Can You Forgive Her? (Palliser #1)
by Anthony Trollope
Alice breaks off her engagement with John Grey and considers the proposal of her cousin George Vavasor instead. She vacillates between these two men as she vacillates with her own character. She considers what her life would be like with each of them, and has to decide what kind of person she wants to be. She worries that she will be stuck in a boring country life with John Grey, and longs for more political excitement as her cousin George is up for election and hopes to gain a seat in Parliament. Alice is confused and can’t sort through her true feelings and she has no one to guide her in making these decisions.
Meanwhile Alice’s friend Lady Glencora is also wavering between two men, her own husband Plantagenet Palliser and her old suitor Burgo Fitzgerald. Lady Glencora admits to Alice that she never really loved her husband and only married him because she was pressured into it by her family. She longs for true love with Burgo, who has asked her to run away with him and be his mistress, but she hesitates because she can’t bear the shame she would bring on herself and her husband.
Both these women must decide who to love, and thereby decide who they will become.
This book reads like a Victorian telenovela soap opera! I was yelling at the book and sighing and crying and raging at the characters. It’s an emotional roller coaster, and I loved every second!
Trollope was a genius in his characterizations. He had a special insight into human nature that really shines in his realistic characters. None of the baddies are all bad; even the worst ones have one or two decent qualities. And none of the good guys are all good; they have their foibles and faults too. It made it so interesting to gradually discover the hidden depths in each character, because there really IS so much there to dive into.
I love Plantagenet Palliser! He is really complex and multi-layered. At first, I thought he was too cold and calculating, but then we get to see his true heart through the story, and I grew to love him. I found his marriage with Glencora to be really interesting. In many ways, Glencora is childish and immature, and Plantagenet is condescending to her. But in other ways, Glencora is actually more emotionally mature than he is and sometimes more courageous, because she is willing to look reality in the face and call a spade a spade. Glencora is very demonstrative with her feelings, and she wants to be loved by someone who will be just as boisterous and unconstrained in their love, but Plantagenet is reticent and restrained in his nature. Although he may feel deeply, he thinks it unseemly to express his feelings in any extreme manner, and so they are at odds at the beginning of their marriage. They have trouble understanding the other person’s personality and emotional needs. Their dynamic is full of friction and I loved seeing them gradually understand each other better.
Alice is such an amazing character! I loved her right away because she is trying to be honest and do what she thinks is right, but she goes about it the wrong way and she misunderstands and makes mistakes. She sort of catches at these dreams of what could be, but when her dreams start to come true, she recoils from the reality of what she thought she wanted. I definitely forgave her in the end, because she was truly doing her best with no one to council her in her follies. One of the really interesting things about her character is her self-deprecation and sense of guilt over her inability to decide between these men. She grieves over her lack of consistency and feels like she is unworthy, but eventually she has to learn to forgive herself. A better title for the book might be “Can She Forgive Herself?”
I completely adore John Grey! He is so patient and kind and good and wise. He is the perfect heroic gentleman! In every scene with John, my attention was completely riveted on him. Even though he is soft-spoken and gentle, he has such a commanding presence. His slightest word carries a lot of weight, because of the power of his personality. And you can see how the other characters react to that quiet power as well.
I was really intrigued by George Vavasor, because he can be charming when he wants to be, and I kept thinking that maybe he would turn himself around and be a good guy. His relationship with his sister Kate is especially touching. I love sibling relationships! Kate believes in her brother and unselfishly works to benefit him in any way she can, trying to convince Alice to accept his proposal. Kate has such a pure sisterly love, but then it all goes sour, and it was really distressing to see George getting more and more desperate. His story is so tragic because he had the potential to be a really good man, and he throws it all away in his greed and pride.
This book explores many deep themes of the Victorian perception of what is right and acceptable in society. In this society, reputation is everything. It was fascinating to see these issues discussed between the characters, and different points raised, and logical arguments made, and emotional pleas made for or against what each character considered to be an acceptable morality. Ultimately, each person is guided by their own conscience to choose what is truly good.
The writing style is wonderful! It really shows the delicate relationships between people, and the internal thoughts and emotions of various characters. I loved diving into these complex relationships, and seeing how each character’s personal motivations would change the direction of the story. The dialogue draws you right into the scene, and I really enjoyed analyzing each character and their relationships with the other characters.
One of the best things about Trollope’s writing is his ability to infuse meaning and tension into the most commonplace occurrences of everyday life. They take a walk, or write a letter, or go for a picnic and squabble about who should bring the wine… and I’m on the edge of my seat to find out who will bring the wine to the picnic because the entire social structure of this friend group depends on this one bottle of wine at the picnic! Every little everyday doing becomes immediate and important to the overall story, and it is utter genius in every chapter!
I was delighted with everything about this book!
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