Other editions of book Can You Forgive Her?: Palliser Novel

How is this book unique?Unabridged (100% Original content)Formatted for e-readerFont adjustments & biography includedIllustratedAbout Can You Forgive Her By Anthony TrollopeCan You Forgive Her? is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published in serial form in 1864 and 1865. It is the first of six novels in the "Palliser" series. The novel follows three parallel stories of courtship and marriage and the decisions of three strong women: Alice Vavasor, her cousin Glencora Palliser, and her aunt Arabella Greenow. Early on, Alice asks the question "What should a woman do with her life?" This theme repeats itself in the dilemmas faced by the other women in the novel. Lady Glencora and her husband Plantagenet Palliser recur in the remainder of the Palliser series.

Alice Vavasor should be married to the sensible, kindly John Grey. But despite what her respectable relations might think, Alice cannot quite reconcile herself to this fate. Once upon a time she was engaged to her wild cousin George, and now he stands in need of her money and, perhaps too, her good influence. Meanwhile Alice's friend Lady Glencora has married the rising politician Plantagenet Palliser, but is still pursued by Burgo Fitzgerald, the handsome rascal she loves. In this hugely compelling novel,Trollope shows the two women struggling to reconcile heart, mind and moral code whilst enduring the stifling scrutiny of their contemporaries.

The first book in the political Palliser series, the novel deals with parliamentary politics, while concurrently devoting its pages to much more intricate issues. Presenting three parallel stories, the parliamentary novel draws its attention to three contrasting young women, who are beset with arduous decisions concerning courtship and marriage. Additionally, the novel covers topics including women in conventional society and their discernment, while illustrating the tentative stages of marriage with all the attributes of sacrifice, compromise and temptation.The central plot of the novel begins with the introduction of Alice Vavasor, who after a rocky engagement and break up with her reckless cousin George, presently engages herself to the respectable, yet bland countryman John Grey. However, Alice fails to commit to her fiancé, and while on a trip to Switzerland with her cousin Kate, who is also George’s sister, she gives in to her cousin’s persuasion and jilts John and renews her engagement to George. Subsequently, his true nature begins to surface and once again Alice is overcome by indecisiveness. Still, John refuses to give up on the perverse young woman and continues with his determined pursuit of Alice’s alternating affection. Trollope’s novel additionally revolves around two other subplots concerning the similarly complicated love lives of Mrs. Greenow, a widow, and Glencora Palliser, a woman trapped inside a passionless marriage and left yearning for true love. Offering a front row seat overlooking the gender, political and social conventions of the time, Trollope’s piece presents a colorful array of female characters, who are not only put up against the conventions of society, but must also oppose their inner self as they are torn between desire and duty.Apart from successfully portraying the English political scene of the time, Trollope also explores the social scene of Victorian England, and fortifies the apparent transgression present throughout the novel. Furthermore, the novel presents a vivid depiction of vacillation expressed through the inconsistent actions of the different female characters. A literary piece certain to absorb with its realistic characters, comical delineations, and empathetic private tumults, Trollope’s classic offers a powerful insight into politics and the lives of women during the Victorian era.

How is this book unique? Formatted for E-Readers, Unabridged & Original version. You will find it much more comfortable to read on your device/app. Easy on your eyes.Includes: 15 Colored Illustrations and BiographyCan You Forgive Her? is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published in serial form in 1864 and 1865. It is the first of six novels in the "Palliser" series. The novel follows three parallel stories of courtship and marriage and the decisions of three strong women: Alice Vavasor, her cousin Glencora Palliser, and her aunt Arabella Greenow. Early on, Alice asks the question "What should a woman do with her life?" This theme repeats itself in the dilemmas faced by the other women in the novel. Lady Glencora and her husband Plantagenet Palliser recur in the remainder of the Palliser series. The satirical periodical Punch mocked the work, referring to it as Can You Stand Her? due to its writers' irritation at Alice's ineptitude in deciding between her two suitors. Another commentator[2][page needed] makes light of the book's length, joking that for modern audiences a more appropriate title might be Can You Possibly Finish It?

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How is this book unique?Font adjustments & biography includedUnabridged (100% Original content)IllustratedAbout Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony TrollopeCan You Forgive Her? is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published in serial form in 1864 and 1865. It is the first of six novels in the "Palliser" series. The novel follows three parallel stories of courtship and marriage and the decisions of three strong women: Alice Vavasor, her cousin Glencora Palliser, and her aunt Arabella Greenow. Early on, Alice asks the question "What should a woman do with her life?" This theme repeats itself in the dilemmas faced by the other women in the novel. Lady Glencora and her husband Plantagenet Palliser recur in the remainder of the Palliser series. The satirical periodical Punch mocked the work, referring to it as Can You Stand Her? due to its writers' irritation at Alice's ineptitude in deciding between her two suitors.

Whether or no, she, whom you are to forgive, if you can, did or did not belong to the Upper Ten Thousand of this our English world, I am not prepared to say with any strength of affirmation. By blood she was connected with big people,—distantly connected with some very big people indeed, people who belonged to the Upper Ten Hundred if there be any such division; but of these very big relations she had known and seen little, and they had cared as little for her. Her grandfather, Squire Vavasor of Vavasor Hall, in Westmoreland, was a country gentleman, possessing some thousand a year at the outside, and he therefore never came up to London, and had no ambition to have himself numbered as one in any exclusive set. A hot-headed, ignorant, honest old gentleman, he lived ever at Vavasor Hall, declaring to any who would listen to him, that the country was going to the mischief, and congratulating himself that at any rate, in his county, parliamentary reform had been powerless to alter the old political arrangements.

Alice Vavasor, a young woman of twenty-four, is engaged to the wealthy and respectable and dependable, if unambitious and bland, John Grey. She had previously been engaged to her cousin George, but she broke it off after he went through a wild period. John, trusting in his love, makes only the slightest protest of Alice's planned tour of Switzerland with her cousin Kate, George's sister, even when he learns George is to go with them as male protector. Influenced by the romance of Switzerland, Kate's conniving to restore George to Alice's favour, and her own misgivings with John's shortcomings, Alice jilts her second fiancé.Alice's noble but despised relations are shocked, but their protests only strengthen Alice's resolve, and she eventually renews her engagement to George. Now we increasingly see a darker side to George, who seemed charismatic, ambitious and alluring, in contrast to John. He starts asking for money from Alice to support his parliamentary ambitions. Ever attentive to Alice's welfare, John secretly pays the money instead. George wins his first election, but loses his second and in despair and, after learning of John's interference in his campaign and engagement, almost murders John before escaping to America.A second story involves the comic rivalry between the wealthy farmer Cheesacre and the pauper soldier Captain Bellfield for the affections (and substantial inheritance) of the widow Mrs. Greenow. Mrs. Greenow had married young to a very rich older man who had recently died. Still in mourning, which for her involves a great deal of performance, she also enjoys basking in the attentions of her beaux and pitting them against each other. Finally she decides to marry the more attractive Captain Bellfield, knowing that she can keep him under control.The third story deals with the marriage of the extremely rich Plantagenet Palliser to the even wealthier heiress, Lady Glencora M'Cluskie. They are not very well suited. He is a stiff-necked, hardworking politician in line to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, while she has a lively, fun-loving personality and a well-developed sense of humour. She is outspoken and often shocks Alice by her frankness. The martial situation is made more tense by Glencora's failure to fall pregnant. Previously, she had been engaged to Burgo Fitzgerald, an aristocratic wastrel, but the same noble relations that protested Alice's jilt had successfully pressured Glencora to abandon Burgo to marry Plantagenet. But she is still passionately in love with Burgo, who plots to elope with Glencora. To Alice's dismay, Glencora argues that it would be for the best if she eloped with Burgo as then Plantagenet could divorce her and marry someone else who could give him children. She publicly dances with Burgo at a ball and nearly agrees to go with him, even at the risk of her fortune and reputation.Plantagenet sacrifices his political ambitions to save his marriage by taking Glencora on a European tour with Alice accompanying. After some rancorous traveling, Glencora finds that she is pregnant, which solidifies her marriage and fulfills Plantagenet's life, though it is clear that Glencora cannot love him. John Grey pursues Alice to Switzerland to renew his courtship and eventually wins her over again, despite her deep guilt over her jilt. They become engaged and Plantagenet persuades his new friend to run for Parliament, to Alice's satisfaction.Back in England, Mrs. Greenow marries Bellfield, Glencora gives birth to a son, and Alice finally marries John. However Alice's happiness is alloyed by a sense of defeat but she accepts this as the price to pay for having tried to be better than other girls.Includes a biography of the Author

Can You Forgive Her? is the first of the six Palliser novels. Here Trollope examines parliamentary election and marriage, politics and privacy. As he dissects the Victorian upper class, issues and people shed their pretenses under his patient, ironic probe. Alice Vavasor cannot decide whether to marry her ambitious but violent cousin George or the upright and gentlemanly John Grey--and so finds herself accepting and rejecting each of them in turn. She is increasingly confused about her own feelings and unable to forgive herself for such vacillation--a situation contrasted with that of her friend Lady Glencora, forced by ''sagacious heads'' to marry the rising politician Plantagenet Palliser in order to prevent her true love, the worthless Burgo Fitzgerald, from wasting her vast fortune. In asking his listeners to pardon Alice for her transgression of the Victorian moral code, Trollope created a telling and wide-ranging account of the social world of his day. This Blackstone Audio edition is read by Simon Vance.

With sympathy and care, Trollope observes two controversial heroines in the first of his series of novels about the grand old Palliser family Alice Vavasor should be married to the sensible, kindly John Grey, but despite what her respectable relations might think, Alice cannot quite reconcile herself to this fate. Once upon a time she was engaged to her wild cousin George, and now he stands in need of her money and, perhaps too, her good influence. Meanwhile Alice's friend Lady Glencora has married the rising politician Plantagenet Palliser, but is still pursued by Burgo Fitzgerald, the handsome rascal she loves. In this hugely compelling novel, Trollope shows the two women struggling to reconcile heart, mind, and moral code while enduring the stifling scrutiny of their contemporaries.