Earlier this week was the final Zoom meeting session to discuss the Anthony Trollope novel The Claverings. This is a part of the ongoing Big Read project organized by The Trollope Society. Starting today, I begin reading the next novel on the list, John Caldigate. This is a story of a young man, estranged from his father, who leaves his home in England to make his fortune in Australia. After doing so, he returns to England, only to be embroiled in a bigamy scandal when he is accused of being already married to an Australian wife when he marries in England. The book is said to be Trollope's response to the common theme in the novels of Charles Dickens of bureaucratic incompetence, as exemplified in Little Dorrit by the Circumlocution Office, which displays its unerring knowledge of "how not to do things." Trollope, himself a government official in the Royal Mail, refutes Dickens with characters who are government employees who possess cool efficiency and professionalism. I look forward to this book, and the bi-weekly Zoom meetings to discuss it.
No comments:
Post a Comment