19th Century Classic. Somebody said the 19th century English novel is always about money and marriage. Here we go again. Lucky for us, as Ceridwen Dovey wrote in 2015, "I suspect that reading fiction is one of the few remaining paths to transcendence, that elusive state in which the distance between the self and the universe shrinks."
Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite – Anthony Trollope
Sir Harry Hotspur’s dream was to pass his wealth, property and baronet title to his only son, in the long and best traditions of a great commoner family. But his son died, forcing him to plan passing the family estates to his daughter Emily and the title to the male George Hotspur, a cousin.
Sir Harry and Lady Elizabeth introduce intelligent, beautiful and vibrant Emily to likely suitors but she remains unmoved, seeing herself as an heiress with no reason to settle. Her parents make the mistake of inviting Cousin George to the house. Emily gives her heart to handsome, charming, suave man.
Sir Harry is less than thrilled to discover that Cousin George is a gambler deeply in debt to money-lenders and is rumored to live off the earnings of the actress Mrs. Lucy Morton. Every traditional bone in Sir Harry’s body wishes to keep the family estates and titles together. Sir Harry is thus torn by two choices, like Alice Vavasor and Lady Glencora in Can You Forgive Her?
In the end, “He knew that Cousin George was no fitting husband for his girl, that he was a man to whom he would not have thought of giving her, had her happiness been his only object.” He forbids Emily to have contact with Cousin George.
Obstinate Emily will obey her father as dutiful children must but she refuses to get Cousin George out of her heart. She points out one, society is such that it expects and even tolerates the recklessness of its fast young men and two, our Savior says to forgive and forget, that no black sheep is so defiled with pitch that he can’t be washed clean.
“I am afraid George has been worse than others, Emily.”
“So much the more reason for trying to save him. If a man be in the water, you do not refuse to throw him a rope because the water is deep.”
“But, dearest, your papa is thinking of you.” Lady Elizabeth was not quick enough of thought to explain to her daughter that if the rope be of more value than the man, and if the chance of losing the rope be much greater than that of saving the man, then the rope is not thrown.
Hey, I’m all for Tony’s authorial interjections when they are as wise as that. Emily’s stance calls to mind that of Lady Mary Palliser in The Duke's Children: “She had told the man that she loved him, and after that there could be no retreat.” The author bears Emily’s pig-headed silliness (my word) with as much genial sympathy as he expressed for Mary Thorne in Dr. Thorne, Lucy Robarts in Framley Parsonage, Lucy Morris in The Eustace Diamonds, Lily Dale in The Small House at Allington and numerous other Trollopian heroines that provoke eye-rolls, sighs, groans, and foot-stamping among us post-modern readers.
Emily, I admit, is not totally silly since she “…suffered under a terrible feeling of ill-usage. Why was she, because she was a girl and an heiress, to be debarred from her own happiness?” It’s a pointed question, one asked by thinking females married off for the sake of consolidation of property and military alliances. Still, given Cousin George is as weak, sordid, and clueless as the family de Courcys in Barchester Towers, he’s not worth it. People assent to irrational ideas and unfortunate things happen. It’s the world.
As in the relatively short The Claverings (1867) and the really short Cousin Henry (1879), this novel from 1871 finds Trollope focusing on the psychology of the characters, sparing us, for example, romcom subplots or hunting scenes that don’t advance the story. I’d recommend it for readers really into Trollope or looking for tightly-constructed Victorian novel with as sad as ending as An Eye for an Eye.
Click on the title to go to the review.
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