Other editions of book Orley Farm: Historical Novel

When Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire, died, he left his estate to his family. A codicil to his will, however, left Orley Farm, near London, to his much younger second wife and infant son. The will and the codicil were in her handwriting, and there were three witnesses, one of whom was no longer alive. A bitterly fought court case confirmed the codicil. Twenty years pass. Lady Mason lives at Orley Farm with her adult son, Lucius. Samuel Dockwrath, a tenant, is asked to leave by Lucius, who wants to try new intensive farming methods. Aggrieved, and knowing of the original case, Dockwrath investigates and finds a second deed signed by the same witnesses on the same date, though they can remember signing only one. He travels to Groby Park in Yorkshire, where Joseph Mason the younger lives with his comically parsimonious wife, and persuades Mason to have Lady Mason prosecuted for perjury. The prosecution fails, but Lady Mason later confesses privately that she committed the forgery, and is prompted by conscience to give up the estate.

"Orley Farm" is a novel by Anthony Trollope. When Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire, died, he left his estate to his family. A postscript to his will, however, left Orley Farm to his much younger second wife and infant son. The will and the postscript were in her handwriting, and there were three witnesses. A bitterly fought court case confirms the postscript. Twenty years later Lady Mason lives at Orley Farm with her son. Samuel Dockwrath, a tenant, is asked to leave. Knowing of the original case (one of the postscript witnesses had been an unsuccessful suitor of his wife), Dockwrath investigates and finds a second will signed by the same witnesses on the same date, though they remember signing only one. He travels to Groby Park and persuades Joseph Mason junior to have Lady Mason prosecuted for forgery.

It is not true that a rose by any other name will smell as sweet. Were it true, I should call this story "The Great Orley Farm Case." But who would ask for the ninth number of a serial work burthened with so very uncouth an appellation? Thence, and therefore,—Orley Farm. I say so much at commencing in order that I may have an opportunity of explaining that this book of mine will not be devoted in any special way to rural delights. The name might lead to the idea that new precepts were to be given, in the pleasant guise of a novel, as to cream-cheeses, pigs with small bones, wheat sown in drills, or artificial manure.

Trollope singled out Orley Farm for its successful combination of realistic and sensational effects which he felt to be the highest achievement of the novelist. It was greatly admired by his contemporaries, including George Eliot and G. H. Lewes. The novel centers on a case of forgery and the anguish, guilt, and pathos of the central character, Lady Mason. Youthful marriage choices, middle-aged martial crisis, and the moving love and loss of an elderly man revolve around the legal action and the complex portrayal of Lady Mason, who is both sympathetic and wily. The novel proposes a standard of morality higher than that embodied in the practice of an English court of law.With its concern for social issues and its extensive coverage of middle-class and landed life, Orley Farm is a novel that demands attention in the rich field of nineteenth-century fiction.

This story deals with the imperfect workings of the legal system in the trial and acquittal of Lady Mason. Trollope wrote in his Autobiography that his friends considered this "the best I have written".About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

It is not true that a rose by any other name will smell as sweet. Were it true, I should call this story "The Great Orley Farm Case." But who would ask for the ninth number of a serial work burthened with so very uncouth an appellation? Thence, and therefore,—Orley Farm.I say so much at commencing in order that I may have an opportunity of explaining that this book of mine will not be devoted in any special way to rural delights. The name might lead to the idea that new precepts were to be given, in the pleasant guise of a novel, as to cream-cheeses, pigs with small bones, wheat sown in drills, or artificial manure. No such aspirations are mine. I make no attempts in that line, and declare at once that agriculturists will gain nothing from my present performance. Orley Farm, my readers, will be our scene during a portion of our present sojourn together, but the name has been chosen as having been intimately connected with certain legal questions which made a considerable stir in our courts of law.It was twenty years before the date at which this story will be supposed to commence that the name of Orley Farm first became known to the wearers of the long robe. At that time had died an old gentleman, Sir Joseph Mason, who left behind him a landed estate in Yorkshire of considerable extent and value. This he bequeathed, in a proper way, to his eldest son, the Joseph Mason, Esq., of our date. Sir Joseph had been a London merchant; had made his own money, having commenced the world, no doubt, with half a crown; had become, in turn, alderman, mayor, and knight; and in the fulness of time was gathered to his fathers. He had purchased this estate in Yorkshire late in life—we may as well become acquainted with the name, Groby Park—and his eldest son had lived there with such enjoyment of the privileges of an English country gentleman as he had been able to master for himself. Sir Joseph had also had three daughters, full sisters of Joseph of Groby, whom he endowed sufficiently and gave over to three respective loving husbands. And then shortly before his death, three years or so, Sir Joseph had married a second wife, a lady forty-five years his junior, and by her he also left one son, an infant only two years old when he died.

The favorite self-written work of the author, "Orley Farm" is a novel that revolves around the final will of Joseph Mason. While most of Mason's property is left to the son from his first marriage, a codicil in his second wife's handwriting bequeaths the small Orley Farm to his other son Lucius. When taken to court, the ruling favors the validity of the addition. Many years pass, and an array of characters are brought into the story who reveal the difficulties of love and life, from the marriages of the young, to the middle age struggles of others, particularly in the clever but sympathetic Lady Mason, and even in the losses of the elderly. Amidst the unfolding of these various characters' choices, ordeals, and means of coping with each, the language of the law and its impact on their lives is masterfully portrayed by Trollope. Perhaps one of the earliest legal suspense novels, "Orley Farm" combines the sensational with the realistic to explore the morality of law.