The Small House at Allington--chaps 40-42 (Oct 1863)

Dear Serial Readers,

You'll find a Millais illustration I meant to post last week since it accompanied the #13 installment with Mrs Dale's interview with her brother-in-law.

I found this a satisfying installment in part because of the variation in plot lines across the three chapters: from the wedding preparations for Crosbie and Alex'ina, including some nice London neighborhood hopping for houses and homewares, to the Roper lodging house and the state of the Lupex marriage, and finally to the Small House with Lily rallying to her pre-engagement spunk.

The novel is heading toward a totally disastrous marriage for Crosbie and Alexandrina, and perhaps a stalemate for Johnny and Amelia Roper, as well as for Johnny and Lily, who seems rather committed to her marriageless condition now. I'm interested in the extent to which this novel of the mid-Victorian period does contemplate the possibilities for women outside marriage. Perhaps the novel is attempting to revitalize the spinster from its pathetic caricature status. I know Lily is too young to be a spinster at this point, and Mrs Dale is a widow, so that moniker doesn't suit her either.

What I enjoyed this time: the crinoline and carpets scene in Bond Street where Ladies Amelia and Alexandrina sit in state as customers at the carpet emporium with Crosbie as an accessory eager to make a retreat to the office. Trollope's attention to the details of Victorian commodities here, and to the labor of the shopworkers who must haul about the mountains of carpet for the Ladies As to examine. This kind of detail is part of Trollope's droll realism--this ordinary realm of washing-stands, kitchen things, and the like, along with the terms of payment including discounts. Along with Trollope's "reveal codes" on the labor necessary to maintain appearances in a London household is the bit where Crosbie recalls waiting for the St John's Wood door to be opened for him as Richard the doorman changes from his work clothes to his livery clothes.

As for the melodrama around Mrs Lupex presumably gathering funds to elope, I loved that instead she'd gone out on a jaunt with some lady friends to Hampton Court, although delighting in giving her husband the impression that "his bird was flown."

In short, this episode suggests matrimony as a cage to be built, flown, or altogether avoided or downright refused, or perhaps, in the case of Crofts and Bell, to be reconsidered on a different plan altogether. Maybe there will be a different menagerie here--Crosbie and Bell, along with B's sister and mother?

Next week, chaps 43-45. Cast your vote for Romola or Wives and Daughters, or the sequel to this novel?

Serially, once again,
Susan