Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

Reviewed by Christy Isinger

Every once in a while I get a Victorian literature craving. This craving usually arrives during the winter when the thought of a more cosmopolitan and civilized life seems much more appealing than wearing half a dozen layers of clothing before venturing out of doors and trudging through the snow. I’ve always enjoyed George Elliot and Elizabeth Gaskell and sometimes I force myself to read some Dickens, but I’ve always refused to read Trollope. I guess I’ve been influenced by the Victorian prejudice against Trollope as literature. But he was almost, if not more popular, than Dickens during his lifetime and as Chesterton has said just because something is popular it does not necessarily mean it cannot also be good.

I am not sure what it was that I expected or dreaded about reading Trollope but I think one of my misconceptions was that Trollope must be boring. Thus I was prepared to bravely trudge through the 900 pages of Anthony Trollope’s Can You Forgive Her? This is his first book in the Palliser series of books which was his very popular series revolving around the wealthy, political Palliser family. Once I began reading I was shocked at how easy Trollope was to read. His style is fairly breezy, and he inserts his opinion freely throughout the narrative, which I found refreshing. Although he was also paid by the word, there were few passages that I found to be overly wordy or needlessly descriptive. One of his great talents is his acute character portrayal. Every character was described so succinctly, and for a Victorian writer there was much psychological depth. I appreciated how the characters were exposed for who they were, complete with flaws and personality traits that the reader may or may not enjoy, this created very realistic characters even for the present time.

Trollope’s story evolves around Alice Vavasor and her courtships with two men. Alice breaks off engagements with both men at different times for different reasons, and Trollope bluntly is asking whether or not this is a forgivable offense given the tight constraints of English Victorian society. It seems extremely tame for a scandal to modern readers, but I thought the treatment of the issue was not overly fussy or tedious.

Alongside the story of Alice and her romantic decisions are two other storylines that involve courtship and marriage. Alice’s aunt is the comical Mrs. Greenow and her courtship involves playing two men off of one another, much to the disapproval of her relatives. The third romance is that of the Pallisers. Plantagenet Palliser is in line to become Chancellor of England and his extremely wealthy young bride has been persuaded to marry him while being in love with another, very poor, man. Alice, although not the most likeable character, is shown fairly and the thought process behind her decisions is interesting, as she herself is looking for a more political life than a typical Victorian woman. Glencora Plantagenet, whom the series of novels continues to follow, is a passionate woman who would rather have romantic and passionate love over marriage to a powerful, wealthy, political man who loves her dearly. The love stories contrast each other as much as the characters of the woman are vastly different to one another.

Of all the Victorian writers Trollope’s description of domestic life, especially domestic life of the upper class, is the most detailed. He describes life complete with what was eaten for breakfast. These descriptions of daily life, combined with his political plots bring together an almost Victorian soap opera that is quite enjoyable to read. This probably contributed to his popularity at the time! However, as the domesticity and political side of life is written about exquisitely, Trollope completely ignores any spiritual or religious side. Although this is fairly common in this era of literature it seems a shame that an author with such a talent for describing many areas of life should ignore its most important aspects. But not everyone can be Dostoevsky! For those who enjoy the English novel, Can You Forgive Her? is definitely worth a read, even for those who may have a Trollope prejudice.