Fiction

I must confess to never having been a big fan of Kipling – tales of empire and derring-do aren’t quite my cup of tea. However, his first novel, The Light that Failed (1891), has proved to be a revelation, and quite unlike any of Kipling’s subsequent work. The novel is partly autobiographical and tells the story of war artist Dick Heldar, his doomed relationship with childhood sweetheart Maisie, and his descent into blindness. Through Dick, Kipling considers the relationship between art and life, espousing his belief that the artist has a duty to paint only what he knows to be true. In this respect, the author offers a counterpoint to the conspicuous aestheticism of Oscar Wilde’s contemporaneous The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dick’s trouble begins when he refuses to accept reality, pursuing instead a romantic ideal. ...

An Eye for an Eye (1879) is classed among Trollope’s Irish novels, and the dramatic beauty of Co. Clare forms a suitable background to the wild passion that drives the plot. English cavalry office Fred Neville seduces a local Catholic girl, Kate O’Hara, leaving her pregnant. Although madly in love with her, the sudden unexpected inheritance of an earldom prompts Fred to rethink his plan to marry her: “She was a plaything for an idle hour, not a woman to be taken out into the world with the high name of Countess of Scroope.” Kate’s mother suspects that he is poised to abandon her and threatens: “if you injure my child I will have the very blood from your heart.” As the title suggests, this is no idle threat. ...

Doctor Thorne (1858) is the third in the Barsetshire Chronicles and became Trollope’s most successful novel. It must surely have been a source of annoyance to him, therefore, that the sensational plot was the brainchild of his brother, Tom. Whereas the two previous chronicles (The Warden and Barchester Towers) focus on characterisation and are mainly episodic, Dr Thorne features a strong narrative arc, employing many of the techniques of the sensation novel, which was poised to become the dominant literary genre of the following decade. ...

Wilkie Collins updating his Instagram feed I spoke too soon when agreeing that The Fallen Leaves was Wilkie Collins’ worst novel – Blind Love (1890) is an absolute stinker. To be fair to Collins, he died while writing the novel and therefore had no opportunity to revise it. On his deathbed, Collins asked that his friend Walter Besant finish the novel, providing him with detailed notes and a plot outline. Without the benefit of the preface, it would be quite hard to detect where Collins ends and Besant begins, although the latter’s misogyny and elitism does creep in on occasion. ...

Although readers often struggle with The Warden, their efforts are amply rewarded by Barchester Towers (1857), the next novel in the Barsetshire Chronicles. The story begins with the death of the Bishop, followed by a great deal of manoeuvering amongst those who seek to fill the much-coveted position. The triumphant candidate is Thomas Proudie, although it is his wife who wears the cassock in their household. Mrs Proudie – the “Medea of Barchester” – is perhaps Trollope’s most famous character and one of his finest comic creations. The plot mainly concerns her battles with the ambitious and oleaginous Obadiah Slope, who is determined to bend the Bishop to his will. The confrontations between Mrs Proudie and Slope are brilliantly drawn and sublimely funny. Bishop Proudie himself is a study in inertia and simply defers to whichever of the two rivals happens to be in the ascendant. ...

Originally published in 1901, East of Suez was Alice Perrin’s first collection of short stories. Although now largely forgotten, Perrin was one of the most successful authors of her day, commanding larger advances than the likes of Arnold Bennett (much to his chagrin, it must be said). Perrin tells stories of illicit love and betrayal against a beautifully-drawn backdrop of the mystical east, interweaving the supernatural with exquisite details of her characters’ lives. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Perrin handles Anglo-Indian relations with great sensitivity, showing equal humanity in her portrayal of powerful British officials and their more humble neighbours. Through her writing, she depicts the social complexity of colonial rule, never resorting to stereotypes or simplistic representations of the people or the landscape. ...

The Warden (1855) is the first chronicle of Barset, and Trollope’s fourth novel. Septimus Harding is the eponymous warden with responsibility for Hiram’s Hospital, an almshouse containing a dozen bedesmen, who have clearly exceeded their fixed period. The post of warden is essentially a sinecure, as Harding is required to do virtually nothing in return for his comfortable home and salary of £800. His quiet and predictable existence is disturbed, however, when he unexpectedly becomes the centre of a public controversy. ...

An Old Man’s Love (1884) was Anthony Trollope’s last completed novel, written in the year of his death and published posthumously. The eponymous “old man” is 50-year-old William Whittlestaff, who becomes guardian to Mary Lawrie, the daughter of a friend, and half his age. Against his better judgement, he falls in love with her, actively encouraged by his stickybeak housekeeper, Mrs Baggett. Mary already has a lover, however. ...

Published anonymously in 1935, The Bazalgettes is a spoof Victorian novel by E M Delafield, best known for her highly entertaining Diary of Provincial Lady series. The story is set in the 1870s and centres on young Margaret Mardon, who is so desperate to escape her unhappy family home that she determines to accept the first marriage proposal offered. A suitor appears in the form of 64-year-old widower Sir Charles Bazalgette, who essentially wants a mother for his unruly brood of five children. Margaret accepts his proposal with alacrity, becoming “the third of her husband’s experiments in wedded bliss”. ...

The futuristic utopia depicted in The Fixed Period (1882) is a radical and unexpected departure for Anthony Trollope. Imagine Thomas Pynchon writing a chick lit novel, or Maeve Binchy turning her hand to slash fiction. It’s a radical departure for me, too, as essentially I’ve been tricked into reading science fiction. The story is set in 1980 in the fictional republic of Britannula, created when a group of ex-pats occupy the South Island of New Zealand and claim independence from Great Britain. The 25,000-strong community is led by President John Neverbend, who almost bursts with his own self-importance and civic pride. ...