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The world has not yet forgotten the intensity of the feeling which existed when old Mr. Scarborough declared that his well-known eldest son was not legitimate. Mr. Scarborough himself had not been well known in early life. He had been the only son of a squire in Staffordshire over whose grounds a town had been built and pottery-works established. In this way a property which had not originally been extensive had been greatly increased in value, and Mr. Scarborough, when he came into possession, had found himself to be a rich man. He had then gone abroad, and had there married an English lady. After the lapse of some years he had returned to Tretton Park, as his place was named, and there had lost his wife. He had come back with two sons, Mountjoy and Augustus, and there, at Tretton, he had lived, spending, however, a considerable portion of each year in chambers in the Albany. He was a man who, through many years, had had his own circle of friends, but, as I have said before, he was not much known in the world. He was luxurious and self-indulgent, and altogether indifferent to the opinion of those around him. But he was affectionate to his children, and anxious above all things for their welfare, or rather happiness. Some marvelous stories were told as to his income, which arose chiefly from the Tretton delf-works and from the town of Tretton, which had been built chiefly on his very park, in consequence of the nature of the clay and the quality of the water. As a fact, the original four thousand a year, to which his father had been born, had grown to twenty thousand by nature of the operations which had taken place. But the whole of this, whether four thousand or twenty thousand, wasstrictly entailed, and Mr. Scarborough had been very anxious, since his second son was born, to create for him also something which might amount to opulence. But they who knew him best knew that of all things he hated most the entail. . . .
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Scott Feldman
reviewed Mr. Scarborough 's Family on September 11, 2009
Mr. Scarborough 's Family
Even middling Trollope is still very good. This book has many of Trollope's staples: a weak hero, a heroine who is simply too perfect, a disapproving parent who tries to shut away the girl from her lover, some fox hunting, and the most genial narrator in all of literature.
The central plot involves the law of entail. An entailed property is one that must go to the eldest surviving member of the family, almost always male. Thus, the holder of the property only has the use of it and its income during his lifetime. He can't get rid of the land, nor can he decide to leave it to whomever he chooses.
Mr. Scarborough hates this law, and pretty much hates the law in general. As the book opens, he is a dying man. His eldest son is a compulsive gambler. Even though the property is worth 20,000 pounds per year (an enormous sum), the son has managed to incur debts that will wipe the whole thing out. The debts are secured by "post-obit" bonds, which will allow the creditors to swoop in on the estate after Mr. Scarborough dies.
Rather than let this happen, Mr. Scarborough calls his attorney and gives him proof that he married after the birth of his eldest son. Thus, his eldest is illegitimate, and his second son becomes the heir. The creditors lose everything they lent. The only trouble with this plan is that the second son is about the coldest and most manipulative character you might ever encounter. His dearest wish is that his father now simply finish the whole business by dying.
It's fun to read about this totally dysfunctional family. The father seems to be very clever. Both of the sons think of themselves as being sharp, but they turn out to be quite stupid. The eldest loses his money again and again at cards, and never begins to realize that there might be some skill involved. The younger son is a barrister, but he makes a perfectly boneheaded decision in the middle of the book that allows a complete reversal of his fortunes. This latter mistake almost ruined the book for me, because I thought it went against his character. I still haven't decided whether the son was really an idiot, whether Trollope got his law wrong, or whether there is a fine detail that I am not getting and that Trollope did not explain.
Apart from this main story, there is the story of the hero and heroine. The hero also expects to inherit an entailed property. He doesn't seem to do anything at all with his life, has very little going from him, and seems to have no friends. The girl he loves has been intended for the eldest son forever, even though she wants no part of him, and prefers the hero. The mother disapproves. There are the usual complications and the usual resolutions. The neat thing about the side story is that the hero's expectations to inherit the entailed property might also be disturbed. His uncle, the current head of the family, comes to disapprove of our hero and endeavors to disinherit him by perhaps taking a bride. The uncle is an insufferable prig, and quite funny. But Trollope also manages to generate some sympathy for this man who at first seems totally unsympathetic.
In the end, the biggest strength of this book is Mr. Scarborough himself, and perhaps his attorney, Mr. Grey. Both are fascinating and unusual characters. It's not first rate Trollope, but its still lots of fun.
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