![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
MISS MACKENZIE, Anthony Trollope
Jun. 24th, 2013 08:49 pmA lion falls in love with a lamb, only it's well written.
Quote from Trollope's autobiography:
Miss Mackenzie was written with a desire to prove that a novel may be produced without any love; but even in this attempt it breaks down before the conclusion. In order that I might be strong in my purpose, I took for my heroine a very unattractive old maid, who was overwhelmed with money troubles; but even she was in love before the end of the book, and made a romantic marriage with an old man. There is in this story an attack upon charitable bazaars, made with a violence which will, I think, convince any reader that such attempts at raising money were at the time very odious to me. I beg to say that since that I have had no occasion to alter my opinion.
Miss Mackenzie is a very attractive old maid to a reader. The story of a woman who's spent her youth serving her family and who is finally starting to live her own life reminded me of LM Montgomery's later THE BLUE CASTLE. I find it incredibly touching that Trollope started out wanting to avoid love, and ended up creating this sympathetic character who very quickly became a romantic, beloved figure.
The main characters are interesting and sympathetic, but in this novel I thought that more attention could have been devoted to many minor subplots and characters in order for them to become more interesting. The divided social factions of Littlebath felt similar to the battles invented in the novel MISS MAJORIBANKS by Margaret Oliphant (published a year after this one!), and formed material that if elaborated on might well have been interesting as Oliphant presented similar content, or even as interesting as Mrs Proudie's life and maneuvers in the Barsetshire novels.
Cameos from THE BERTRAMS appear in this novel, particularly the delightful friends Todd and Baker. Baker and Todd, Todd and Baker - I can easily imagine the murder-mystery spinoff here, in the spirit of the Jane Austen mysteries, a pair of Victorian Miss Marples solving uncanny murders in the quiet holiday town of Littlebath.
Quote from Trollope's autobiography:
Miss Mackenzie was written with a desire to prove that a novel may be produced without any love; but even in this attempt it breaks down before the conclusion. In order that I might be strong in my purpose, I took for my heroine a very unattractive old maid, who was overwhelmed with money troubles; but even she was in love before the end of the book, and made a romantic marriage with an old man. There is in this story an attack upon charitable bazaars, made with a violence which will, I think, convince any reader that such attempts at raising money were at the time very odious to me. I beg to say that since that I have had no occasion to alter my opinion.
Miss Mackenzie is a very attractive old maid to a reader. The story of a woman who's spent her youth serving her family and who is finally starting to live her own life reminded me of LM Montgomery's later THE BLUE CASTLE. I find it incredibly touching that Trollope started out wanting to avoid love, and ended up creating this sympathetic character who very quickly became a romantic, beloved figure.
The main characters are interesting and sympathetic, but in this novel I thought that more attention could have been devoted to many minor subplots and characters in order for them to become more interesting. The divided social factions of Littlebath felt similar to the battles invented in the novel MISS MAJORIBANKS by Margaret Oliphant (published a year after this one!), and formed material that if elaborated on might well have been interesting as Oliphant presented similar content, or even as interesting as Mrs Proudie's life and maneuvers in the Barsetshire novels.
Cameos from THE BERTRAMS appear in this novel, particularly the delightful friends Todd and Baker. Baker and Todd, Todd and Baker - I can easily imagine the murder-mystery spinoff here, in the spirit of the Jane Austen mysteries, a pair of Victorian Miss Marples solving uncanny murders in the quiet holiday town of Littlebath.
