Vicar of Bullhampton

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: The title of the book might lead you to refrain, since it implies that the story is about a country vicar. One wonders how exciting that might be? However, this book is probably one of Trollope's most suspenseful and well-rounded novels. You have a romance, an unrequited romance, and a young woman at the heart of it whose lack of fortune could lead her astray. Mary Lowther, visiting the vicar and her friend, his wife, receives a marriage proposal from Harry Gilmore, the local squire, who at the encouragement of the vicar, has fallen desperately in love with Mary. Mary has offered no encouragement, and despite the pressure of the vicar and his wife to accept the marriage offer, refuses. Once at home, she falls in love with a visiting relation, but because he is penniless, cannot marry him. Thus she is tossed about on the tides of marital opportunities, continually pressured by friends and family to turn to Harry Gilmore. This portion of the story is rather like a "one woman stands against the world" scene, and it is intriguing, frustrating, and ultimately inspiring as Mary finds her strength not just in love but in herself. If romance doesn't interest you, Trollope has thrown in a second storyline, one unusual in his books. A murder occurs, and the vicar sets about attempting to solve it because the suspect -- even he suspects him -- is a young man from his neighborhood who has been skirting the law and morality for some time. Add to that, we have the character of the beautiful Carry Brattle, seduced by a man outside of wedlock and then tossed out of her home by her insulted father, forced to turn to prostitution in order to eat and find shelter. Her trials and her reform, including her family's eventual forgiveness of her sins, is at once indicative of the harsh lives imposed upon women in Trollope's era and a hope for a future where women are not viewed as the property of men but as persons in their own right. Finally, the vicar does have his own story as he insults a nobleman in his parish and is thereby made an enemy, the nobleman going so far as to build a new church right up against the vicar's property as an insult to the vicar's faith and effectiveness as a man of religion. How this resolves itself is a lark! The story is exciting, and each storyline is so well intertwined that the switch from one to the other as the book progresses is smooth. Never a dull moment in this one, you'll find that from the first page, you cannot put the book down.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: The title of the book might lead you to refrain, since it implies that the story is about a country vicar. One wonders how exciting that might be? However, this book is probably one of Trollope's most suspenseful and well-rounded novels. You have a romance, an unrequited romance, and a young woman at the heart of it whose lack of fortune could lead her astray. Mary Lowther, visiting the vicar and her friend, his wife, receives a marriage proposal from Harry Gilmore, the local squire, who at the encouragement of the vicar, has fallen desperately in love with Mary. Mary has offered no encouragement, and despite the pressure of the vicar and his wife to accept the marriage offer, refuses. Once at home, she falls in love with a visiting relation, but because he is penniless, cannot marry him. Thus she is tossed about on the tides of marital opportunities, continually pressured by friends and family to turn to Harry Gilmore. This portion of the story is rather like a "one woman stands against the world" scene, and it is intriguing, frustrating, and ultimately inspiring as Mary finds her strength not just in love but in herself. If romance doesn't interest you, Trollope has thrown in a second storyline, one unusual in his books. A murder occurs, and the vicar sets about attempting to solve it because the suspect -- even he suspects him -- is a young man from his neighborhood who has been skirting the law and morality for some time. Add to that, we have the character of the beautiful Carry Brattle, seduced by a man outside of wedlock and then tossed out of her home by her insulted father, forced to turn to prostitution in order to eat and find shelter. Her trials and her reform, including her family's eventual forgiveness of her sins, is at once indicative of the harsh lives imposed upon women in Trollope's era and a hope for a future where women are not viewed as the property of men but as persons in their own right. Finally, the vicar does have his own story as he insults a nobleman in his parish and is thereby made an enemy, the nobleman going so far as to build a new church right up against the vicar's property as an insult to the vicar's faith and effectiveness as a man of religion. How this resolves itself is a lark! The story is exciting, and each storyline is so well intertwined that the switch from one to the other as the book progresses is smooth. Never a dull moment in this one, you'll find that from the first page, you cannot put the book down.