Trollope attempted to juxtapose a love triangle with the Irish famine and didn’t quite pull it off. Uneven pacing relegates the suffering of the Irish peasants into the background. The protagonists are not in danger of missing a meal. The characterization lacks the sparkle of many of Trollope’s other novels. Perhaps Trollope was trying so hard to work the famine into the plot that he didn’t allow his characters to develop in his usual manner. About halfway through the book, I could see only one possible way out for Trollope, and, sure enough, he took it. ( )

Bigamy and inheritance. Love lost and love won. Hearts withheld because of want of title and retained because of loss of title.
The Irish famine.

Trollope was a wonderful storyteller and a marvellous turner of phrase especially when using juxtaposition. He reveals in this tale a blindspot for the fripperies of propertied lives whilst the less interesting lives of the peasant folk of Ireland starved "in God's mercy".

There is something obscene to modern sensibilities to read this and not abhor some of the attitudes and platitudes expressed about the situation in Ireland. That Trollope could so bemoan the loss and potential loss of wealth and title and expect us to have deep sympathy with his characters whilst he is describing the want, poverty, famine and death of those outside the body of his tale is frankly remarkable. That he is able to describe those with estates and servants and privilege as "poor" when contrasting the Irish peasant being forced to build the "famine roads" to work for their bread as charity was deemed ill advised is nauseating. Trollope's views are an inkling as to why socialism was overdue and liberalism with its laissez-faire, free trade cruelties was bound to its doom.

Trollope was undeniably a great writer. This is a splendid tale but it is not a good or a worthy book because of the apologia given for the government of the time's failure of the Irish people. Shame!

One of Trollope's earlier novels, this one will not rank as a favorite for me. It is set in Ireland during the beginning of the potato famine. On top of that is a more typical Trollope story line which a young woman has to decide between two men whose fortunes are shifting and manage interference from her mother.

I had two issues with this book. One is that the potato famine is there, but it wasn't the focus and is sort of a side story. Though it's more prevalent than that at the same time. And Trollope's attitude to the famine was pretty confusing to me - I couldn't tell if he thought it was God's intent that all these people die, that it was God's will, or how much responsibility the wealthy had to help the situation. Whatever he meant, it wasn't good and was definitely off-putting.

And the the love triangle also, just wasn't up to Trollope's normally excellent look into the human psyche. I didn't feel like I really understood all of the motivations of the characters.

I definitely wouldn't start here if you want to read Trollope! The man was prolific - there are literally dozens of other novels by him that I enjoyed more! ( )

I think I agress with the summary I read, the plot and characters are not ery successful but the stories of the Irish famine really make it work. The main plot is fairly rudimentary and most of the main characters are completely one-dimensional. The plot makes is slow way to the conclusion that isn't too hard to guess. But the scences of the famine are compelling and perhaps the strongest portion of the novel.

Lady Clara Desmond (aged 16) falls for Owen Fitzgerald, a man to whom her widowed mother is also attracted. The match is forbidden as Owen is felt not to be sufficiently wealthy/grand for her. Owen takes this badly and leads a "wild" bachelor life. Clara gets to know his cousin Herbert and becomes engaged to him. but the Herbert loses everything and Clara's mother thinks again of Owen for her.

In places this is pretty depressing (blackmail, the Irish potato famine and so on), but thankfully the blackmail plot is thwarted before too long. I would be interested to know what is thought more generally about Trollope's various comments on the famine; its causes and the efforts made to keep the people alive. Clara's mother was an excellent baddie, as were the Molletts. I kept looking out for matches for Emmeline and Mary, but these never came.At one point I feared that Clara would keep switching between the two men who loved her, but I thought Trollope's description of the decision she made was convincing. Owen was a rather melodramatic character, in whom I did not really believe.

The final plot twists were also rather melodramatic, but satisfying. ( )