Is He Popenjoy?

There are some familiar Trollopean themes here: how headstrong newlyweds can turn minor spats into a serious rupture (He Knew He was Right, Kept in the Dark), how artful women can manipulate weak-willed men (The Claverlings, Mrs. Hurtle in The Way We Live Now). The central plot, summarized in the quesion that makes up the title, introduces us to one of Trollope's most lovable rascals, the Marquis of Brotherton, lovable because his rascality is so straightforward and lacking in guile. The other plot is about a sombre, priggish, not terrible bright Lord George who tries to dominate his flighty wife (Cf. Can You Forgive Her?), but she can easily run circles around him. What makes this top-notch Trollope is the wonderful gallery of fools, scoundrels and schemers -- and some people who manage to be all three. The wit andd satire is sustained throughout. Trollope hated all reformers and do-gooders, but he especially disliked feminists. Here he has great fund at the expensive of Baroness Banmann, Selina Protest and Antonia Q. Fleabody, who lecture at "The Rights of Women Institute, Established for the Relief of the Disabilities of Females", popularly known as "the disabilities".

Anthony Trollope's 47 novels contain many surprises, one of which is this delightful novel, which bears one of the most unlikely titles in all of literature. There is no better way to leave the megrims by the wayside than to immerse yourself into another time and place. Trollope was the Victorian story-teller par excellence. After having read a quarter of his vast output, I have yet to discover a clinker in the bunch. A notorious curmudgeon, the Marquess of Brotherton has quitted England for the sunny shores of Italy. News filters back to his relatives that he has married an Italian and fathered a male heir, given the courtesy title of Lord Popenjoy. His mother and siblings are in a tizzy, as they are asked to quit the premises of the ancestral home to make way for a return of the prodigal head of the family with wife and heir. It seems, however, that there is little news and much doubt about the legality of the Marquess's nuptuals; and therefore doubt as to whether his so-called son is actually the heir Popenjoy. There is a delightful fox hunt (common to many of Trollope's novels), and a stormy marriage between the Marquess's young brother and a clergyman's daughter. She dares to dance the forbidden Kappa Kappa (the Lambada of its day) with a young wastrel, and raises the protective ire of every duenna within a hundred mile radius. Look for some very amusing -- and controversial -- put-downs of the emerging feminist movement. This is a good book to start reading Trollope. His two long series -- the Barsetshire and Palliser novels -- require a long commitment. Popenjoy is just right!