the eustace diamonds by anthony trollope

He also called the dislike of money false and misplaced. After his death, Trollope’s autobiography was published, after which his reputation suffered a lot because people found out that he worked after a strict production schedule and, furthermore, he admitted that he wrote for money. He saw writing novels as satisfying the demands of the consumers (the readers of his novels) and generation of products (his books) for the market.

Vertigo: Collecting & Reading W.G.Anthony Trollope, together with his works, gives us a typical example of Victorian commodity culture which he himself recognised by comparing himself with shoemakers, carpenters and other production workers.

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right down to Nina: a brood of classic Victorian upper-class femininity.) To sharpen the point, Trollope includes several characters like the elderly Lady Linlithgow, so outspoken that she has no friends, yet proud of her honesty above all.Įnter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. But what are we to think of charming Frank Greystock, M.P., who is in love with virtuous plainspoken penniless Lucy Morris, but once having proposed to her, is caught kissing his cousin Lizzie? Or pompous Lord Fawn who proposes to Lizzie for the sake of her fortune, even though he doesn’t much like her? (I adore Lord Fawn and his seven sisters: Clara, Augusta, Amelia, etc.

Which Lizzie refuses to turn over to her late husband’s lawyers, causing a polite ruckus in polite society. Call it $711,000 at today’s rate of exchange - that’s a lot of rocks. It’s worth £10,000 which, according to the notes for my 2011 copy, comes to some £457,000.

She’s the boldest, in her appropriation of the titular diamonds, a fabulous necklace that formed part of the estate of her deceased husband.

The Eustace Diamondstakes on an issue that clearly preoccupied Trollope: moral, social, and emotional deception. That’s the genius of this character: she is so steeped in deception that she simply does not see the point of honesty, or recognize it when she encounters it. You don’t want to look away because Lizzie may finally get what she deserves but instead, she rolls on from one triumph to another, absolutely convinced of her own rectitude. Date is 1872, same as the publication of “The Eustace Diamonds.” This is the standard aristocratic styling of the era - pile on the pearls.īut we keep on reading, don’t we? There’s a kind of train-wreck appeal to The Eustace Diamonds, filtered through Trollope’s level-headed sensibility. Queen Sophia of Sweden and Norway, wearing a few baubles.

The eustace diamonds by anthony trollope