The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope

 If you reverse engineer the Palliser novels you will reveal the narrative clockwork that drives the novels but it won’t help you to predict what is going to happen in the one you are reading.  I’m in the middle of ‘The Duke’s Children’ and I can see the author running the combinations of the recurring themes.  Marry for money and status - that probably won’t be lucky. Two men caught between two women, oscillating emotion of the male compared to the more steady female attachment.  We’ve seen similar situations before however I feel Trollope will ring the changes this time and there may be jetsam and someone left to languish.  

The busyness of the Victorian upper class who had a fondness for laborious idleness, fox hunting, shooting, up in the morning out on the moor blasting away at the fowl of the month or stalking deer over miles of Scottish mountains.  Behind this sport the army of support staff fettling horses, whipping in dogs, Masters of Fox Hounds blowing the horn, horse coping.  The fixing of the Leger is a theme in this book and a gilded youth losing £70,000.  In 187- serious money but Papa pays up.  Will daughter Lady Mary get the man she loves, will Papa come round?  Can the American beauty be accepted by the Duke of Omnium or will marrying out of the aristocracy be impossible to accept for his son. At a certain point you may feel that you know quite enough about the marriage arrangements of the idle wealthy.  There are no less than two MPs in the romance stakes, both Conservative.  Rebellious youth forsooth.

Like all Trollope novels he keeps you reading and wondering how the romantic tangles might be resolved. The other amazing thing is the amount of visiting each others houses they do.    Mansions  were required to keep up that level of hospitality.  And cousin marriage; chinless wonders did not come from nowhere.

‘The Duke’s Children’ is not the best novel in the series. Does Trollope succeed in humanising the Duke? So far there are touching episodes and those of us that have given their parents trouble will mist up a little recognising the forbearance we have received.  I’m only half way there and this note is dashed off waiting for bread to bake.