Anthony Trollope, b. 1815. Has anyone else read any of Trollope’s novels? I read Barchester Towers a long time ago, and I remember enjoying it. However, I also think it moved very slowly, and I’ve read that all his books are about the same setting and similar characters— British country and small city, Anglican bishops and priests and church wardens and such. It all sounds perfect for a certain sort of mood–slow, gossipy, lazy, character-driven.
Elizabeth Goudge, b. 1900, wrote adult novels and children’s books. I’m pretty sure I’ve read one or more of her books, too, maybe Linnets and Valerians, but I don’t remember anything about it. Looking around on the internet, she seems to share some characteristics in common with Trollope. Three of her adult books are collectively titled The Cathedral Trilogy, about characters in a Anglican cathedral city in England.
Evaline Ness, b. 1911. Author and illustrator who received the Caldecott Award for Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine, a book about distinguishing between fact and fiction, when to fantasize and when to be strictly factual.
I’m intending to read my first Trollope soon, after “hearing” C.S. Lewis repeatedly mention him in “On Stories.”
I love Goudge–so does my husband and a few other literary friends of ours who turned us on to her! Her books are delightful character studies with a “spiritual essence,” as the book jacket for City of Bells states. Our favorites are probably that one and Scent of Water, though they’re all wonderful, and Green Dolphin Street was made into a movie.
I’ve never read Trollope, but if he’s anything like Goudge, I must try him!
I’ve read maybe 14 or 15 of Trollope’s novels (or maybe a few more than that, now that I think about it…), and while he did write some series that involve a small circle of characters in a defined area, I wouldn’t say that they’re all *that* similar. I usually tell people that Trollope and Dickens were contemporaries, but while Dickens’ novels were in urban settings with sometimes rather grotesque characters and dark plots, Trollope’s novels were set in suburban or rural locations, with characters one might recognize from one’s own hometown. There’s almost always a “boy meets girl, courts girl, will he get the girl?” subplot in each novel. Often his books are a commentary of the political and social conventions of his time, and I haven’t read one yet that I didn’t hugely enjoy. I will say that unless I dive in and read him in one fell swoop, I tend to get a bit confused, because he likes to have a lot of characters and twists in the plot. Taking Trollope slow doesn’t work for me.
Once on a long road trip from NC to FL I read The Small House at Allington. When we stopped for lunch I started telling my husband the story thus far. He was interested enough that he asked me to read it aloud from the place I’d reached after we got back in the van. Big mistake on my part. He and our six children were hooked, and I ended up reading aloud for the next 5 hours (until my voice gave out) loudly enough that the children in the back of the (15-passenger) van could hear, too. I didn’t finish the book aloud, but read the last few chapters to myself when we got home in the wee hours of the morning. My husband then grabbed the book from where I’d placed it and stayed up until dawn finishing it himself. I woke up when he tossed the book onto the floor and asked him why he’d stayed up so late to read it. He answered, “I had to know if the guy got the girl in the end.”
The Barsetshire series and the Palliser novels are two of his series that I’ve enjoyed. Also, The Way We Live Now and The Small House at Allington were good “stand alone” books.
I like Elizabeth Goudge’s books, too. But Angela Thirkell is the writer who has taken Trollope’s place-names and some character names and used them in her novels. Goudge’s books are great summer reading.
Sam, Bangs and Moonshine was one of my favorite books when I was in 1st grade.
Thanks for posting about those particular writers!
I read a couple of Ms. Thirkell’s books and liked them very much. I think I need to read some more Trollope. Thanks for the comments, guys.
I liked the Barsetshire novels that I read; and of Palliser novels I liked Can You Forgive Her quite a bit and Phineas Finn somewhat less. I simply couldn’t get through The Eustace Diamonds, which involved a naive young man in danger of being corrupted by a seductive adventuress…or something like that. I found those scenes so painful to read (it’s hard to believe anybody could be quite as naive as this young man) that I simply couldn’t finish it.