Sailing to Australia, Reading Othello, Transforming the Marriage Plot in Lady Anna (1874)

Anthony Trollope's most tragic and best novella, Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite, relates the fall of an ancient and powerful Cumbrian family. Traditional Englishness is figured in Sir Harry Hotspur. That brand of Englishness has had its day, and Trollope sees its demise as tragic, the fall...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inReforming Trollope pp. 39 - 67
Main Author Morse, Deborah Denenholz
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 2013
Edition1
Subjects
Trollope Scholars
Ayala's Angel
Lord Lovel
Young Man
Lady Lovel
Trollope's Palliser Novels
Young Lord
SS Great Britain
Carlton Hill
Young Earl
Earl's Daughter
George Stubbs
Sir Harry Hotspur
Framley Parsonage
Jamaica Committee
Sir John Tenniel
Social Class Prejudice
Governor Eyre Controversy
Comic Ending
Tailor's Son
Marriage Plot
Wortle's School
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Summary:Anthony Trollope's most tragic and best novella, Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite, relates the fall of an ancient and powerful Cumbrian family. Traditional Englishness is figured in Sir Harry Hotspur. That brand of Englishness has had its day, and Trollope sees its demise as tragic, the fall of past greatness invoked by the Hotspur name. Trollope names the book for him because the fall of the House of Hotspur is not only the end of a great landed family but also the tragic defeat of a certain kind of Englishness that Trollope admiresbut reveals nevertheless as deeply flawed. John Hall calls Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite "the saddest tale Trollope ever wrote". It is an inexorable work, in which belief in English patriarchal ideals like primogeniture and female purity lead to death. While the political Liberal Trollope was writing Sir Harry Hotspur, in December of 1868 January of 1869, he must have been listening to the debates on women's rights.
ISBN:9781409456148
1409456145
DOI:10.4324/9781315604305-4