The Small House at Allington
Oct. 2nd, 2020 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearIt has felt as if I've recently read a great many books in a very short amount of time. So, in order to slow down my reading a bit and enable me to immerse myself in great prose for more than only a few days, I turned to Anthony Trollope, and the penultimate Barsetshire book, The Small House at Allington.
And it served its purpose very nicely - gorgeously dense and delightful prose, with the hilarious and sharp observations of the authorial voice throughout.
In terms of the story, it was a good job that wasn't what I was depending on for my entertainment - as the entire 665 pages were summarised in their entirety in the three sentences on the back. I thought they might only reveal the first 100 or so, and that the plot would then progress in other directions - but no.
Luckily, it was Trollope's discussions of his own characters' nature and actions that drew me to the novel and kept me enthralled and amused throughout. The characters themselves had little to recommend them - most of them were stupid, annoying, actually bad, or all three (with a few exceptions among the bit players). But Trollope's presence among them made it all worthwhile and I thoroughly enjoyed the fortnight I spent with him.
And it served its purpose very nicely - gorgeously dense and delightful prose, with the hilarious and sharp observations of the authorial voice throughout.
In terms of the story, it was a good job that wasn't what I was depending on for my entertainment - as the entire 665 pages were summarised in their entirety in the three sentences on the back. I thought they might only reveal the first 100 or so, and that the plot would then progress in other directions - but no.
Luckily, it was Trollope's discussions of his own characters' nature and actions that drew me to the novel and kept me enthralled and amused throughout. The characters themselves had little to recommend them - most of them were stupid, annoying, actually bad, or all three (with a few exceptions among the bit players). But Trollope's presence among them made it all worthwhile and I thoroughly enjoyed the fortnight I spent with him.
