John Caldigate Illustrated edition by Anthony Trollope Literature Fiction eBooks
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Anthony Trollope - John Caldigate
John Caldigate Illustrated edition by Anthony Trollope Literature Fiction eBooks
John Caldigate, written in 1879, is the 24th novel of Anthony Trollope I have read and one of the very few of his books I cannot recommend, even though he is one of my favorite novelists and I always look forward to starting a new novel by him. At first I thought I would like this novel just as much as most of the others I have read. The story starts simply enough. John Caldigate is a likeable young man who leaves home and family in England and heads to the gold fields of Australia. On board ship he meets a poor but attractive young woman traveling with him in second class. Many of the other passengers, including the captain of the ship, warn young Caldigate to have nothing to do with Mrs. Smith, the name of the woman in question. John ignores good advice, establishes an intimate relationship with Mrs. Smith on board ship which he continues once they land in Australia.The Australian part of the story is genuinely interesting. Caldigate is a hard worker who is lucky enough to find gold and then smart enough to develop his claim and business interests. He becomes a wealthy man and decides to return home to England to resume his life there, but not with Mrs. Smith, who has become a gold miner herself and has had modest success with her holdings.
Once home John Caldigate marries Hester Bolton, a young woman he had met only once before he left for Australia, but had never forgotten. Even though Hester's mother is adamantly against the marriage, the two young people do get married and appear to be genuinely happy. This happiness will not last long. Mrs. Smith and three other confederates come to England from Australia and attempt to extort 20,000 pounds from Caldigate. They say that they will accuse John of marrying Mrs. Smith in Australia and will expose him as a bigamist.
Everything I have mentioned in this brief summary happens in the first third or so of the novel and it is all genuinely interesting to me. Sadly, the last two thirds of the novel get bogged down first in the trial of Caldigate for bigamy, then the trouble he and Hester have with family and friends, particularly Hester's mother, a genuinely mean and spiteful person who hates her son-in-law with a passion that is fueled by her religious zeal and belief that John Caldigate is truly an evil person. Caldigate may be many things, but evil is not one of them.
I never had any doubt as to the outcome of this story. No spoilers here. Much of the novel is concerned with the trial and what happens to Hester Caldigate after the verdict is given. For me, it seemed as if we continued to explore at length issues that might easily have been disposed of without much description. For example, a tremendous amount of space is devoted to evidence used in the trial that later becomes even more important to the final outcome of the case. Also, not only Hester's mother and family, but also John Caldigate's friends and relatives cause a variety of problems for Hester that to me seemed endless and tiresome. John Caldigate himself at first appeared to me to be a likeable and intelligent fellow, but when charged with bigamy he seemed to lose whatever intelligence he possessed and acted in a manner to prejudice almost everyone against him.
As mentioned earlier, I had a good idea how all of John Caldigate's problems would be resolved at the end of the story and I increased the rate of my reading to finally discover if I was correct, as indeed I was.
I have reviewed many of Trollope's novels on Amazon and almost always have given them five stars because Trollope is one of the finest of all English writers in involving his reader in his stories. Invariably he takes us under his wing and talks to us as friends as we watch with him what happens to his cast of characters. Additionally, he involves us completely in his story; so much so that we find ourselves wanting to talk with his characters and give them support, advice, and counsel. In John Caldigate I found myself on the outside looking in, somewhat uninvolved and impatient to get to the end of the story. Three stars is the best I can do for this novel and recommend it only for true lovers of Anthony Trollope's work who want to read all the novels he has written.
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John Caldigate Illustrated edition by Anthony Trollope Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Has one of Trollope's finest characters, Mrs. Bolton, a true religious fanatic. John Caldigate is also a good character. With Trollope the plot is not the thing. It's the characters.
We just read this in our Book Group. I find both Mrs. Bolton and Mrs. Smith to be fascinating characters in different ways.
Some of Trollope's books I eagerly look forward to rereading--it will be fun to read again about the outrageous Mrs. Proudie, for example, and about the slow realization of Ayala that the homely man with the great character and personality is in truth her "angel of light." But once is enough for me for John Caldigate, although I did enjoy it and do recommend it to Trollope fans. Being born in Australia myself, I was especially interested in the parts about gold mining there, and a friend of mine who is intrigued by gold mining and panning loved reading a description of that. Near the end I was obsessed with discovering how the trial came out and couldn't put the book (or, rather, my ) down. The British justice system was thoroughly dealt with and was interesting. The chilling and eerily realistic portrait of Hester Bolton's mother, a puritanical religious fanatic, was fascinating to me. But it wouldn't be fun to read again about her!
I am a fan of all things Trollope though John Caldigate is not one of his best. You can't beat the Barchester Chronicles or the Pallisers. This is one of his novels that have an Australian (in part) setting based on his own visits to the country in the 1870s.
Midway through, I got the impression that an important chapter had been omitted, like I'd completely missed an important plot point. I wonder if the publisher had censored a chapter for suggestive content, and left the poor readers to fend for themselves. In spite of this flaw, the book is straightforward, for Trollope, and thoroughly satisfying. Characters are drawn with careful idiosyncratic detail.
Like Victorian novels? Trollope is one of the best. This is a very intelligently written novel as is his other fiction. Gives the reader much to ponder in terms of British history, law, and culture. Better than modern novels in terms of articulation, character development, and intellectual depth. Trollope writes very entertaining stories, just like his peer, Thomas Hardy.
I have mixed feeling about Caldigate. It started very strong, and I particularly liked the character, Ms. Smith. Strangely though, Ms. Smith turned, so far as I was concerned, from a strong, intelligent woman into sloppy evil. I saw no evidence of a transition and couldn't believe that some mistaken identity was not involved. But no. The character I had liked so much was a mess!
Another negative Mrs. Bolton, religious zealot, doesn't get her just deserts. Religion gets a bad name in this book, and Mrs. Bolton is the character who brings that bad name home. Yet, by the end of the book, she's still being given a pass for her mean spirit and destructiveness.
On the good side--plenty of good themes in the book, or at least themes that appealed to me fathers and sons, loyalty of spouses, and multiple points of view. How instructive was that last one Characters are forever acting in ways contrary to their own interests because they don't, and indeed it's almost beyond human power to, see clearly the points of view of others. Almost beyond. In fact, we should appreciate, this book tells us, that our enemies have problems too.
I thought, early on, that this book was up to the quality of The Way We Live Now. But it's not quite.
John Caldigate, written in 1879, is the 24th novel of Anthony Trollope I have read and one of the very few of his books I cannot recommend, even though he is one of my favorite novelists and I always look forward to starting a new novel by him. At first I thought I would like this novel just as much as most of the others I have read. The story starts simply enough. John Caldigate is a likeable young man who leaves home and family in England and heads to the gold fields of Australia. On board ship he meets a poor but attractive young woman traveling with him in second class. Many of the other passengers, including the captain of the ship, warn young Caldigate to have nothing to do with Mrs. Smith, the name of the woman in question. John ignores good advice, establishes an intimate relationship with Mrs. Smith on board ship which he continues once they land in Australia.
The Australian part of the story is genuinely interesting. Caldigate is a hard worker who is lucky enough to find gold and then smart enough to develop his claim and business interests. He becomes a wealthy man and decides to return home to England to resume his life there, but not with Mrs. Smith, who has become a gold miner herself and has had modest success with her holdings.
Once home John Caldigate marries Hester Bolton, a young woman he had met only once before he left for Australia, but had never forgotten. Even though Hester's mother is adamantly against the marriage, the two young people do get married and appear to be genuinely happy. This happiness will not last long. Mrs. Smith and three other confederates come to England from Australia and attempt to extort 20,000 pounds from Caldigate. They say that they will accuse John of marrying Mrs. Smith in Australia and will expose him as a bigamist.
Everything I have mentioned in this brief summary happens in the first third or so of the novel and it is all genuinely interesting to me. Sadly, the last two thirds of the novel get bogged down first in the trial of Caldigate for bigamy, then the trouble he and Hester have with family and friends, particularly Hester's mother, a genuinely mean and spiteful person who hates her son-in-law with a passion that is fueled by her religious zeal and belief that John Caldigate is truly an evil person. Caldigate may be many things, but evil is not one of them.
I never had any doubt as to the outcome of this story. No spoilers here. Much of the novel is concerned with the trial and what happens to Hester Caldigate after the verdict is given. For me, it seemed as if we continued to explore at length issues that might easily have been disposed of without much description. For example, a tremendous amount of space is devoted to evidence used in the trial that later becomes even more important to the final outcome of the case. Also, not only Hester's mother and family, but also John Caldigate's friends and relatives cause a variety of problems for Hester that to me seemed endless and tiresome. John Caldigate himself at first appeared to me to be a likeable and intelligent fellow, but when charged with bigamy he seemed to lose whatever intelligence he possessed and acted in a manner to prejudice almost everyone against him.
As mentioned earlier, I had a good idea how all of John Caldigate's problems would be resolved at the end of the story and I increased the rate of my reading to finally discover if I was correct, as indeed I was.
I have reviewed many of Trollope's novels on and almost always have given them five stars because Trollope is one of the finest of all English writers in involving his reader in his stories. Invariably he takes us under his wing and talks to us as friends as we watch with him what happens to his cast of characters. Additionally, he involves us completely in his story; so much so that we find ourselves wanting to talk with his characters and give them support, advice, and counsel. In John Caldigate I found myself on the outside looking in, somewhat uninvolved and impatient to get to the end of the story. Three stars is the best I can do for this novel and recommend it only for true lovers of Anthony Trollope's work who want to read all the novels he has written.
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