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Can You Forgive Her? (Palliser #1)

Anthony Trollope,

Stephen Wall (Introduction)

Discussion: Palliser Novels

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Palliser Novels

* The Series
By Elizabeth (Al… · 6 posts · 37 views

last updated Feb 25, 2014 10:29AM

The Duke's Children
By Elizabeth (Al… · 3 posts · 24 views

last updated Feb 08, 2015 02:43PM

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Aug 13, 2020 Lisa (NY) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics-19th-century-earlier, audiobook, 2020-favorites

[4.5] Oh Alice! Yes, I'll forgive you and Lady Glencora and Kate for your poor judgement. I'll even forgive John Grey and Plantagenet Palliser who irritated me so much in the beginning. After I got into the flow of this novel, I was shocked by how deliciously addictive it was. I listened to the audio (read by Simon Vance) and found myself going on extra walks and doing mindless tasks so I could keep listening. My cable service was knocked out for over a week by a tropical storm but who needs Net ...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star-reads, nineteenth-century, palliser, author-trollope

I'm probably being generous with the stars, but I hit a point where I couldn't put it down - must be worth something.

Trollope's dialogue is rather stiff and formal and his prose isn't as good as Dickens, for instance, but his characterizations are ever so much better. Dickens might give you one or two fully fleshed characters and the rest caricatures. Some of you might quibble that Trollope does more telling than showing, but I think there is both. Sometimes he can help you to see two character I'm probably being generous with the stars, but I hit a point where I couldn't put it down - must be worth something.

Trollope's dialogue is rather stiff and formal and his prose isn't as good as Dickens, for instance, but his characterizations are ever so much better. Dickens might give you one or two fully fleshed characters and the rest caricatures. Some of you might quibble that Trollope does more telling than showing, but I think there is both. Sometimes he can help you to see two characters at once.

Alice was proud to a fault. She had nursed her pride till it was very faulty. All her troubles and sorrows in life had come from an overfed craving for independence. Why, then, should she submit to be treated with open want of courtesy by any man; but, of all men, why should she submit to it from such a one as Mr. Palliser, -- the heir of a ducal house, rolling in wealth, and magnificent with all the magnificence of British pomp and pride?

Trollope talks to his readers. It's as if the two of you are watching the drama together.

... and there was a fixed propriety of position of every hair of his whiskers, which indicated very plainly that he had been at a hairdresser's shop since he left the market. Nor do I believe that he had worn that coat when he came to the door earlier in the morning. If I were to say that he had called at his tailor's also, I do not think that I should be wrong.

I don't usually like romance, and, while this certainly is not strictly romance, the whole object is the telling of the vacillation of Alice Vavasar between two men who both want to marry her. Additionally, there is the conflicting feelings of love for Lady Glencora Palliser for her husband, and a rather comedic rich widow Mrs. Greenow. As to the later, Trollope gives us this of one who is on bended knee:

"...don't make a fool of yourself. Get up," said she.
"Never, till you have told me that you will be mine!"
"Then you'll remain there for ever, which will be inconvenient."

This is the first installment in the six volume Palliser series. It is my understanding that the books can be read independently without reading the entire series. Having not yet read the others - but I will - I still cannot imagine reading the others without having some of the background and foundation provided in this one. ...more

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Jun 13, 2014 Jane rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I am so pleased to say that I have finally discovered why so many readers love Anthony Trollope. In fact, if it isn’t wrong to say so after reading just the one book, I am now one of them. I’d picked up one or two books over the years and they hadn’t quite worked. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them but I didn’t love them, they weren’t the right books; I had to find the right place to start, the right book at the right time at the right time, and this book was that book.

I found that I loved the wa ...more

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Nov 06, 2022 Theresa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle

Yes, we can forgive her, but can she forgive herself? What a great story, as is usual with Trollope. And now I have the rest of the Palliser series ahead of me. My reading was enhanced by listening to the long-time Trollopians of the Trollope Society on their Zoom read of this book.

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Jun 02, 2016 Rachel rated it it was amazing

Glorious!

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Aug 02, 2015 Joseph rated it really liked it

It's been over a year since I finished Trollope's The Barsetshire Chronicles, and I figured then that I'd someday start on the six novels of his Palliser Series. Well, now "someday" has come and I'm only wondering what took me so long. The pace of this first book in the series is a little inconsistent, but it's still Trollope and it's still entertaining. ...more

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