The classic tale of romance and betrayal from a distinguished master of English satire. The fifth novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire epitomizes the wit, attention to detail, and thoughtful analysis of class and gender issues that made Anthony Trollope one of Victorian England's most beloved novelists. The Small House at Allington moves away from the earlier books' overt ecclesiastical concerns to focus on a small dower house on the edge of Christopher Dale's estate, Dale being the unlikely Squire of Allington. Dale has made the dower house available to his widowed sister-in-law and her daughters, Bell and Lily, and the novel mainly follows the romantic exploits of the sisters. Lily is engaged to the rising Adolphus Crosbie, who is smitten with Lady Alexandrina de Courcy. Meanwhile, John Eames has pined for Lily for years, but the young clerk seems helpless to wrench her away from her duplicitous beau. In trademark Trollope fashion, The Small House at Allington twists through a number of minor characters and subplots before reaching its satisfying conclusion. Trollope's uncanny ability to derive the universal from the specific has kept his work evergreen well into the twenty-first century, with class struggles and romantic miscues just as relatable today as they were one hundred years ago.
