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The Claverings

Anthony Trollope

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Feb 24, 2019 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it really liked it

Shelves: author-trollope, nineteenth-century, 19thc-read

The Goodreads description says The Claverings is filled with contemporary detail and shows, as Trollope often does, the weakness of men and the emotional strength of women. In addition to weakness of men and contemporary detail, Trollope demonstrates what can happen to one who chooses to marry for money rather than love.

Harry Clavering is certainly among the weakest of men. If there are fictional characters who are seen to sway with the wind, he is certainly to be included in such a group. This The Goodreads description says The Claverings is filled with contemporary detail and shows, as Trollope often does, the weakness of men and the emotional strength of women. In addition to weakness of men and contemporary detail, Trollope demonstrates what can happen to one who chooses to marry for money rather than love.

Harry Clavering is certainly among the weakest of men. If there are fictional characters who are seen to sway with the wind, he is certainly to be included in such a group. This is not a "she loves me, she loves me not" man, but an "I love her - oh, and her, too" man. And yet, Trollope calls him the hero of the novel. In a modern novel, I might find his duality despicable. Yet Harry finds himself tormented over his finding himself so conflicted. I could not help but have some sympathy. OK, maybe not a *lot* of sympathy, but there was a bit of it.

I have often noted that Trollope nearly always provides us with a happy ending, but the interest is in seeing how he accomplishes it. Unfortunately in this one, he telegraphs it all too obviously. I was also aware that if there were two women loved by Harry Clavering, at least one of them was going to be unhappy by novel's end. I could only hope that unhappiness visited she I liked the least.

The "contemporary detail" is one of the things I enjoy about Trollope. I never fail to learn something, even the most minor of details. In this there are two widows. While both are clothed in widows' weeds, one is draped in such fashion as to hide the human form, making her almost without sex, while the other manages to dress in such a way as enhance the female form. This latter was shown to be unusual. I had not thought to look at examples of widows' weeds, nor had I thought about them being designed particularly to hide the female form. Not that this has really much to do with the novel, I just found it interesting and worth remarking upon - as did Trollope.

It's been awhile since I've read Trollope and I was glad to get back to him. Still, while I was happy to be reading him again, there was a time or two when he spent too much time with Harry's vacillating love life and I wanted him to just get on with it. I think this could have been a 400-450 page novel rather than 500 plus pages. This has it's place for the Trollope completist, as I hope to be, but won't stand with some of his best works. It stands grouped toward the bottom of my 4-star ratings.
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Nov 10, 2019 Theresa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle

3.5/3.75. This one is certainly enjoyable, as I have found all the several Trollope books I've read, but not as much as expected. Even though it is not as long as some others, I thought he could have moved the plot along a bit more smartly. That may have partly been due to my fractious reading style during a really busy work time. But Harry's wishy-washiness wore thin, and I really got outdone with the character of the manipulative Sophie Gordeloup. I was very happy at her exit from the novel. B ...more

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Mar 29, 2023 Christopher Day rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fic-classics

Trollope as masterful as ever, with a gripping plot and intriguing characters. Unlike most of his novels, I found myself unsure of how this would end until quite late in the novel, when it became clear which of Harry's two lovers would be jilted. Harry himself was fascinating with his very human (but never malicious) faults, and his Hamlet-like indecision that feels like it lasts [i]forever[/i]. He's hardly a hero, and so it's his two lovers, Florence and Julia, who provide much of the empathy - ...more

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