litlover12 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
litlover12) wrote2012-12-10 07:45 pm
litlover12) wrote2012-12-10 07:45 pm
No, Mr. Trollope, I'm afraid I can't
So I finally finished Can You Forgive Her? Finished it a couple of weeks ago, actually; I've just been too busy to do a writeup.
On the whole, I'm glad I stuck with it. It did pick up after a couple hundred pages . . . though I can't say I ever got too attached to any of the characters. I'm not sure which was worst: Alice's constant dithering, Kate's constant meddling and manipulating, or Glencora's constant pouting.
At least Kate and Glencora eventually improved a little. (And the name Glencora grew on me, believe it or not. I'm not saying I'd name a child that, but I started to think it's kind of pretty, in a Scottish way!) But Alice, I feel sure, was a ditherer until the end of time. No, I don't think I can forgive her -- not because she broke whatever Victorian moral code Trollope was trying to hold up for our scrutiny, but just because she was a gigantic pain in the neck.
And on that note, I never want to hear another word about how Trollope wrote better female characters than Dickens. Trollope wasn't too bad at portraying female friendships, I'll give him that. And I'm well aware that Dickens wrote more than his share of passive angels. But even the most passive of them occasionally got off their butts and DID something, instead of just perpetually making rash decisions about worthless men and then sitting around everlastingly second-guessing themselves.
I have to give Trollope a little credit, however, for setting up a love triangle for characters called Glencora M'Cluskie, Plantagenet Palliser, and Burgo Fitzgerald. (Tell me P.G. Wodehouse didn't draw inspiration from that last one!) Even for a Victorian novelist, that took some chutzpah.
On the whole, I'm glad I stuck with it. It did pick up after a couple hundred pages . . . though I can't say I ever got too attached to any of the characters. I'm not sure which was worst: Alice's constant dithering, Kate's constant meddling and manipulating, or Glencora's constant pouting.
At least Kate and Glencora eventually improved a little. (And the name Glencora grew on me, believe it or not. I'm not saying I'd name a child that, but I started to think it's kind of pretty, in a Scottish way!) But Alice, I feel sure, was a ditherer until the end of time. No, I don't think I can forgive her -- not because she broke whatever Victorian moral code Trollope was trying to hold up for our scrutiny, but just because she was a gigantic pain in the neck.
And on that note, I never want to hear another word about how Trollope wrote better female characters than Dickens. Trollope wasn't too bad at portraying female friendships, I'll give him that. And I'm well aware that Dickens wrote more than his share of passive angels. But even the most passive of them occasionally got off their butts and DID something, instead of just perpetually making rash decisions about worthless men and then sitting around everlastingly second-guessing themselves.
I have to give Trollope a little credit, however, for setting up a love triangle for characters called Glencora M'Cluskie, Plantagenet Palliser, and Burgo Fitzgerald. (Tell me P.G. Wodehouse didn't draw inspiration from that last one!) Even for a Victorian novelist, that took some chutzpah.
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And that love triangle line-up! Oh, my! I'll be Wodehouse did draw inspiration. I'm feeling pretty inspired myself. ;)
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