Publisher's Synopsis
The Small House at Allington is the fifth book in Anthony Trollope's Barchester series. As with all of Trollope, it is beautifully written and draws the reader into its many interwoven tales.Former Prime Minister John Major declared this particular novel to be his favourite book of all time, and in doing so, he was joining the good company of the countless Trollope fans who have ensured this work's lasting fame, and helped to enshrine its place as a literary classic.The Small House at Allington, whose constancy to her former fiancé so appealed to Victorian readers and so enrages modern ones. Lily lives with her mother and elder sister at the Small House at Allington (as opposed to the Large House, inhabited by her uncle, Squire Dale). In the novel's early chapters, she meets and falls in love with Aldolphus Crosbie, a winsome and ambitious young man. Unfortunately, shortly after their engagement Crosbie abandons Lily to make a socially advantageous marriage to Lady Alexandrina de Courcy, the eldest daughter of a well known and unpleasant family familiar from earlier Barsetshire books. Meanwhile, young Johnny Eames, a friend of Lily's since childhood, longs to avenge the wrong that was done to her by Crosbie and to win her for himself...if only he could get his rather messy London life sorted out first.I can see why modern readers find Lily enraging and also why Victorian readers adored her. She is affectionate and resilient but, when it matters, introverted to the extent that neither the reader nor her own family can really know what is going on in her mind or heart. Trollope later referred to her as a "prig" but the Lily he presents here, obstinate as she is, seems too bold to be branded with such a milksop label. She teases that she is a domestic tyrant and throughout the book goes along, doing just as she likes, happily ignoring the well-meant and generally sensible advice of those who love her. When she is abandoned by Crosbie, Lily does not go immediately into a decline; she has no delicate feminine constitution that collapses under the emotional strain of her broken engagement. She soldiers on, laughing and teasing, taking joy in others' happiness. But you never quite know what is going on in her head. Her lighthearted flirtation and sharp banter seem at odds with the devotion she shows to Crosbie. I think I like her and yet I am not quite sure. I am certainly fascinated by her.Poor Aldolphus Crosbie is perhaps the most interesting and, in many ways, the most sympathetic character. The reader - and Lily - knows from the start that he is young, full of more flash than substance, more ambition than moral certainty. But it is his half-formed character that makes him so sympathetic. He is a man with no cruelty in him, no badness, just weakness. And he is more than punished for his youthful foolishness by his marriage to Lady Alexandrina - and into the heartless de Courcy family. He tasted enough true intimacy and affection with Lily to know what he is missing. His about-face so shortly after becoming engaged to Lily is upsetting but wonderfully written. He is being true to himself, if not to Lily; one of the first things Trollope shared about Crosbie was his acknowledgement that "he could not marry without money; and he would not marry for money." Foolishly, it is only after becoming engaged to Lily that he sets out to discover if her uncle, the squire, intends to settle any money on her. He, a childless bachelor who one would expect to do better (and who does indeed reconsider his position over the course of the novel), refuses to give Crosbie the assurance that she will receive any money on her marriage. With the prospect of trying to support a wife on only his meager salary, Crosbie sets out on the fateful trip to Courcy castle where, with the thirty-something - but dowered and well-connected - Lady Alexandrina on display, ambition wins out over affection.
