After the untimely death of Charles Amedroz, the only son of Bernard Amedroz of Belton Castle, Amedroz senior uses what should be his daughter’s dowry to pay off his deceased son’s death. Mr. Amedroz hopes that Clara’s Aunt Winterfield will leave her enough to live on, while Aunt Winterfield has other plans, believing that Clara will be provided for in her father’s will. Clara alone knows the true story and keeps silent about her anxiety for her future. Belton Castle is entailed on a distant cousin, Will Belton, who falls head over heels in love with Clara almost from the moment they meet. However, Clara is already in love with Frederick Aylmer, another nephew of Mrs. Winterfield. For the rest of the novel, Clara will be torn between the two men. The triangle is further complicated by financial considerations, which take the length of the novel to sort out.

I had a lot of sympathy for Clara in her isolation. The one confidante available to her is morally compromised. Clara has no one to turn to for guidance. Fortunately, she has enough strength of character to weigh her options for herself and make her own decisions. Clara had the sense to recognize that she and Captain Aylmer were not compatible, and that Will was the better match for her. He will treat her well, and she will provide a good balance for his impulsive nature. ( )

This book is classic Anthony Trollope Clara Amedroz, beautiful young girl is forced to make an "excellent marriage" after her father and her brother fritter away their estate and the money she should have inherited. Luckily, she has two suitors: Will Belton, the new heir to the estate and Captain Frdederick Aylmer, MP.

Unlike Dickens' female characters, Trollope's heroines are intelligent and full of pluck, and Clara is no exception. She refuses to beg for a place in a wealthy family as a pitiful, poor girl and would rather live on her own wits than debase herself to rich in-laws.

How she manages to make her choice makes for a delightful Victorian novel. ( )

Clara's brother ruins the family financially and then commits suicide. On her father's death she will be left penniless and Will Belton, a distant cousin, will inherit. Will comes to visit and wins her and her father over with his cheerful honesty and goodness. He falls in love with Clara and proposes, but she refuses as she loves Captain Aylmer. She goes on to become engaged to Captain Aylmer, but soon comes to draw unfavourable comparisons between Aylmer's cool calculation and lack of passion and Will's forthright passion and straightforwardness.

Trollope cleverly juxtaposes the two men throughout, showing their attitudes to money, love and how a formerly "immoral" woman should be treated. Lady Aylmer is a fantastic baddie and the book if fairly tightly plotted. I found it a bit sad that even Trollope felt that Mrs Askerton should have been "coarsened" by the tragedy of her past life and I got a bit tried of Clara's persistence in cutting off her nose to spite her face, but on the whole it was excellent. ( )

Though I started out quite interested I finally just grew heartily sick and tired of the lot of them. Fautous Captain Alymer and pining, lovesick WIll and Clara, who had my pity at first from the horrible lot of people she had to deal with but eventually lost it for just being so petulant. When it finally ended, I didn't want anyone to marry anyone!

B-list Trollope, maybe even a C+. AT gets off to a slow start with a repetitious first chapter, then plunges into the story: a most satisfactory love triangle, with an inheritance gone wrong to boot. The plot seems more straightforward than many other AT novels, with fewer side excursions (I make no complaint in either direction - merely an observation).

These convoluted or opaque first chapters put me in mind of someone who is getting settled to tell a story- slapping pockets looking for his cigar, loosening his tie, searching for matches - all the while paying only half-attention to the tale he's begun (thanks, I will have a glass), leaving his listeners impatient around him. Much "now where was I" and "as I was saying," false starts, and no one wanting to interrupt because he'll lose his place again.

The hero is much too perfect and WAY too conveniently falls for the heroine, but there is good give-and-take between the friends and a breath of scandal for relief ( )