It would seem to be an unpromising subject for a novel to discuss the loves of English nobility in Ireland during the potato famine of the 1840s. Yet, despite a little unevenness at times, Anthony Trollope carries it off rather well. While he does not dwell at great detail on the famine, he shows us enough to realize that he was not wearing rose-colored glasses.

The main subject is Lady Clara Desmond who is loved by two cousins named Fitzgerald. One is the wealthy heir of Castle Richmond, the future Sir Herbert; the other is the modestly well off Owen Fitzgerald of Hap House. At first Clara, opts for Owen; but then, initially at her mother's urging, she switches her allegiance to Herbert. From this decision her needle does not budge an inch, even when it appears that Herbert will lose his name and fortune because his mother had previously married a man who had deserted her and, after it appeared the ex-husband was dead, he shows up as a blackmailer.

The bigamy plot and the changing fortune of the Richmond Fitzgeralds is the main subject of Castle Richmond, but the famine keeps occupying the attentions of the major and minor characters. One particularly horrible scene is when Herbert walks into a seemingly deserted cottage and finds in it a mother and child at the point of starvation, and the body of an infant covered over with straw in a corner of the room.

Trollope's Irish novels have not received their due from the critics. So far I have read all of them but the unfinished The Landleaguers and find this to be the best, followed by The Kellys and the O'Kellys.