the Classics Challenge 2020.

Classic with Nature in the Title. This 1873 novel is the third of the six novels in the Palliser series, supposedly Trollope’s “political novels.” Mercifully, unlike Can You Forgive Her? and Phineas Finn, there’s not much politics in this one though it is mainly about lies, damned lies, and liars..

The Eustace Diamonds – Anthony Trollope

The heroine of this story plays the part of the anti-heroine on the lines of Becky Sharp. Trollope primes us innocent readers with this introduction: “We will tell the story of Lizzie Greystock from the beginning, but we will not dwell over it at great length, as we might do if we loved her.” Uh-oh.

Lizzie filches a family heirloom, the gems referred to in the title, after her titled husband dies of a broken heart due to her duplicities about debts. Lizzie filching the diamonds prompts the family lawyer Mr. Camperdown to observe of her: “a dishonest, lying, evil-minded harpy.” Lizzie the widow sets her marital sights on a poor Irish peer who holds a minor government post, prompting the lord’s sister to say of her: “a nasty, low, scheming, ill-conducted, dishonest little wretch.” We readers have grown to like the blunt aunts that populate Victorian novels so we listen closely and believe when Lizzie’s aunt Lady Linlithgow asserts Lizzie is “about as bad as anybody ever was. She's false, dishonest, heartless, cruel, irreligious, ungrateful, mean, ignorant, greedy, and vile! ... She's all that, and a great deal worse.”

Indeed, the worst thing about Lizzie is her lying. Contra the dictum, “I don’t lie unless it’s necessary,” Lizzie tells needless lies to herself and others. In genuine drama queen fashion, her cockeyed vision of romance and passion leads her to flagrant disregard for the truth and the extravagant acting out of romantic parts. Despite her consummate acting ability (which, the reader feels, Trollope admires, as if in wonder anybody could be so bold and rash), her lies, however, land her in a peck  of trouble when she perjures herself twice during an investigation of the robbery of the Eustace diamonds. Her lying also causes much trouble in her marital plans aimed at her cousin Frank Greystock and the Irish peer Lord Fawn (who plays the part of Bambi to Lizzie’s Hunter).

Trollope’s larger point, though, touches on society’s tolerance of lying. In this novel, people accept Lizzie’s lies by politely not calling them lies. Even Lord Fawn’s sister who hates like Lizzie like poison doesn’t use the word: “If she has told you falsehoods, of course you can break it off.” Frank Greystock’s intended, goody-goody Lucy Morris, thinks “That Lizzie Eustace was a little liar had been acknowledged between herself and the Fawn girls very often,—but to have told Lady Eustace that any word spoken by her was a lie, would have been a worse crime than the lie itself.”

Along with tolerance of lies and liars, among us walk lots of folks who like liars for their audacity. Frank Greystock: “He knew that his cousin Lizzie was a little liar,—that she was, as Lucy had said, a pretty animal that would turn and bite;—and yet he liked his cousin Lizzie. He did not want women to be perfect, …” Frank has his good points but I feel he should be in the ranks of unreliable males such as thus joins the line-up of wobbly Trollopian  males like Charlie TudorJohnny Eames and Louis Trevelyan.

The usual sub-plot in a Trollope novel is a comic romcom. Not in this one. Positively alarming is the courting and engagement of Lucinda Roanoake, a young American beautiful and brash, and Sir Griffin Tewett, a swinish aristocrat.

"I don't like anybody or anything," said Lucinda.

"Yes, you do;—you like horses to ride, and dresses to wear."

"No, I don't. I like hunting because, perhaps, some day I may break my neck. It's no use your looking like that, Aunt Jane. I know what it all means. If I could break my neck it would be the best thing for me."

"You'll break my heart, Lucinda."

"Mine's broken long ago."

Poor Lucinda! A fine example of Trollope the psychologist looking at the dark side. Why people say Trollope is so comfy cozy is beyond me.

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