Can You Forgive Her? By Anthony Trollope

Well, not quite, as they were introduced (in brief) in previous works. But this is the book in which Trollope fleshed out their characters, making them more integral to the plot. And a good thing, too, given how uninteresting the plot of “Can You Forgive Her?” actually is. Alice Vavasor, the titular heroine is pretty much a cipher, which makes it very hard to care about the difficulties she’s having choosing between two men (one “good,” the other “bad.”) And don’t get me started on the comic subplot, which is an unfortunate waste of time. It’s only when the Pallisers are front and center that the book shows any real signs of life. Lady Glencora, in particular, is one of Trollope’s most inspired creations; vivacious, outspoken, thoroughly unsuited to the formal, humorless Plantagenet, she’s fascinating, fun and impossible not to love. (She too experiences romantic heartbreak, but it’s far more interesting than anything Alice is dealing with. If only Trollope had made the entire book about her!)

Of course, second rate Trollope is better than most everyone else’s best, so there will still be a lot for fans to appreciate. But I won’t pretend that “Can You Forgive Her?” is not, at times, a hard slog.

Bottom Line First:
Anthony Trollope’s’ Can You Forgive Her, is book 1 of his 6 book Palliser series. It works as a standalone piece. Trollope walks you through several variations of what how much of 18th Century British Society is tied to and defined by money. Starting at the edges of ‘respectability’ it becomes clear how much of a person’s life depends on 500 Pounds per annum. More and a person has independence, very little less and a comfortable life is unlikely. Virtually all of his women are strong and strongly portrayed. The men are individual. Both sexes make decisions balancing their need for love against their duties to family and more so the need to have money. Initially Trollope is very doll. Eventually humor gives way to a narrative that ranges from very serious to Laurel and Hardy funny. The book is overly long but worth it. It is family friendly. Finding the younger reader with the patience for it is the only limit to my recommendation.

Starting with my only objection, Trollope will include narration obviously intended to insure stuffiest length to cover contractual requirements for the right number and length of serial installments. There is a long description of a Fox Hunt. It is a master piece of writing. From the mater of the hunt to a rider who fails to understand the philosophy of riding – characters are vivid. Some descriptions are too deep in the jargon of the hunt to mean much to a modern, city dweller but it is all exciting. It is also pointless. Later we are given pages of narration about the different living quarters of a major character and of the county side around his grandfather’s aging manor. Much of the imagery is wonderful but none of it moves the story forward. As a novel, rather than a serial, many of the 700 pages are unnecessary.

What I admire most about Can You Forgive Her is the almost scientific way Trollope takes his central theme, the degree to which money and class can direct decisions of the heart and moves through a number of variations basing them around different characters.
At the highest extreme we have the Pallisars. Lord Plantagenet Omnium – Omnium figuratively ‘lord of everything “and his wife Lady Glencora. (Pay attention to names, often fun and descriptive). Each came into their marriage extremely wealthy and with the full family support. Lady Glencora could have married for love and instead begins the book an unhappy and susceptible newlywed. He is a leading Member of Parliament and destined for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. As a Husband he begins as much less than Omnium (all that).

At another extreme we have a wealthy widow, also a merry widow for all her tears, Mrs. Greenow. She is now in the green because her much older husband died leaving her well off. Being well off, she is wooed by the comic duo of wealthy farmer Mr. Cheeseacre and his impecunious, wily friend Captain Bellfield. Through all the comedy it is clear that the widow is nobody’s fool and very capable of directing those who might woo her then picking her man for her reasons.
A major aspect of this novel is the way women learn to and already have control of their lives. Certainly none has go to work, but above the magic 500 Pound per annum work is not the issue. Instead they all have or get their ‘voice’ and in so doing get to make their own decisions.
Of the other romantic paring the one involving Alice Vavasor is the first one we meet and might be considered as most central to the plot. We are lead to believe that she is the one we are asked to forgive. Alice will spend much of the book dithering over to which of two suitors she should wed. The rest of her time in the book will be her making pronouncements in favor of the conventional as the absolute controlling factor in all her friends’ decision making. At best she reminds me of the self-important and blustery Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest.

She is conventional to distraction. Including distracting to herself, her two suitors and many readers. I found myself thinking that intentionally or otherwise Trollope was using her to prove that a woman should have some ready access to drunkenness, lechery or other escape from the socially correct. She has paced a stick up where one should not be and needs to loosen up , A Lot.

More as a caution than as a spoiler. The ending can be somewhat unsettling. It looks like a clean sweep win for love and family. Nothing in the book prepares us for tragedy. Is there something else besides victory and defeat? Part of appreciating what Trollope has accomplished is to understand just how nuanced he can be.

The book is great. I am writing this review just to mention two things about this Oxford edition for Kindle: the Real Page Numbers mentioned in the description are not really there. And the Table of Contents will take you to all of the extra material in the book like a champ, but within the novel, it will only take you to the beginning of Volume One and the beginning of Volume Two. No easy links to the Chapters. I bought this as an upgrade to one of the Complete Trollopes out there, since I love the Palliser books, and wanted to be able to tell where I was in the story. (The Percentage complete did not really help when there are a billion or so pages.) I also wanted some Notes. The Notes work in this edition, and are helpful. But the Real Page Numbers do not work, and the TOC is real pain.

Anthony Trollope (1815- 1882): Can You Forgive Her? Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Dinah Birch. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press [Oxford World’s Classics], 2012 (New Edition). ISBN 978-0-19-957817-7.

Dieser Roman, der erste in Trollopes politischer Palliser-Serie, folgte unmittelbar auf den fünften Roman der Barchester-Serie, The Small House at Allington, und greift u. a. die Geschichte von Plantagenet Palliser und dessen Ehe mit Lady Glencora M’Cluskie auf, eine Geschichte, die im “Small House at Allington” kurz zusammengefasst wurde. Hier erfahren wir, dass Lady Glencora von einer unkonventionellen Eheschließung mit dem armen Taugenichts Burgo Fitzgerald träumte und nur durch das beherzte Eingreifen ihrer hochadligen Verwandten davon abgebracht wurde. Ihren Ehemann Plantagenet Palliser, einen Vollblut-Politiker, dem Aussichten auf das Schatzkanzleramt nachgesagt werden, findet sie recht langweilig und versteht es, ihn konstant zu piesacken. Dass am Ende alles gut ausgeht, versteht sich bei Trollope von selbst, aber wie es dazu kommt, das muss man sich erst erlesen – nach rund 600 Seiten!

Trollope wäre allerdings nicht Trollope, wenn es in diesem Roman bei der einen Geschichte bleiben würde. Wir machen gleich zu Anfang des Buches Bekanntschaft mit der Familie Vavasor, weitläufige Verwandte der Pallisers. Alice Vavasor, eine selbstbewusste junge Frau mit politischen Ambitionen, hat sich vormals von ihrem Cousin George, der als “wilder Mann” eingeführt wird, getrennt und sich mit dem – nomen ist omen! – blassen Mr. Grey verlobt. Im Laufe des Romans macht sie diesen Schritt rückgängig, was damals als gesellschaftlich inakzeptabel galt, sieht sich jedoch nicht imstande, George, der beinahe einen Mord begeht, zu heiraten. George ist Parlamentsabgeordneter, braucht jedoch dringend Geld, um seine Wahlkampagne zu finanzieren, und schafft es, einen Großteil von Alice Vavasors persönlichem Vermögen auszugeben, ehe er merkt, dass die Ehe mit ihr wohl nicht zustande kommen wird.

Einen dritten Strang führt Trollope, anscheinend als “comic relief” ein: Eine Tante Alice Vavasors, Mrs. Greenow, ist jetzt eine reiche Witwe. Bei einer Erholunsreise an die englische Ostküste lernt sie zwei mögliche Ehemänner kennen: den reichen Bauern Cheesacre und den verarmten Militär Bellfield. Wir erfahren, wie diese Situation sich zuspitzt, bis am Ende auch Mrs. Greenow erneut “unter die Haube” kommt, ihr neuer Ehemann jedoch eher “unter die Pantoffel”.

Mit 675 Seiten gehört dieser Roman zu den längeren, die Trollope veröffentlichte, aber aus Sicht des Lesers kann das nicht zu lang sein, denn die Geschichte erweist sich als in jeder Hinsicht faszinierend. Wie der Titel andeutet, geht es hier u. a. um das Thema Vergebung – dazu empfehle ich das Buch “Vergeben und Vergessen” von Lewis B. Smedes (Francke-Buchhandlung) als philosophisch-psychologisches Gegenpol -, aber auch um die Auswirkungen des damals aufkeimenden Feminismus sowie um die große Politik. Es fällt auf, dass Trollope sich hier zum ersten Mal mit Gestalten aus dem Hochadel beschäftigt und nicht nur mit dem verarmten Landadel, wie in den Romanen zuvor. Das alle Konventionen sprengende Benehmen von Lady Glencora wäre zudem damals als schockierend empfunden worden, auch wenn man heute kaum darüber stolpert.

Eine Fülle von Nebengestalten bevölkert das Buch. Wir lernen hier den recht ekelhaften Mr. Bott kennen, ebenso dessen künftige Ehefrau, die “petzende” Mrs. Marsham neben vielen weiteren Verwandten der Protagonisten aus allen Gesellschaftsschichten. Ganze Abschnitte der Erzählung spielen außerdem in der Schweiz oder in Baden-Baden, was dem Roman ein gewisses internationales Flair verleiht. Dass Mr. pallisers Ambitionen auf das Schatzkanzleramt am Ende in Erfüllung gehen, versteht sich von selbst und bereitet den nächsten Roman der “Palliser”-Serie vor, “Phineas Finn – the Irish Member”.