The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

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The Claverings
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The Claverings: Reading Schedule
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Interesting, I like Trollope's "direct addresses by the authorial voice" but not so much the digressions and multiple plots. It sounds like this book is a little shorter too, which is fine with me.


PS- I have to clear the deck of a few things, but I will start soon.
Glad to see you all!
Welcome, Nidhi, to our Trollope project. Lori, we will look forward to your comments whenever they arrive. Robin, it is one of the shorter books we'll be doing and does seem to be moving along at a good clip (at least in the first 4 chapters!). Bill, I'm also enjoying a new Trollope, having just done a Pallisers reread with this group, Dan-glad you'll be joining us and Christopher, I have no doubt that this time will be different, and look forward to your comments (and may come looking for you if we don't hear from you!).
Welcome, Nidhi, to our Trollope project. Lori, we will look forward to your comments whenever they arrive. Robin, it is one of the shorter books we'll be doing and does seem to be moving along at a good clip (at least in the first 4 chapters!). Bill, I'm also enjoying a new Trollope, having just done a Pallisers reread with this group, Dan-glad you'll be joining us and Christopher, I have no doubt that this time will be different, and look forward to your comments (and may come looking for you if we don't hear from you!).

I agree. Not only are The Claverings and Ayala's Angel unread Trollopes for me, they weren't ones I had planned to read. From looking at ratings, Frances made better choices that I, which has me excited to start The Claverings in a few weeks.
Glad you'll be joining us, Brian. I have been pleasantly surprised on starting this project to learn how many stand-alone novels there are. I have many years of unread Trollope's ahead of me!
We've uncovered a snag-Brian's Kindle version of the novel has different chapter divisions than the OUP World Classics that I've used, so I have added my chapter titles to the schedule-please check to see if your edition compares.

I've checked and found that most versions. like the Oxford, have 48 chapters while mine has 52. However, there seems to be nothing added or lost. Someone at some time just took 4 of the chapters, all in first half of the book, and divided them in two.
For instance, my first extra chapter comes from your Chapter 14 titled as "Count Pasteroff and His Sister" which becomes two chapters in my book, Ch. 14 titled as "Count Pasteroff" and Chapter 15 titled as "Madame Gordeloup." Fortunately, my last split up Chapter will be your upcoming Chapter 22, "The Day of the Funeral" which, in my version, gets split to an added chapter title of "Too Many Too Few" After that, I'll be able to track with the rest of you.
Sorry to take up your time with the problem of my Kindle version. I've got it straight now. Thanks, Frances.
You're welcome! Some bored Kindle employee decided to mess around with Trollope's divisions, no doubt!
Thanks! Looks like I also have 52 chapters. I just started the book today and hope to catch up soon.
So, Brian, just to clarify, when I want to join the thread from the second week, I should actually read from 8 to 16 instead of 8 to 15 since I have the same edition as you do? And 17 to 24 in the third week? (Edited to add: Nevermind, I found copies of both TOCs and figured out the schedule for my copy.)
So, Brian, just to clarify, when I want to join the thread from the second week, I should actually read from 8 to 16 instead of 8 to 15 since I have the same edition as you do? And 17 to 24 in the third week? (Edited to add: Nevermind, I found copies of both TOCs and figured out the schedule for my copy.)

I'm relatively certain the division goes back to the 19th or early 20th C., whichever p.d. text was chosen for the Kindle edition, which prolly derives from the Project Gutenberg edition.
It could have something to do with changing a three-volume edition into a "cheap" two vol. edition, but Claverings is short, right?


The advantage of your late start is that you are reading only one Victorian set novel at a time and won't get characters confused.

I'm usually a fairly monogamous reader so this doesn't often happen, and I love Trollope so I'm sure I'll catch up.
Glad to have you join us, a few of us have been juggling several reads and our discussions stay up and active for several weeks (and longer if you dig into the archives!)

An Amazon paperback by Create Space publishing lists the same chapter divisions as my Kindle does. I'm on the second to last reading section and, after adding 7 extra chapters for the first 2/3 of the book, the Kindle/Create Space edition has 3 less chapters than the Oxford edition for the last 2 sections. Each of the last 2 sections consists of 5 chapters as it combines two chapters into one on a few occasions, judging from the occasional 20+ page chapter. A bit peculiar.
Books mentioned in this topic
The Claverings (other topics)Ayala's Angel (other topics)
The Claverings (other topics)
The Last Chronicle of Barset (other topics)
Can You Forgive Her? (other topics)
Aug 18-24: Ch 1-7
Aug 25-31:Ch 8-15
Sept 1-7: Ch 16-22
Sept 8-14: Ch 23 (Cumberley Lane Without the Mud)-28 (What Cecilia Burton Did for her Sister-in-Law)
Sept 15-21: Ch 29(How Damon parted from Pythias)-35 (Parting)
Sept 22-28:36(Captain Clavering Makes HIs Last Attempt)-42(Restitution)
Sept 29-Oct 5: 43 (Lady Ongar's Revenge)-End.
In the introduction to my edition (O.U.P.'s World Classics version from 1986) David Skilton writes The Claverings has usually been accorded a place of honour (among Trollope's novels) and rightly so. Ever since the periodical press of the time had its say on it, it has been usual to pronounce it among the most perfect and attractive productions of the novelist's pen, with no unnecessary digressions, no undue multiplication of plots and characters, a clear focus of interest, and none of those direct addresses by the authorial voice which Henry James condemned as Trollope's 'slaps at credulity'.
The Claverings was written between 24 Aug and 31 Dec 1864 and eventually serialized from Feb 1866 to May 1867. It was finally published in 1867, the same year as The Last Chronicle of Barset and 2 years after the first Palliser novel Can You Forgive Her?. Through this time he continued to work at the Post Office, finally resigning in 1867.
In fact, his written output when viewed in the Chronology is quite staggering!
I do hope you will join us in our read over the next 7 weeks!