Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope and 50 similar items

Large Paperback Can You Forgive Her? is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published in serial form in 1864 and 1865. ... The novel follows three parallel stories of courtship and marriage and the decisions of three women: Alice Vavasor, her cousin Glencora Palliser, and her aunt Arabella Greenow. "Well, reintroduction to Plantagenet, who made an appearance in "The Small House at Allington" of the Barsetshire series. I didn't think the London parliamentary politics and romantic trials and tribulations of Lady Glencora Palliser and Alice Vavasor could hold my interest as well as the rural county goings-on of landowners and clergy portrayed in Trollope's previous Barsetshire series; indeed, Alice's inexplicable (to me and pretty much all of her relations) rejection of the handsome and steadfast John Grey for the despicable George Vavasor truly tried my patience! Although I sympathized with Alice's rather lonely life (distant, uninvolved father, mother long dead), I quickly became frustrated with her gullibility about George and susceptibility to his sister Kate's manipulation and didn't know if I cared to read on - but was hooked once Glencora and Plantagenet entered the story. Alice decides she could not be a good wife to John and is better suited temperamentally to her previous love, cousin George (definite uck factor there although I know it was common enough at the time); it helps that sister Kate is Alice's best friend and does all she can behind the scenes to maneuver Alice away from John. There was a real uck factor as well in Kate's slavish, rather creepy devotion to her brother, which certainly didn't do anything to curb his ruthless, self-centered sense of entitlement. George is introduced to us as "wild" and definitely comes across as a bad boy character, but devolves into a thuggish bully who cares only for himself and his wants, blaming everyone around him for his bad fortune and threatening anyone who dares cross his path - a real psycho, in my opinion! When he is at his worst and actually threatening Alice for money to fund his parliamentary election and she goes along with it because she is so wracked with guilt for jilting John and feels she deserves such treatment, I wanted to smack her! I loved how Trollope balanced Alice's almost masochistic guilt with Glencora's irreverent humor and spunk; as always, his clear-eyed appreciation and subtle understanding of the motives of his female characters is a joy to read. Plantagenet and Glencora are reluctant newlyweds when we meet them; he is a rising man in politics, on target to become the next Chancellor of the Exchequer despite his youth and she is a great heiress. Glencora has been forced by her concerned relations to put aside her true love Burgo Fitzgerald, a beautifully handsome wastrel desperately in need of her fortune, and marry instead the worthy Plantagenet. They don't love each other and Glencora is desperately unhappy, even contemplating leaving her husband for her former lover; she and Alice are distantly related and renew their friendship as both women struggle to come to grips with the sad realities of their romantic choices. Trollope also gifts us with comic relief in the form of several delightful minor characters (obnoxious Mr. Bott, the flaky Duchess of St. Bungay, snarky Mrs. Sparkes) and a love triangle between Kate's widowed Aunt Greenow and her two beaux Captain Bellfield and Mr. Cheeseacre. I was tickled by the scrapping and jostling for favor between the penniless but dashing former soldier and the blustering, greedy farmer, and dazzled by the widow's masterful handling of both men. As always I am amazed at Trollope's ability to draw us into his Victorian world of politics, society, love and money, and make clear the Byzantine rules governing it all! Highly recommended."