The Concubine Part II

Anne continues to keep her distance from the king, and stays at Hever. Lady Boleyn is relieved that her step child does not seem interested in becoming his mistress. Emma stays at Hever, and meets a shopkeepers wife, who lives in the local village. The woman and her husband have some education and they take an interest, discreetly in the new Protestant religion. Emma has met reformers before, and she finds herself getting interested too and she is pleased to make new friends as she has a lonely life. She meets the shopkeeper and his wife and their circle and they read the Bible. She disapproves of the worldly ways of the Catholic bishops and cardinals, and wants a simpler less superstitious relilion. Anne too is a little interested in the new ideas. Eventually, Anne does meet the king and he pays court to her. She refuses to become his mistress, but he begins to win her over by suggesting that his marriage to Katherine of Aragon is not valid and that he wants to get it annulled and then he would be free to marry her. M/F

The Concubine by Norah Lofts

This is a novel based on the life of Anne Boleyn, by Norah Lofts, who wrote numerous historical novels. Her style was more earthy than some writers, and she brought in a lot of social history. The main character in the novel is a poor servant woman, Emma Arnett, who is from Norfolk. When Anne is dimissed from court after her love affair with Henry Percy, the queen asks one of her ladies to send one of her serving women to escort Anne back home. Emma is rather resentful of how she can be ordered around but she starts to like Anne on the journey, and stays in her service after she is returned to her family home. Lofts does get a few things wrong historically, one of them being that Anne's mother is dead and her father's second wife is a woman from a farming family, who is kind to her three step children but who is ill at ease in court situations. Lady Boleyn is shocked that her elder step Daughter Mary has been the kings mistress and that soon after Anne's return home, Henry comes to Hever to see Sir Thomas Boleyn, and Anne refuses to join the family for dinner, because she is angry with the King for separating her from the man she loved. M/F

Villette III

Lucy is disappointed to find that Dr John is infatuated with the flirtatious Ginevra.. and she has a fondness for herself but she knows that he sees her as an older not very attractive woman. However Lucy's social life improves and she goes about with the Brettons and gets friendly again with Paulina. She learns that M Paul was in love with a girl when he was younger, and she died, and he seems to have no interest in women ever since. She dislikes Madame Beck more and more. The older woman seems hostile to her. Dr John comes to realise that Ginevra is a silly worthless girl and switches his affections towards Paulina, and they fall in love. Lucy continues to spar with M Paul, and in the end, he tells her he loves her and they get engaged. She sets up her own school, and is prepared to wait for 3 years while he goes to a post in South America - she becomes reasonably prosperous and is prepared to be happy for the first time in her life. HOwever, there is a report of a shipwreck and Paul drowns. Charlotte wanted a sad ending because she did not believe that Lucy was destined for happiness but Mr Bronte was upset by the ending and wanted a happier one. So she made the ending vague, but still its implied that Paul dies and leaves Lucy a spinster. Ginevra marries a vain dandy Alfred De Hamal whom she has been flirting with and who used to sneak into the school gardens to see her. John and Paulina marry. The novel is deeper and more serious than Jane Eyre, or her other novels, but the anti Catholic, anti foreign prejudice makes it somewhat uneven. Lucy is a more cynical sharp tongued character than Jane Eyre and less virtuous than Caroline Helston in Shirley.

Villette II

Lucy has always been rather sharp tongued and not someone who makes friends easily. She does however become friendly with one of the English girls at the school, Ginevra Fanshawe. She doesn't approve of her though. Ginevra is silly, flirtatious and vain and selfish and Lucy continually shows her disapproval. One of the masters, M Paul Emmanuel, is hostile to the English, yet Lucy finds herself being drawn to him. He is bad tempered, melodramatic, and middle aged, but she finds him more honest and likable than the rest of the Catholics at the school. She and he dispute and quarrel but there is a liking between them. A new English doctor becomes the medical attendant for the school, and when Lucy is taken ill during the summer vacation, she collapses and is taken to his house. She finds that she is in the home of her godmother Mrs Bretton, and that Doctor John is her son, now grown up. While staying there she meets Paulina de Bassompierre again, now a young lady, and her father, who has inherited a foreign title.

Villette

Villette is probably Charlotte Bronte's most serious novel. It is set in a fictional country in Europe, based on Belgium. The heroine is Lucy Snowe, an impoverished girl of good birth, who spends her young days being passed around relatives. Lucy lives for a time with Mrs Bretton, a relative who has a charming, good hearted son, John Graham. Mrs Bretton also takes in a little girl, Paulina De Bassompierre, whose father has to go abroad. The child is very sensitive, and grows fond of Graham. After a time, Lucy moves on and loses touch with the Brettons. She get a job as a companion but her employer dies. She has led a very sheltered life but she decides to go abroad and seek a job at a foreign school. She does not take to foreign life, remaining very much the kind of Briton who thinks themselves superior to foreigners. She is a staunch Protestant. She does not like Madame Beck, who runs the school, believing that she spies of her pupils, and that this is a fault of all Catholics. M/F

The Eustace Diamonds

The Eustace Diamonds is the third novel in the Pallisers series. It is not really about the Pallisers, but it leads into the action of Phineas Redux. Lizzie Eustace is the widow of a baronet, who married Sir Florian Eustace, a dissipated rake, for his money. She has a son by him, and when he dies she inherits his fortune. She becomes well known in London society when she makes a claim to a diamond necklace, stating that Florian gave it to her, while his family claim that it is an heirloom and belongs to the family estate. She is pretty and charming but dishonest and selfish.. She attracts admirers but it seems unlikely that she will find a decent second husband. Then her necklace is stolen. Lizzie is suspected of stealing it for herself. She attracts a lot of notice, and the old Duke of Omnium, now confined to bed and slowly dying, is entertained by the stories about her in the newspaper. Glencora pays her a visit, since she too is inclined to be amused by scandals. Lizzie manages to avoid trouble with the police but the diamonds are gone. She is left alone, and then marries a Mr Emilius, a clergyman who wants her for her money. Lizzie soon realises that he is already married and that he is a scoundrel. This leads up to the plot of Phineas Redux, where Mr Bonteen a Liberal politican, and his wife sympathise briefly with her, and take her into their house. Phineas is at odds with Bonteen so when he is murdered, Finn is the chief suspect. However it is Emilius who has a grudge against Bonteen.

The Duke's Children

Silverbridge has been engaged in a flirtation with Lady Mabel Grex, who is a cousin of Tregear's. She is an earls daughter but does not have much of a dowry. She loves Frank Tregear, but she tries to lure Silverbridge into a proposal, because he is rich and she wants to get married. However while he likes her, he is now in love with Isabel and decides to marry her. Plantagenet gets to know her, and Isabel says that she is in love with Silverbridge, but she does not want to marry him if his father wont accept the marriage. However, Plantagenet's feelings are softening as he gets over his grief, and he finally accepts the 2 love matches that his children want to make and accepts Isabel as his daughter in law. Silverbridge returns to the Liberal party and marries his American bride. Mary marries Tregear. But Plantagenet knows he will never get over Glencora's death.

Palliser novels

When Plantagenet finds out that Glencora had been encouraging Mary's romance he gets angry and keeps his daughter at home and away from her suitor. He feels hurt as it reminds him of how his wife had been in love with another man when they married. He cannot accept that Frank is a decent respectable man, and not a rake like Burgo. He also has quarrels with his 2 sons. Lord Silverbridge, his heir has begun to take an interest in Tory politics, and to consider deserting the Liberal party and becoming a Conservative. Plantagenet is horrified by this, as the Pallisers have been Liberals for generations and he genuinely believes in Liberal ideals, of wanting to help the poorer classes. The 2 boys are young and selfish, enjoying gambling and racing and he worries that they are not taking life seriously, as he always did. He is even more annoyed when Lord Silverbridge meets an American girl who is visiting London and falls in love with her. Isabel Boncassen's father is wealthy but her mother is not a sophistcated woman. Plantagenet feels that she would not fit in as the wife of a future Duke. M/F

Later Palliser novels

The last 2 novels in the Palliser series are the Prime Minister and the Duke's Children. The Prime Minister covers the years when Glencora's children are becoming adults, and Plantagenet becomes Prime minister. He is not really suited to the job, has little ambition and dislikes the socialising and grandeur that goes with it. Glencora enjoys it, she opens up their castle home which is rarely used, holds huge house parties and interferes with politics. The chief character of the novel is Ferdinand Lopez, an ambitious young financier, who wants to get into politics. Glencora, out of boredom, takes a fancy to him and intrigues for him to win an election. This causes a scandal and Plantagenet is angry with his wife but forgives her. Lopez gets into trouble with his investments and kills himself.. and Plantagenet resigns. He and Glencora go abroad, for a long trip and take the children. However soon after they come home, Glencora dies, in her 40s after taking a chill. Plantagenet is distraught as she was almost the only person he could talk to.. He finds that true to her nature she has been plotting on behalf of the children.. doing things he might not approve of. She knows that her only daughter, Mary, is in love with a young man called Frank Tregear, who does not have much money, and she wants to be sure that if Mary's romance with him lasts, she will be able to marry him... Her own early life was blighted by her not being allowed to marry Burgo Fitzgerald.. and she knows that Frank is a decent young man and would make Mary happy. M/F

They Knew Mr Knight Part V

While Thomas is awaiting trial, Douglas goes back to college and says he will try to help his mother financially until his father is out of jail. Ruth gets a job as a secretary and goes on writing a novel in her spare time. Then they learn that Mr Knight has been arrested for fraud.. and shortly after being bailed he goes to his office and shoots himself. Their incubus is gone, albeit without standing trial. Celia and Ruth go back to their old home in the town, and she takes in a lodger to provide a little more money. Then Thomas is tried and gets a one year sentence. Mrs Knight has very little money and is lost without her husband - she never understood his business...However Thomas' sister, Isabel, who has been friendly with her, suggests that she and Mrs Knight sell up her valuables and set up a tea shop in Brighton. Celia feels sorry for Mrs Knight who is not a bad woman, and throws herself into managing her life while waiting for Thomas to get out of jail. She keeps house and Ruth helps, and they are pleased when Ruth's novel is accepted... Just before Thomas' release from prison, Celia has a religious experience, where she realises that material things dont matter, and that she will survive. Thomas is released and they go to the nearby Cathedral... and vow to support and love each other....

They Knew Mr KNight Part IV

Celia starts to feel more and more resentment against Knight, since he seems to be breaking up her family. Freda has become an aimless socialite. Douglas is unhappy because of the loss of his girl, and only Ruth seems happy and not seeking for more. Knight suggests that the Blakes buy out his country house, and Celia is tempted by this. She does not want material possessions but she is happy to get out of the town and to have more space and a more active country life. She enjoys gardening and the women's insititute and is happy for a time, but Thomas is always worrying about money, and he is eager to make more. Knight is launching a new business called Kosmos, and Thomas buys in. The shares go up and up and he is delighted but then abruptly the business crashes. Thomas seeks out Knight for advice and the older man tells him that he has finished wet nursing him and that he wants Blake to repay the money he owes him, immediately or he will sue. Thomas is horrified and realises that Knight is a fraudster who has probalby managed to get out of the business before it collapsed. But he does not know how he is going to pay back his many debts. Celia asks if he can get a loan from the bank, but he will still be in debt. Freda is very upset that she has had a few years of a social life and now she will have to support herself, and she walks out of the house one day and marries Coggy, almost in secret. She does not love him but he is a good natured man and she hopes he will look after her a bit. Celia thinks he is a nice man but weak and foolish, and she hopes her daughter wont regret the hasty marriage. Thomas is desperate and in a wild attempt to borrow enough money to sort himself out, he alters papers in his company's accounts, and then feels guilty and gives himself up to the police. It looks pretty certain that he will go to jail, for fraud.

They Knew Mr Knight Part III

As the children grow up, Celia continues to be uneasy about Wright. She finds that Thomas spends less time at home with his family and more time in the masculine world of business, playing golf with Mr Wright and discussing making money with him. Edward, his younger brother, keeps on losing jobs and infuriates Thomas, and the final straw happens when Freda finds him working at a charity ball as a cloakroom attendant. She is horribly embarrassed and Thomas tells Edward off. He washes his hands of his brother, and Edward, depressed goes to the pub as he often does. He is friendly with the landlady's daughter Carrie and she looks up to him as a gentleman. They become closer and he asks her to marry him. He knows his family will look down on him even more for marrying a pub keeper's daughter and maybe working in the pub himself, but he has reached a point of not caring. Meanwhile, Douglas is leaving school and gets into college, but he decides to study Science instead of engineering...He doesnt tell his parents. Douglas then has a nasty shock when he becomes infatuated with one of the young women who visit Mr Knight's house. She is a model and very beautiful and Douglas is smitten. Then he finds out that she is not an innocent young woman, but she's been Wright's mistress for some time, because he has money. Douglas is disgusted and devotes himself to his studies. Freda continues to be friendly with Mrs Knight and to go to her parties and go around with the aimless but good natured Coggy.

They knew Mr Knight Part II

Celia is not really happy about the friendship that begins to grow between Knight and Thomas. She feels that such a rich successful man can't be relied on. Thomas tells her that she does not understand how much financial worry he has. He has an elderly mother whom he helps out, and a brother, Edward who cant hold down a job. He has his own children to provide for. Mr Knight invites the family to meet his wife... Maud who turns out to be a rather common but good natured woman. She used to be in Music hall and Knight is soemtimes a bit embarrassed by her. She tells Celia and Freda that she does not really want to live outside London and there is nothing to do in their country house. Mr Knight invites friends to stay and Mrs Knight tries to put a brave face on the fact that he is often having an affair with a young woman friend. Over a few years, Thomas's business does fairly well and he gets tips from Mr Knight to increase his wealth by buying shares. Celia still feels uneasy, but Thomas continues to work with Knight, to try and make himself richer. Freda leaves school and she has no real ambitions other than to enjoy herself at social events. Mrs Knight invites her to parties and dances, and Freda makes some upper class friends...However, she had fallen in love with a young man, who married another girl. She goes around with one of his relatives, Coggy, an older man who has no occupation but is at least likable and good natured. Because the family are now better off, Douglas is sent to boarding school. M/F

They Knew Mr Knight By Dorothy Whipple.

This is a novel by Whipple which covers some of her favourite themes. There are 2 families who have little in common, and they become involved. Then the father of one family reveals himself to be a fraudster. Thomas Blake lives with his wife Celia and their 3 children, in a provincial town, where he manages an engineering works. He is a skilled engineer but his father, who owned the business before him, was not a successful businessman and he lost money and had to sell the business to his partner. Thomas was kept on as manager but his salary is moderate and he is worried about money. He also feels that he has been let down, by the fact that he no longer owns the family business. Celia is happy enough with being a housewife with a small house and only one servant. They have 2 daughters, Freda, who is rather vain, and Ruth who wants to be a writer... and a son Douglas who is interested in science. Thomas wants Douglas to become an engineer and succeed him as manager, at least but he knows its very unlikely that he will have the money to buy back the firm. Mr Knight is from the town, and he has gone up in the world to own several businesses and lead a gay social life. He has recently bought a house near the town, Field End. One morning, Thomas is on his way to work by train when he sees Mr Knight also catching a train. Mr Knight slips and almost falls badly and Thomas manages to rescue him. Knight thanks him and they fall into conversation on their train journey. He tells Knight about his work and the problems he has, and on an impulse, Mr Knight offers to help him. He suggests a plan for Thomas to borrow enough money with his backing, to buy out the man who owns the works.

Can you Forgive Her Part III

Glencora keeps meeting Burgo at parties and Lady Monk encourages the romance.. but she feels guilty. However, Burgo asks her to run away with him and they could live as a couple abroad.. Eventually she tells Plantagenet that if they divorced, he could marry someone who might give him a son and who might make him happier than she has done. Plantagenet tells her that he has grown to love her, and that he would rather have her for his wife, even if they had no children, than another woman. She is touched and agrees to try and give their marriage another chance. Plantagenet is then offered a place in Government, but he chooses to give it up, so that he can take Glencora away on a trip to try and get to know each other better. He even agrees to take Alice with them. They go away and travel in Europe for some time, and Glencora grows fonder of him. In Germany however they meet Burgo, who has gone on a gambling trip through the continent, and has lost a lot of money in a casino. Plantagenet goes and talks to him and helps him out, offering to make him a small allowance. Glencora realises that while she will always have feelings for Burgo, Plantagenet is a good man and she has grown to love him... She thanks him for helping her former love, and then she discovers that she is pregnant. They go back to England and Alice marries John Grey, and Glencora has a son, who will be heir to the Dukedom.

Sayers' Late life.

Dorothy's later life was busy but rather lonely. She and Mac did not get along so well, as his drinking and ill health made him bad tempered. Her son got a scholarship to Oxford and she was very proud of him but she could not talk about him to her friends. She was involved with the Church, and wrote several play for stage and radio, including a life of Jesus for children, which was well thought of. She liked to eat well and put on more weight, which began to affect her health. Then she found a project which she enjoyed very much, which was to occupy her for the rest of her life. She began a translaton of Dante's Inferno. She became friends with Barbara Reynolds, a lecturer at Oxford who later wrote her biography. She loved the Dante work, and was absorbed in it. She started to read it during the war and it kept her busy for the rest of her life. In 1950, Mac's health became much worse and he died in their home in Witham. She missed him, but it had not been a very happy marriage over all. But he had given her a home and adopted her son...and helped her in her writing career for many years. For 7 years after Mac's death, Dorothy worked on the Dante translation, was involved with St Anne's Church Soho, and kept in touch with many friends by letter and visit, especially CS Lewis, though she felt he didn't understand women. She and Antony, her son were not close but they kept in touch. She was godmother to her friend Barbara Reynolds, when the latter became a Christian. Then in 1957, she went to town to do some Christmas shopping. On her return to Witham, she collapsed and died, inside her house. Her life was relatively short, she had neglected her health and over worked. But her achievements were extraordinary....

Can you forgive her part II

Glencora submits to her family's pressure but she knows it is wrong for her. She continues to love Burgo and finds it hard to avoid seeing him at social events. She and Plantagenet have little in common and he is dull and shy, and not able to express his emotions easily. Glencora respects him, because he is essentially a good man but she and he are always at odds. Plantagenet works very hard, at his political career and hopes that his wife will produce an heir, but there is no sign of a baby and Glencora has no outlet for her feelings. She asks him to let her invite her distant cousin, Alice to stay.. and he agrees. She feels a little better when she has a confidante but Alice is prudish and awkward and does not understand her cousin very well. Burgo has an aunt, Lady Monk who sympathises with her attractive nephew and feels that he and Glencora should have been allowed to marry...so she offers him help. Burgo begins to make vague plans for running off with her - and living in Europe. Alice starts to see her cousin George again, but she is scared by his violent streak, and knows that John Grey, even if he is quiet and dull, would be a better husband.

Can You Forgive her? A Trollope novel

This is the first of the Palliser novels, and concentrates on the marriage of Glencora M'Cluskie, a very wealthy heiress and Plantagent Palliser a rather dull young man who is heir to the duke of Omnium and who is devoted to a political career. There are also 2 other romances in the book, one about a widow who has 2 suitors, and another about Alice Vavasor, a distant relation of Glencora's. Alice has also got 2 suitors and she is a rather serious dull girl, who leads a very quiet life, rarely going into society. She had been in love with her cousin George Vavasor, a wild young man who has a violent streak and who has political ambitions. However she broke off her relationship with him and for some reason, Trollope feels that this makes her ineligible to marry anyone else. But she has another admirer, John Grey, who like Plantagenet, is dull and leads a very quiet life. ALthough he is clearly a more suitable husband than George, Alice shies away from marrying him. (Even in Victorian times, a broken engagement did not bar a woman from society, so its difficult to know why Trollope made this a plot point). THe book is liked because of the Glencora story. She is young and naive, and she has fallen in love with Burgo Fitzgerald, a rake and gambler. He also cared for her as much as he was capable of caring for anyone.. and wanted to marry her. But her family completely forbade the marriage and to stop her from making a bad match, they pressured her into a marriage with Plantagenet. M/F

Phineas Redux II

Phineas gets into a quarrel with a Mr Bonteen, one of his rivals in the party. Glencora takes up his cause and tries to persuade her husband to support Phineas and not Bonteen. The two men are antagonistic when they meet, and Bonteen snubs Phineas when they meet a gentlemen's club. The Prince of Wales is there so the row is curbed, but soon afterwards, Phineas leaves the club and makes a joke of how much he dislikes Bonteen. He walks part of his way home with his friend Mr Monk, and then goes on alone to his lodgings. The following day, the police arrive, and Phineas is accused of murdering Bonteen who has been discovered dead in an alleyway. He is horrified but he's taken into custody. The bad feeling between the men and the fact that he does not have an alibi means he goes to trial. Phineas has support from his society friends but he fears that some may believe him guilty. He finds that Laura's husband has died, and she comes to visit him in prison. She tries to support him but she is emotional and weepy. Meanwhile, Marie Goesler and Glencora have been doing some detective work. Bonteen and his wife had supported Lizzie Eustace who has (after a scandal of her diamonds being stolen) married a foreign clergyman, Mr Emilius. He treated her cruelly and she left him. Mrs Bonteen had some sympathy for her and because of this Emilius was known to have a grudge against him. Marie goes to Prague, where its believed that Emilius has a wife whom he has deserted, and she finds a locksmith who made a key for him, so that he could get in and out of his lodging house. Armed with this evidence, she brings it back to London where Phineas' trial is not going well. Mme Goesler's evidence about the latch key however clears him and he is pronounced not guilty. Emilius is to be arrested. Phineas is badly shaken by his ordeal, and he goes home to his lodgings, to the kindly woman who has been his housekeeper, Mrs Bunce. He is hurt that he could not be sure if his friends really believed in him, and he feels badly about his anger at Bonteen. He does not want to go into society, but after a while, he accepts an invitation to Matching, where Glencora lives. She has now become Duchess of Omnium as the old Duke has died. Mme Goesler is staying there as she often does, and on an impulse, Phineas proposes to her. She accepts him, and they begin to make plans for marriage. She tells him that she was proposed to by the old Duke and refused him. He and she happily look forward to a successful political career.

Phineas Redux

Phineas Redux is set a couple of years after the time of Phineas Finn, when Finn goes back to Ireland and marries Mary Flood Jones. He is not that happy in Ireland after a few years living in London society and the London political world. But he loves Mary... and she becomes pregnant. However she dies in childbirth, and he is alone again. His father also dies, leaving him with a little money, and he decides to try his luck again in England. Things have changed since he left. Laura Kennedy's marriage has become increasingly unhappy and it seems that Robert has suffered a mental breakdown... and his religious mania has increased. In desperation, Laura leaves him and goes abroad to Germany with her father, where he cannot easily pursue her. Violet Effingham has married Chiltern, who has settled down and become a Master of Foxhounds, a job that gives him an outlet for his energy. Phineas feels more cheerful at the prospect of moving back to England and his old friends seem pleased to see him. He goes to Germany to visit Laura, and Lord Brentford asks his advice for her situation. Phineas says that she would problaby be better to go to the Divorce Court in England and get a legal separation - however he has visited Kennedy, who is clearly quite mad, and Laura does not want to go back -. Then Kennedy's mother takes him back to Scotland and looks after him and Laura begins to feel that she could face going home again. But her position as a runaway wife means that she will not be able to enter into society. Phineas stands for election, and wins his seat but his problem of needing a job is still there. He finds that he is quite popular iwith the ladies of the Liberal set, including Glencora Palliser but it rather annoys him as he knows that being the "Ladies' pet" is going to make male Liberals hostile to him.