Scan barcode
A review by ergative
The American Senator by Anthony Trollope
4.25
This was a classic Trollope novel: young women looking for husbands, a Good Girl set as a foil to a quite Becky Sharp-like Bad Girl, various estates and inheritances and lawsuits; and rather more than usual amounts of fox-hunting, even for Trollope. (Indeed,almost every plot point is explored through the structure of a fox hunt.) Thematically, it held together nicely. The Good Girl, Mary Masters, behaves herself as a paragon of female virtue, steadfastly refusing a perfectly nice but slightly vulgar young man with money but little class, because her heart is set on a much more gentlemanly suitor. But, of course, she says nothing because a lady never says anything until a gentleman asks her formally. It's all rather dull, but, fortunately, Trollope livens things up by providing Arabella Trefoil, the Bad Girl. Arabella is all about getting herself a man. She joins us already engaged to one man, but throughout the course of the book we follow her attempts to trade up for a better option, and although she no doubt behaves very badly to her fiance, her character arc evoked an unavoidable sympathy. I don't know if Trollope intended for it to be sympathetic, but given the limitations on women in her position to build a future for themselves, the fact that Arabella is already 30, with rapidly fading attractions, having mastered the art of making herself pleasing and alluring with a businesslike focus, seems not so much a cause for disgust (as Trollope seems to hint) as for pity. The poor woman! This is what she must do with her youth to ward off poverty in middle age! Yes, she is engaged, finally, at the beginning of the book, but she doesn't love the man she is engaged to, and she doesn't have the luxury of waiting to marry for love, as Mary Masters does. Why shouldn't she try to level up? Her shenanigans and boundlessly energetic activities to pull off the better marriage she set her sights on were some of the most entertaining parts of the book, and the eventual fate of both her and her chosen target at the end suggest that Trollope did view her with a certain degree of softness, despite her undeniably bad behavior. I think he does recognize the constraints that bound women of his time and although he can't explicitly condone Arabella's behavior, he can show us how these constraints straiten her options and lead her to behave as she does. Furthermore, her efforts are thematically well aligned with all the fox-hunting the serves as the favorite activity of the various young men involved in Mary and Arabella's matrimonial quests. The men hunt the foxes, and Arabella hunts the men. Nicely done.
The other notable part of this book involved the eponymous American Senator, Mr Gotobed, from the Great Western State of Mickewa. His role is to wander around the events of the plot and make extremely pointed comments about every institution he encounters. You mean clergymen who are responsible for people's souls can just buy a living,or have one bought for them by rich fathers, regardless of merit? You mean this electoral borough chooses its 'representative' in parliament on the basis of what the local lord wants? You call that democracy? You mean that fox hunts can just trample across farmers' lands and destroy their crops and fences and property and the farmers have no recourse? What is wrong with you people? I have noted before that Trollope is particularly interested in institutions--the church is discussed in great length in the Barsetshire novels, and parliament in the Palliser novels--but usually he explores them through the medium of fiction. This book offers a much more explicit commentary on their flaws in the mouth of Mr Gotobed. It would almost be didactic, if not for the fact that we get to see everyone's reactions to Mr Gotobed's remarks, which are extremely funny, and in themselves a commentary on British self-image. These bits of the book are not perhaps as well-integrated thematically with the other plot elements, but I really enjoyed seeing Trollope let loose on the absurdities of English society, politics, and culture.
The other notable part of this book involved the eponymous American Senator, Mr Gotobed, from the Great Western State of Mickewa. His role is to wander around the events of the plot and make extremely pointed comments about every institution he encounters. You mean clergymen who are responsible for people's souls can just buy a living,or have one bought for them by rich fathers, regardless of merit? You mean this electoral borough chooses its 'representative' in parliament on the basis of what the local lord wants? You call that democracy? You mean that fox hunts can just trample across farmers' lands and destroy their crops and fences and property and the farmers have no recourse? What is wrong with you people? I have noted before that Trollope is particularly interested in institutions--the church is discussed in great length in the Barsetshire novels, and parliament in the Palliser novels--but usually he explores them through the medium of fiction. This book offers a much more explicit commentary on their flaws in the mouth of Mr Gotobed. It would almost be didactic, if not for the fact that we get to see everyone's reactions to Mr Gotobed's remarks, which are extremely funny, and in themselves a commentary on British self-image. These bits of the book are not perhaps as well-integrated thematically with the other plot elements, but I really enjoyed seeing Trollope let loose on the absurdities of English society, politics, and culture.