Reviews for The gentleman in Trollope

The average rating for The gentleman in Trollope based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-17 00:00:00 James Lester In the introduction to The Gentleman in Trollope, Shirley Robin Letwin lets the reader know that they don't need to have any knowledge of the writings of Anthony Trollope to read her book - a fact I was very pleased to hear when starting this book. Before reading this, I read Trollope's The Warden and watched The Barchester Chronicles in order to get a better idea of Trollope's work before reading this book. However the further I got into The Gentleman in Trollope, the more I realized this seems like a book made for people deeply entrenched in the work of Trollope, and without that knowledge of his work, this book feels like chapter after chapter of Letwin simply explaining the plots of various Trollope books to her audience. This is all to be centered around the idea of being a gentleman and the moral quandaries that can sometimes arise from trying to be an upstanding citizen. But instead of really coming to any conclusions, Letwin presents extended examples from Trollope's book, without ever stating any real definitive points. At many times, The Gentleman in Trollope felt to me like someone who was assigned a college paper on the topic of morality in Trollope's work and this is what came through. I was most compelled by The Gentleman in Trollope when Letwin actually focused on Trollope himself. I loved hearing different details from his biography (which I surely would've found more compelling than this), especially learning about his methodical writing process and his upbringing that seemingly informed his writing. Also not knowing too much about Trollope, I found the breadth of his writing style to be fascinating. Trollope's books went from ancient history to futuristic euthanasia stories. I just sort of assumed that all of his books would be similar to the stuffy The Warden, and I'm pleasantly surprised that that isn't the case. The Gentleman in Trollope is my least favorite book I've read so far in trying to read the entirely of the recent 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die list. My lack of knowledge about Trollope didn't exactly help, but I think the way Letwin handles this material comes off as stiff and collegiate in a way that makes the ideas here a complete bore to me.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-01-08 00:00:00 Jason Madrak A serious academic inquiry into what Trollope and other Victorians meant when they used the term, "gentleman." It's complicated and shifts about depending on the context. Excellent book.