Trollope, Anthony: The American Senator. V1. 21 Apr 2013
 

'I wished to express the depth of my scorn for women who run down their husbands,-an offence that I do fear is gaining ground in this country.'
So wrote Trollope of Arabella Trefoil, the beautiful anti-heroine of The American Senator some months after completing the novel.
His main concern is with materialism, seen through the eyes of Mr Gotobed, an American senator who is invited to the small country town of Dillsborough. There, during one winter season, he observes English country life in all its social aspects, from the richest of peers to the poorest of farmers. He witnesses intrigue, romance, and Arabella Trefoil's determined stalking of the wealthy but elusive Lord Rufford while still engaged to a diplomat, John Morton. Arabella emerges as one of Trollope's most vivid protagonists, in a novel that is an indictment of the materialism of Victorian England.