What is this last book?

Misery porn. That’s the only way to describe it.

Misery porn. That’s the only way to describe it.

If you want a really short one, Cousin Henry is great to dip one’s toes in.

The Belton Estate or Miss Mackenzie are quite good too, and short.

If you want a mid sized work, The Claverings or Is He Poppenjoy? are nice.

And if you want a tome, He Knew He Was Right is a good representation of what he does exceptionally well, in my opinion (dysfunctional relationships)

He also wrote two series called

▪︎ The Barchester Chronicles , and

▪︎ The Palliser Chronicles

The former has to be read before the latter, otherwise there can be some spoilers.

I read this a few years ago. Melmotte reminded me of Trump, lol.

I felt like it wasn’t the tightest of Trollope’s works. It was perhaps written too hastily, and not edited too much. (I personally like He Knew He Was Right, The Belton Estate maybe a bit better than this one)

There were certain things which became so repetitive throughout the novel that i had to roll my eyes when Trollope would again take us through the same things , like Lady Carbury’s love for her son and slight neglect of her daughter, and also her motivations for going after Mr Broune. Trollope kept repeating himself, which was a bit tedious.

Another thing i wasn’t a fan of was the fact that Felix Carbury is just so extraordinarily one-dimensional he is a dissipated young man. That’s it. Hs is literally nothing else, he doesn’t have any thoughts or feelings that don’t fit into that particular stereotype.

Usually, Trollope is great at adding layers and nuances to personalities. Just look at Melmotte himself! Such a well written character. But Felix absolutely fails to seem anything more than a cardboard cutout.

I genuinely feel like Trollope should have taken more time with this one. It could have been even better had he done that.

Obviously, many of his characters resemble others from his many many novels, but he manages to make them quite convincing usually.

I would rate this an 8/10. Some of the themes and depictions were just really well done, some characters however needed more work.

Roger Carbury and Mrs. Winifred Hurtle were my favourite characters. I wish they had met each other and ended up together. Lol.

(Oh, and i am really glad more and more people are reading Trollope. He is a very interesting author. I have only read around 16 of his works, but i own all of them! )

Aww…i love Dickens’ writing so much. Now i wish i were reading a Dickens right now.

Didn’t his mum come and help him with his meals and laundry? That seems…rather tame.

I thought this book is going to be a light romance or just a romance

You picked up a Thomas Hardy novel for a light romance?? That’s like me picking up a sumptuous and rich chocolate cake because i wanted popcorn. Maybe you ought to put in a little bit of effort in finding out what you are reading beforehand so that you aren’t disappointed.

This particular review feels almost like it belongs in r/bookscirclejerk , it is making me face palm so hard.

No offence, but you seem to have missed almost every single point that Hardy was trying to make. It is rare for me to say that someone didn’t understand much about a book just because they didn’t like it, but in this case it is true.