Trollope, Anthony. Can You Forgive Her? BiblioBazaar, 2008.
Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of Anthony Trollope’s birth month in April.
When we rejoin Alice Vavasor she is still annoyingly waffling between two men, committing to neither. One is her cousin George Vavasor, who seems to only want Alice’s hand in marriage to gain access to her money (which she gives him freely, by the way). But, George wants more. His grandfather is not dying fast enough and needing money for his seat in Parliament grows more and more desperate. When the old man finally dies, George is driven to violence and breaks his sister’s arm.
The other suitor is Mr. John Grey who seems to be if not without fault, has very little.
I was disappointed to find volume two did not move any of the relationships any closer to resolution. Alice was still oscillating between George Vavasor and John Grey to the point where to two men came to blows over the woman.
Lest us not forget Mrs. Greenow. In volume two of Can You Forgive Her? this fickle lady was still refusing Mr. Cheesacre. But, the most beautiful relationship was between Mr. Palliser and his wife. Palliser sacrificed his political career to save his marriage.
Trollope continues to amuse me with his odd character names like Mr. Scuby (pronounced Scrubby) and Cheesacre (pronounce cheese-acre).
Favorite slight: a pettifogging rascal.
Favorite quotes, “The cicatrice began to make itself very visible in his face, and the debonaire manner was fast vanishing” (p 271).
Author fact: Anthony Trollope died on December 2nd, 1882.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).
~*LunaSea*~ 