I'm reading it and it's excellent. I also recommend as the best book on
Austen I've read in a long time, Janet Todd's Living with Jane Austen
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Thornfield Hall <comment-reply@...>
Date: Fri, Apr 11, 2025 at 1:02?AM
Subject: Excuse Me, Jane Austen, and Rediscovering “The Bertrams”
To: <ellen.moody@...>
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a
computer, needs to spend less screen time.” Excuse me, Jane Austen. I NEED
TO BREAK UP WITH THE INTERNET. And so I curled up in a cozy chair with a
neglected Trollope…
Read on blog
<>
or Reader
<>
[image: Site logo image] Thornfield Hall <> Read
on blog
<>
or Reader
<>
Excuse
Me, Jane Austen, and Rediscovering “The Bertrams”
<>
By *Kat* on April 11, 2025
*“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a
computer, needs to spend less screen time.”*
Excuse me, Jane Austen. I NEED TO BREAK UP WITH THE INTERNET.
And so I curled up in a cozy chair with a neglected Trollope novel, *The
Bertrams.*
I’m not sure anyone reads *The Bertrams* anymore, but I can testify that
Trollope is very popular in the twenty-first century. I joined a Trollope
Yahoo group in the early 2000s, and there must have been a hundred fans.
Two of Trollope's series, *The Pallisers *and the *Barsetshire* books, are
considered his masterpieces . I prefer two stunning novels, *He Knew She
Was Right* and *The Way We Live Now*.
And *The Bertrams*, a splendid, often sad novel about love, rivalry, and
work, is one of his better books. Sadly, it is out of print. That is
inexplicable to me. It must have to do with Trollope’s reputation as a
middlebrow writer. And so readers assume that only the famous books are
worth reading, or that Trollope is a mere storyteller – and to an extent I
agree with that - but this smoothly-written minor classic explores
perennial human struggles: work undertaken out of need rather than liking,
lovers’ break-ups over quarrels rooted in finance, and incompatibility in
marriage.
An alternate title for the book could be *Friends and Rivals*.
In the beginning of *The Bertrams*, Trollope sketches the youthful
education of two friends and rivals, George Bertram, whose spendthrift
father dumped him in England while his rich grandfather pays his school
fees, and Arthur Wilkinson, a hard-working boy whose clergyman father
struggles to pay tuition.
Their educations are identical but the results divide them. At school
Arthur works persistently, but George wins the scholarship to Oxford. At
Oxford Arthur works hard for two years, while George appears to do nothing
for three. Trollope writes, “It had always been George’s delight to study
in such a manner that men should think he did not study.” And so George
gets a first in classics, while Arthur is crushed to get a second.
This rivalry, however, ends after graduation. George and Arthur have much
in common: both are scholars, and both are religious. Surprisingly, it is
brilliant George, not Arthur, who wants to be a clergyman. Arthur, a fellow
at Oxford, becomes a vicar only after his father dies, because he must
support his mother and sisters. And his life is miserable. His mother is
domineering: the church was given to Arthur on the condition that most of
the salary go to his mother.
But George *wants *to be a vicar. He would have loved Arthur’s job. He
travels to the Holy Land, and has many mystical experiences. But he also
meets a beautiful, cold young woman, Caroline, his grandfather’s ward. She
has a lot of money, and is extremely materialistic. They fall in love, but
she is callous: she selfishly admits she will *no*t marry him if he goes
into the church. And so he decides to study law, which bores him and whose
practice often seems unjust to him.
And this issue of having the wrong job rings very true. How many people end
up working in banks or insurance (T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens? It
didn't bother them), teaching (most high school teachers quit after five
years), or working in an office or a restaurant (everybody at some time or
another).
Trollope also describes the friendship of two women, which parallels that
of the two men. Caroline and Adela are close friends but opposites in every
respect: Caroline is obsessed with finance and insists on postponing her
marriage to George for three years so he can get established; the time
period is too long, and the two quarrel and break up. Adela is spiritual
rather than materialistic, and is scandalized by Caroline's treatment of
George. Adela is in love with Arthur, who cannot afford to marry and does
not seem keen on Adela anyway. (He is not a romantic figure.)
These are some gritty issue here. And of course the reader wonders if the
lovers will ever get together. Always we wonder this in Trollope's books.
But this is no *Can You Forgive Her?* or * The Way We Liv*e *Now*. Still,
it is long and beautifully-written, and if you want to get off the
internet, it will entertain you for hours.
Comment
<>
You can also reply to this email to leave a comment.
Thornfield Hall ? 2025.
Manage
<>
your email settings or unsubscribe.
[image: WordPress.com and Jetpack Logos]
Get the Jetpack app
Subscribe, bookmark, and get real?time notifications - all from one app!
[image: Download Jetpack on Google Play] [image: Download Jetpack from the
App Store]
<>
[image: WordPress.com Logo and Wordmark title=]
<>
Automattic, Inc.
60 29th St. #343, San Francisco, CA 94110
Ellen Moody