Can You Forgive Her?

Bottom Line First:Anthony Trollope’s’ Can You Forgive Her, is book 1 of his 6 book Palliser series. It works as a standalone piece. Trollope walks you through several variations of what how much of 18th Century British Society is tied to and defined by money. Starting at the edges of ‘respectability’ it becomes clear how much of a person’s life depends on 500 Pounds per annum. More and a person has independence, very little less and a comfortable life is unlikely. Virtually all of his women are strong and strongly portrayed. The men are individual. Both sexes make decisions balancing their need for love against their duties to family and more so the need to have money. Initially Trollope is very doll. Eventually humor gives way to a narrative that ranges from very serious to Laurel and Hardy funny. The book is overly long but worth it. It is family friendly. Finding the younger reader with the patience for it is the only limit to my recommendation.Starting with my only objection, Trollope will include narration obviously intended to insure stuffiest length to cover contractual requirements for the right number and length of serial installments. There is a long description of a Fox Hunt. It is a master piece of writing. From the mater of the hunt to a rider who fails to understand the philosophy of riding - characters are vivid. Some descriptions are too deep in the jargon of the hunt to mean much to a modern, city dweller but it is all exciting. It is also pointless. Later we are given pages of narration about the different living quarters of a major character and of the county side around his grandfather’s aging manor. Much of the imagery is wonderful but none of it moves the story forward. As a novel, rather than a serial, many of the 700 pages are unnecessary.What I admire most about Can You Forgive Her is the almost scientific way Trollope takes his central theme, the degree to which money and class can direct decisions of the heart and moves through a number of variations basing them around different characters.At the highest extreme we have the Pallisars. Lord Plantagenet Omnium – Omnium figuratively ‘lord of everything “and his wife Lady Glencora. (Pay attention to names, often fun and descriptive). Each came into their marriage extremely wealthy and with the full family support. Lady Glencora could have married for love and instead begins the book an unhappy and susceptible newlywed. He is a leading Member of Parliament and destined for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. As a Husband he begins as much less than Omnium (all that).At another extreme we have a wealthy widow, also a merry widow for all her tears, Mrs. Greenow. She is now in the green because her much older husband died leaving her well off. Being well off, she is wooed by the comic duo of wealthy farmer Mr. Cheeseacre and his impecunious, wily friend Captain Bellfield. Through all the comedy it is clear that the widow is nobody’s fool and very capable of directing those who might woo her then picking her man for her reasons.A major aspect of this novel is the way women learn to and already have control of their lives. Certainly none has go to work, but above the magic 500 Pound per annum work is not the issue. Instead they all have or get their ‘voice’ and in so doing get to make their own decisions.Of the other romantic paring the one involving Alice Vavasor is the first one we meet and might be considered as most central to the plot. We are lead to believe that she is the one we are asked to forgive. Alice will spend much of the book dithering over to which of two suitors she should wed. The rest of her time in the book will be her making pronouncements in favor of the conventional as the absolute controlling factor in all her friends’ decision making. At best she reminds me of the self-important and blustery Lady Bracknell in  The Importance of Being Earnest .She is conventional to distraction. Including distracting to herself, her two suitors and many readers. I found myself thinking that intentionally or otherwise Trollope was using her to prove that a woman should have some ready access to drunkenness, lechery or other escape from the socially correct. She has paced a stick up where one should not be and needs to loosen up , A Lot.More as a caution than as a spoiler. The ending can be somewhat unsettling. It looks like a clean sweep win for love and family. Nothing in the book prepares us for tragedy. Is there something else besides victory and defeat? Part of appreciating what Trollope has accomplished is to understand just how nuanced he can be.

If you plan a hiking trip of a week or so, and you will have no access to book shops during the time, and you want to carry reading matter which is sufficient for the period, and not too much either; if you look for something light enough to withstand disruptions and doesn't require strong concentration; if you want to avoid the risk that you dislike what you decided to carry: then there is a lot to be said for taking a Trollope novel. Be sure to be a male above 60 and able to stand a conservative stance without foaming at the mouth. I was quite happy with my decision to take this first volume of the Palliser series to a hike in the central Japanese mountains. It kept me amused and somehow filled my co-hikers with respect. I wonder why. Anyhow, I managed to unload the book on one of my fellow hikers who was afraid that her return flight to London might be affected by the `ash'. (I am sure the book would have served her well had she been stuck in Narita due to the European airspace shutdown, though she was not male over 60.) So I didn't even have to carry it home! (There are nearly no garbage bins in Japan; I wonder how they stay so clean.)So, this is, as I said, number 1 of 6 Palliser novels. Plantagenet Palliser (Planty Pall to his non-friends) rises to Chancellor of the Exchequer while still not even 30. (This might qualify as a spoiler, I apologize; but no sane person would read this for suspense.)But Planty Pall is not the main acteur here; not even the splendid Lady Glencora, his disrespectful wife, is.Heroine in the center of attention is a pre-emancipated woman with an own head and serious troubles finding her position in a man's world. Alice is a minor relative to serious money and nobility. She is not impoverished, she is even attractive to some male sharks for her moderate means. She doesn't make up her mind easily and she is too easily influenced by her surroundings. She gets engaged to one guy, but finds him wanting. She drops him and has her next engagement with a perfect male specimen, but then finds him too boring. She returns to the first champion, who is in time unmasked as a really bad guy. In the meantime she has acquired a reputation as a jilt... Trollope was a brilliant describer of the mind of people who can't make up their minds.`Side' issues of this central vacillation theme are: the British parliament and how to pay for getting elected to it; fox hunting; the generally low standard of male suitors in different classes of society. Alice has a widowed aunt who is given to flirtation and who is not short of male attention. This story thread is of the nature of stale comedy, which makes me deduct a star.I had also carried something for reserve, and luckily I did, as Trollope turned out to be shorter than 12 days. But that is another story. (Just wait for the Magic Mountain!)

This book reads like it’s been translated into English by google translate. Don’t buy it.

Es la primera novela de la serie Palliser, y se hace un poco lenta a veces, pero es muy interesante porque se ve y comprende muy bien la vida, mentalidad y actividades de la clase media-alta y alta de la Inglaterra de esa época, la política inglesa del momento, etc. Y las siguientes novelas, aunque independientes, repiten personajes como Lady Glencora McCluskey, que es favorita de muchos lectores.

Anthony Trollope (1815- 1882): Can You Forgive Her? Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Dinah Birch. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press [Oxford World's Classics], 2012 (New Edition). ISBN 978-0-19-957817-7.Dieser Roman, der erste in Trollopes politischer Palliser-Serie, folgte unmittelbar auf den fünften Roman der Barchester-Serie, The Small House at Allington, und greift u. a. die Geschichte von Plantagenet Palliser und dessen Ehe mit Lady Glencora M'Cluskie auf, eine Geschichte, die im "Small House at Allington" kurz zusammengefasst wurde. Hier erfahren wir, dass Lady Glencora von einer unkonventionellen Eheschließung mit dem armen Taugenichts Burgo Fitzgerald träumte und nur durch das beherzte Eingreifen ihrer hochadligen Verwandten davon abgebracht wurde. Ihren Ehemann Plantagenet Palliser, einen Vollblut-Politiker, dem Aussichten auf das Schatzkanzleramt nachgesagt werden, findet sie recht langweilig und versteht es, ihn konstant zu piesacken. Dass am Ende alles gut ausgeht, versteht sich bei Trollope von selbst, aber wie es dazu kommt, das muss man sich erst erlesen - nach rund 600 Seiten!Trollope wäre allerdings nicht Trollope, wenn es in diesem Roman bei der einen Geschichte bleiben würde. Wir machen gleich zu Anfang des Buches Bekanntschaft mit der Familie Vavasor, weitläufige Verwandte der Pallisers. Alice Vavasor, eine selbstbewusste junge Frau mit politischen Ambitionen, hat sich vormals von ihrem Cousin George, der als "wilder Mann" eingeführt wird, getrennt und sich mit dem - nomen ist omen! - blassen Mr. Grey verlobt. Im Laufe des Romans macht sie diesen Schritt rückgängig, was damals als gesellschaftlich inakzeptabel galt, sieht sich jedoch nicht imstande, George, der beinahe einen Mord begeht, zu heiraten. George ist Parlamentsabgeordneter, braucht jedoch dringend Geld, um seine Wahlkampagne zu finanzieren, und schafft es, einen Großteil von Alice Vavasors persönlichem Vermögen auszugeben, ehe er merkt, dass die Ehe mit ihr wohl nicht zustande kommen wird.Einen dritten Strang führt Trollope, anscheinend als "comic relief" ein: Eine Tante Alice Vavasors, Mrs. Greenow, ist jetzt eine reiche Witwe. Bei einer Erholunsreise an die englische Ostküste lernt sie zwei mögliche Ehemänner kennen: den reichen Bauern Cheesacre und den verarmten Militär Bellfield. Wir erfahren, wie diese Situation sich zuspitzt, bis am Ende auch Mrs. Greenow erneut "unter die Haube" kommt, ihr neuer Ehemann jedoch eher "unter die Pantoffel".Mit 675 Seiten gehört dieser Roman zu den längeren, die Trollope veröffentlichte, aber aus Sicht des Lesers kann das nicht zu lang sein, denn die Geschichte erweist sich als in jeder Hinsicht faszinierend. Wie der Titel andeutet, geht es hier u. a. um das Thema Vergebung - dazu empfehle ich das Buch "Vergeben und Vergessen" von Lewis B. Smedes (Francke-Buchhandlung) als philosophisch-psychologisches Gegenpol -, aber auch um die Auswirkungen des damals aufkeimenden Feminismus sowie um die große Politik. Es fällt auf, dass Trollope sich hier zum ersten Mal mit Gestalten aus dem Hochadel beschäftigt und nicht nur mit dem verarmten Landadel, wie in den Romanen zuvor. Das alle Konventionen sprengende Benehmen von Lady Glencora wäre zudem damals als schockierend empfunden worden, auch wenn man heute kaum darüber stolpert.Eine Fülle von Nebengestalten bevölkert das Buch. Wir lernen hier den recht ekelhaften Mr. Bott kennen, ebenso dessen künftige Ehefrau, die "petzende" Mrs. Marsham neben vielen weiteren Verwandten der Protagonisten aus allen Gesellschaftsschichten. Ganze Abschnitte der Erzählung spielen außerdem in der Schweiz oder in Baden-Baden, was dem Roman ein gewisses internationales Flair verleiht. Dass Mr. pallisers Ambitionen auf das Schatzkanzleramt am Ende in Erfüllung gehen, versteht sich von selbst und bereitet den nächsten Roman der "Palliser"-Serie vor, "Phineas Finn - the Irish Member".

The transfer to kindle from the original text contained syntactical errors and the author's literary intent blunted. One star for prompt service I guess.

Anyone wanting to read this Penguin English Classics book, Can You Forgive Her, in Kindle format, should be aware that there are, unfortunately, a significant number of errors that have arisen during the digital transfer of text from the printed to the digital format. Although they do not prevent one from reading the text, they are an irritant and a distraction. The most significant of these errors occurs in roughly eight chapters from chapter 48 to around chapter 56 and is an almost entire absence of apostrophes except for the opening apostrophe in speech. There are, in addition, a number of repetitions of words within sentences, wrong words, lack of full stops and so on, some of which I have highlighted in the photos. I had thought to avoid such errors by purchasing a Penguin edition of the book, which I wrongly assumed might have been - edited! A Google search has revealed that this is a common problem with Kindle books, which is very disappointing to learn. I'm writing this review (my first ever) just to highlight the issue to any prospective reader who may be unaware of the problem, and in the probably vain hope that someone at Amazon or at Penguin or both might actually care and do something about it.