The Small House Allington (The Barchester Chronicles Book Five) by Anthony Trollope

 

The Small House at Allington (The Barchester Chronicles Book Five) by Anthony Trollope.

This edition published 11th December 2014 by Oxford World Editions.

From the cover of the book:

Lively and attractive, Lily Dale lives with her mother and sister at the Small House at Allington. She falls passionately in love with the urbane Adolphus Crosbie, and is devastated when he abandons her for the aristocratic Lady Alexandrina de Courcy. But Lily has another suitor, Johnny Eames, who has been devoted to her since boyhood. Perhaps she can find renewed happiness in Johnny's courtship?

The Small House at Allington was among the most successful of Trollope's Barsetshire novels, and has retained its popularity among modern readers. Lily Dale's stubborn constancy is a troubling reflection of Trollope's divided feelings about the need for progress and reform in the context of liberal thought and politics. Her story is a subtle exploration of loyalty and ambition, and the pressure for change in a rapidly evolving world.

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Welcome back to Barsetshire! This time we are visiting the quiet environs of Allington, where the childless Squire Dale resides in the Great House. Across the garden, in the Small House, lives Mrs Mary Dale, the widow of the Squire's youngest brother, with her two daughters Bell and Lily. 

The Squire is very fond of his nieces Bell and Lily, and has done all he can to provide the means for them to grow up as fine young ladies. It is his dearest wish to see his nephew (and heir) Bernard married to his cousin Bell, and he is willing to help matters along with financial assistance, but conversely he has no plans to aid Lily in the same way.  

When Bernard's friend, the wannabe swell, Adolpus Crosbie, asks Lily for her hand in marriage, thinking she is also likely to come with a sizable dowry to add to her lively attractions, he is sadly disappointed in his hopes. Feeling hard done by, Crosbie heads for Courcy Castle, where he decides he will be much better off married to Lady Alexandrina de Courcy. Poor jilted Lily Dale is left with a broken heart, vowing to never love again. Meanwhile, Lily's faithful friend Johnny Eames, who has loved her since boyhood, longs to make things right. But can he ever hope to win Lily's hand?

The Small House at Allington is the fifth book in the Barsetshire Chronicles, and Trollope is back on form with this enchanting tale of love, marriage, heartbreak and family. Here Johnny Eames is very much the hero of the hour as he strives to shake off the awkwardness of his youth to find the strength to win the heart of Lily Dale, after her very poor treatment at the hands of the rotter Crosbie.

This instalment is full of fine characters, with many familiar faces, to incite you to glee and rage. Courcy Castle is back front and centre for the first time since Dr Thorne, and not one of that snobby family has improved in the qualities essential to make a decent human being since we last visited Lady de Courcy's drawing rooms. Interestingly, fickle Crosbie thinks he is doing himself a favour by escaping perceived poverty as the husband of Lily Dale, but he finds himself taking the route from the frying-pan into the fire, as we are party to the grim details of the dysfunction that lies at the heart of the de Courcy family.

My favourite character in this book is the good hearted Johnny Eames, who does a lot of growing up over the course of the story. There are so many wonderful scenes in these pages as he gets into his own scrapes among the disreputable residents of the boarding house in which he lives, resorts to fisticuffs in train stations, and becomes intimate with the charming Earl de Guest, while trying to win the hand of the fair maiden Lily. The rest of the supporting cast (excluding the despicable de Courcy family) is splendid, especially the de Guests, and their is a sweet thread of romantic suspense for the sensible Bell Dale too. They all worked their way into my heart as they navigate the mishaps and misunderstandings Trollope brings their way - even if Lily Dale needs a good shake to make her see sense a lot of the time. There is even a lovely cameo from dear old Mr Harding, and an intriguing aside into the marriage of Lord and Lady Dumbello (aka former ice maiden Griselda Grantley).

This is very much a story in which character wins out, and faithlessness brings its own hard lessons, and Trollope tells it all in his inimitable winning style with humour and insight. I loved the whole story from start to finish, and cannot wait to see how the threads left hanging work out in the final book of the series, The Last Chronicle of Barset.

The Small House at Allington is available to buy bow in multiple formats.

About the author:

Anthony Trollope (1815-82) became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire, but he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.