Cousin Henry

I love Trollope. He is my favorite nineteenth-century British writer. His style suits me down to the ground. I'd like anything he's written. I have twenty of his books lined up on a shelf. When I want a great treat, I pull one down and read it. I got several chuckles out of poor Cousin Henry vacillating between his desire to do right and his desire to do wrong. Still, I don't think anyone besides the other reviewer here would call COUSIN HENRY Trollope's best book.

Browsing in a bookstore, I read a blurb of this book that told every secret twist of its plot. I was enraged, but read 'Cousin Henry' anyway. It was superb, and illustrates perfectly Trollope's own philosophy, given in 'Barchester Towers,' that a good book will not suffer even from the reader knowing what happens. 'Cousin Henry' has other, and considerable, merits, than suspensefulness--although it is suspenseful. It has been called the most psychologically probing of Trollope's works; indeed, Trollope himself thought it to be so, and was very proud of it. The plot, in brief, and without giving anything away, is this: Cousin Henry is the heir of the Squire of Llanfeare--according to the will everyone knows about. But Henry knows of another, later, will, that disinherits him. Most of the book concerns Henry's agonizing over whether or not to make this will public. There is also another plot thread, concerning the Squire's daughter, Isabel, who can only marry if her husband is willing to take her last name (shades of 'Cecilia'). I'll say it again: one of Trollope's best.