Castle Richmond

A powerful, powerful book! The Irish potato famine in a major player in this story, very interesting and very moving, and the main characters are very interesting and very moving as well, especially Owen Fitzgerald, a character I will never forget. This book stirred me emotionally as no other Trollope book has, and I've read many of them and loved many of them. But this one is in a class of its own. Incidentally, the father-and-son Mollett team provides some delicious humor to give the reader a break from the strong emotion produced by the telling of the potato famine. The portraits of Irish servants were wonderfully rendered--I could see and hear them, and I loved them.

I have spent the last 30 years collecting Trollope and trying to find his less popular works. He is my favourite author from his time, and that includes Dickens who, for all his virtues, I find maudling. This book is one of those one cannot put down, well plotted although it has all the usual Trollope landmarks - so the question is, how is it one can continue reading book after book of this author, never get tired and always be surprised?

CASTLE RICHMOND is Trollope's tale of Ireland, set during the famine. Two Fitzgerald cousins vie for the love of Lady Clara Desmond, the penniless beauty. One has money and title but all that is threatened by a secret.. A finely crafted novel and a gripping read.

I RATE THIS A 5 STAR BOOK. AS USUAL, TROLLOPE WRITES SO WELL AND HOLDS YOUR ATTENTION FROM BEGINNING TO END.THIS IS THE TALE OF 2 MEN IN LOVE WITH THE SAME WOMAN. THE FORTUNES OF THESE 2 MEN CONSTANTLY SHIFT THROUGHOUT THE STORY DUE TO A FAMILY INHERITANCE QUESTION - WHICH FORMS THE CENTRAL MYSTERY OF THE BOOK. AND AS THEIR FORTUNES CHANGE, THE MOTHER OF THE WOMAN WHOM BOTH LOVE, CONTINUES TO INTEFERE AND ATTEMPT TO SELL HER DAUGHTER'S HEART TO THE RICHEST BIDDER. I'VE READ A LOT OF TROLLOPE, AND I WOULD RATE THIS ONE OF HIS FINEST. THE ONLY PART OF THE BOOK THAT I FOUND NOT THAT INTERESTING, WAS THE HISTORY PERTAINING TO THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE.NEVERTHELESS, IF YOU LIKE TROLLOPE, DO READ THIS ONE!

I would like to start this review by emphatically agreeing with the other reviewers of Trollope's fiction who say that this is an author that should be immediately re-discovered. Here is a man who created characters that we could not forget if we wanted. We see all sides of his creations, the good and the bad, and there are times when you might even feel empathy for the villians. How many authors can accomplish that?Castle Richmond is Trollope's romance in Ireland set against the backdrop of the Great Famine. You might wonder if the famine sequences get in the way of the main plot. I certainly thought so myself until I read a brilliantly written chapter two-thirds of the way through the book in which one of the heroes of the story encounters a starving mother and her children. In five paragraphs the book takes on a whole new prespective. Suddenly our hero (and ourselves) become aware that happiness is a relative thing, not something that should be dictated by those we love and how much are in our purses. What an enlightening concept! Anyone who thinks that Trollope is out-dated need only focus on what he is saying in Castle Richmond to see what a truly modern thinker he really was.Castle Richmond's main plot is a look at two upper class families: the Desmonds and the Fitzgeralds. We follow them through their lives, watching as love is gained and love is lost. We get a complete glimpse into the morals of these people; people who really feel they are doing right no matter who is hurt. I was amazed that the melancholy scenes were almost better written then the happy ones. And there are very few writers of that age and ours that write better dialogue than he.I hope readers who have read Trollope's more popular works will take the time to read this novel. Trollope obviously loved Ireland immensely, and he need not apologize for setting his story in that country. The land, the people, the circumstances are completely displayed for us to enjoy. It is a comfort to walk in his world, through the path between the elms, through the hilly countryside. I thought more then once that I would go there like a shot if it was offered to me. And that, I believe, is the true magic of Trollope's work.