COUSIN HENRY by Anthony Trollope

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Henry Jones and Isabel Brodrick are cousins who are both potential heirs of Squire Indefer Jones' property. Henry is the male heir by right of ancestry; Isabel descends through the female line, but is much more satisfactory in character. When Squire Jones dies and the state of his will doesn't reflect expectations, will justice be done in the end? This one is blissfully entertaining and thoroughly well crafted - very recommended.

Trollope's delineation of Isabel's character impressed me from the beginning onward. She reminded me of Elinor Dashwood from SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - the bottled-up dutiful sort who feels deeply even though no one can see it. Isabel is more lively and talkative than Elinor though, and more witty in that more people who interacted with Isabel would perceive her as such. Excellent, I thought, a pure young lady in a Trollope book who has much more going on for her than her purity.

Isabel is proud and fears perhaps more than anything else that other people will think that she has acted in her own self-interest - an interesting character flaw. She's also highly dutiful, well-liked, and an excellent deputy manager of her uncle's property. In a milieu which encouraged women to have careers, Isabel would make a fantastic land agent. Isabel is a really well-written and interesting character.

The weaknesses of the villain of the piece are also nicely drawn - bad and weak and indecisive, with the character portrait adding up to a convincing whole. The sort of criminal who ends up in this Slate magazine feature, which is a legitimate novelist's choice given that such people really exist. The novel was designed to take place in a realistic mode and so it does not matter that the antagonist is weak; what matters is that the characters are realistically complicated and draw attention. Like George Hotspur in HARRY HOTSPUR, Henry Jones is uniformly negative - but this novel felt more succinct than that novel, the lead female character was more complex, and the extreme emotions of Henry's weakness were interesting to read.

I particularly liked this characterisation moment:

"[Cousin Henry] will only laugh at us in his sleeve when it is over," said the auctioneer.

They little knew the torments which the man was enduring, or how unlikely it was that he should laugh in his sleeve at any one. We are too apt to forget when we think of the sins and faults of men how keen may be their conscience in spite of their sins. While they were thus talking of Cousin Henry, he was vainly endeavouring to console himself with the reflection that he had not committed any great crime, that there was still a road open to him for repentance, that if only he might be allowed to escape and repent in London, he would be too glad to resign Llanfeare and all its glories.

Mr Apjohn, the lawyer, makes this novel a proto-detective novel; Apjohn's intelligence and deductions lead him to find out the sin and solve the mystery. But the reader knows the culprit all along, so there is little suspense in this respect. Apjohn is also not a particularly interesting character, seeming bland. A focus on the mechanical elements of the plot in this novel seems to take away from attention on the minor characters, many of whom also seem thinly written.

There is a feminist subtext to the story that is practically text. Isabel Brodrick and Henry Jones are rival heirs to the Jones property; he is descended through the eldest male line and she through a female line. He's weak, cowardly, bad, and a stranger to the property. She's capable, dutiful, has integrity, and has long experience helping her uncle with the property. Unquestionably she is the best inheritor by merit. Not to mention that in the end Isabel tells her lover to take her in his arms and kiss her right this minute, thereby finally settling the matter between them... :D

Trollope outright (and half-apologetically!) owns that Isabel's character is about other things than romance - any little interest which this tale may possess has come rather from the heroine's material interests than from her love. This is not unlike femgenficathon's motto: stories about women can be about so many more things than love.

This novel isn't a Trollope with wide, sweeping themes. And it's to some extent true that none of the characters especially change in the course of the book. Isabel is like Elinor, but her strong sensibility and pride don't quite challenge everything she values. But I thought this story nearly perfect of its kind.

Even while being confused by some reviews.
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