[fantasyfan]

Sorry that I'm posting so late but I finished the book only this morning--owing to several delays of various sorts. I've looked over the posts so far and they are filled with some very useful insights and I doubt that I have anything particularly original to add to them, but I'll share my thoughts about this marvellous novel--for i think it very fine indeed.

I would agree with Issybird that it is almost a case of Jane Austen meeting Charles Dickens. It has something of the wide social spectrum that Dickens presents merged with beautifully detailed, realistic domestic situations centering around getting daughters married off.

As with Austen, conversations create a great deal of plot movement. In fact, it is the cross-purpose misunderstanding of a conversation that creates the most important plot element for the hero and heroine--a problem that continues to develop until the final resolution during the walk Reginald takes with Mary. Each takes the worst possible interpretation of subtle implications hidden in apparently innocent remarks.

Arabella--the anti-heroine--simply creates a conversation that never took place and builds her campaign upon persuading others that it actually happened. In fact, she becomes convinced that the mirage of intention was actual and not illusion created by herself out of self-interest.

I think that Arabella is far more interesting than Mary. The latter is just a bit too good. Arabella's flaws and the fact that she is to some extent a victim of the system help us to see her as a villain who is also a victim. That's why I think of her as an anti-heroine. She has agency, she attempts to use the flaws in the social system to engage with it and finally compromises sufficiently to achieve a limited success. The Austen character of whom she most reminds me is Charlotte in Pride and Prejudice. Charlotte also gains the maximum happiness by using the role requirements to gain a social position without having to fall in love. Arabella, of course, is more beautiful, more aggressive, more ruthless and of a higher social standing than Charlotte and she is far less sympathetic as a person, as she actually turns down a man who loves her--but in the end she still has to accept a role-oriented marriage.

Another interesting fact about Arabella is that she is on the cusp of becoming like her mother--a failed person. She could have accepted the small fortune offered by Lord Rufford in his negotiation with Lady Augustus but she actually still has enough self-esteem to refuse it to her mother's dismay and incomprehension. Arabella still has a conscience and this is what finally gives her the second chance to become a Minister's wife in Patagonia. The bequest given her by John Morton helps her to learn something of the nature of love and perhaps helps her to understand that social success isn't necessarily tied to personal worth.

I enjoyed the domestic scenes very much--particularly those at the Masters residence. Mrs Masters is another character interesting because she is a stepmother whom Mary actually loves, who tries her best to do her best for all three girls--and by no means makes Mary into a Cinderella figure, but who is led astray by her assumption that the practical social values that have successfully guided her all her life will always work with everyone else. It's important to remember that from her practical perspective the marriage of Mary to the honest, successful, likeable, but limited Larry Twentyman is absolutely perfect. Mrs Masters is locked into her mindset of the impossibility of moving beyond one's social class--a social class which simply has nothing to do with cultural attainments. Note her hilarious idea that poetry cuts up a page of words into short lines for show! This is why she is so opposed to Mary's visits to Lady Ushant. She thinks it gives Mary false pretensions. But she isn't a bad person. She wants the best for Mary--but she doesn't understand what Mary actually needs.

Lord Rufford? Well, he isn't any better than Arabella, really; he just has the ability to pursue his activities from a position of power. In the end, he marries Miss Penge who knows how to manipulate the system and is the approved candidate for his wife. I think that Lord Rufford is dimly aware that he has been manipulated into marriage by his family every bit as much as Arabella attempted to do so. Ironically, he may have had a more independent existence if Arabella had been Lady Rufford rather than Miss Penge!

As to the Senator--i found him entertaining but I could have done without the two chapters at the end as they only repeated his views from earlier sections. I think I would agree with Trollope that perhaps a better title for the novel would have been "The Chronicle of a Winter at Dillsborough".

It may be heresy to say this, but I actually enjoyed Trollope more than much of Dickens. I'm going to have to think seriously about reading the Barchester Chronicles.