It’s time for the annual Clothes in Books trope of Christmas in Books – seasonal scenes from random books, for no better reason than I like looking for the pictures, and I and some readers
find them cheery
and Xmas-y
Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope
published 1861-1862
[excerpt] I do not know of anything more pleasant to the eye than a pretty country church, decorated for Christmas-day. The effect in a city is altogether different. I will not say that churches there should not be decorated, but comparatively it is a matter of indifference. No one knows who does it. The peculiar munificence of the squire who has sacrificed his holly bushes is not appreciated. The work of the fingers that have been employed is not recognised. But here at Noningsby church, the winter flowers had been cut by Madeline and the gardener, and the red berries had been grouped by her own hands. She and the vicar's wife had stood together with perilous audacity on the top of the clerk's desk while they fixed the branches beneath the cushion of the old-fashioned turret, from which the sermons were preached.
comments: I explained
last year about reading Orley Farm in the hope of
finding Christmas Scenes, and it was full of them.
Here we are having Christmas at Noningsby, home of Judge
Staveley and his family: they have a number of visitors for the celebration.
Going to church on Christmas morning is of course very
important, and there is much discussion of how the houseparty will travel: who
will walk and who will take the carriage.
One visitor is Sophie Furnival, who generously offers to
accompany the Judge’s wife in her carriage:
It was a mile to the church,
and Miss Furnival knew the advantage of appearing in her seat unfatigued and
without subjection to wind, mud, or rain.
I tend to think Sophie gets a raw deal in this book – she
is indeed a young woman on the make, and relies on her wits. But what other
choice does she have? – she needs to marry well, she can hardly get a job in
finance or become a lawyer like her father. Usually Trollope understands and is
generous about that – we had a fabulous discussion of all this in the comments
of this
post on The Small House at Allington, The Riding Habit and the
Marriage Plot – but he is very unforgiving of Sophie.
Meanwhile, a proper houseparty offers all kinds of
interesting opportunities for exciting outings. Here, Lucius wants to go and talk
to someone who has been bad-mouthing his mother, and invites Peregrine along:
"I must have some one
with me, some gentleman whom I can trust, and therefore I have ridden over to
ask you to accompany me as far as Hamworth."
"I suppose he is not a
man that you can kick," said Peregrine.
"I am afraid not,"
said Lucius; "he's over forty years old, and has dozens of children."
"And then he is such a
low beast," said Peregrine.
"I have no idea of
kicking him, but I think it would be wrong to allow him to go on saying these
frightful things of my mother, without showing him that we are not afraid of
him."
Upon this the two young men
got on horseback, and riding into Hamworth, put their horses up at the inn.
This entertained me hugely in terms of a Christmas outing, particularly ‘he is not a man
that you can kick’ - a phrase I cherish.
The characters will
enjoy the Christmas celebration in this part of the book, but life will change
for many of them afterwards,
One of the visiting young men has an accident while out
hunting – very splendidly, the horsey Miss Tristram says to his host:
"I do not know much about
your friend, but I think I may comfort you by an assurance that your horse is
none the worse. I could see as much as that.
This incident will have long-lasting consequences. The
paths of the young people will not always be clear…
More Trollope all over the
blog, and more Orley Farm too.
Going to church from NYPL
I felt a lot of ambiguity towards characters in this book. There were characters who did questionable things for understandable reasons--and other characters who did the "right" thing for questionable reasons. Which is a tribute to Trollope's characterizations, but had my loyalties confused more than usual. I couldn't sympathize with the "hero" at all. It didn't hold my interest as much as Trollope usually does. The Christmas house party was the best part by far!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you say - not my favourite Trollope. I have been thinking a lot recently about characters who do wrong but are romantic, while others are in the right but repel the reader. It's an interesting trope.
DeleteAnd yes, the Christmas scenes are excellent!
In the last Palliser novel there's a clergyman who is a model of integrity and conviction, but is just an impossible person. I remember being surprised that his wife could put up with him. He first appeared in Framley Parsonage, I think, and was bad enough there!
DeleteThat's the Reverend Josiah Crawley; he is indeed impossible though it's hard to say that he should behave differently because in an ideal world everyone would behave with equal honesty, integrity and conviction. But he just can't adapt himself to the everyday world - which would be his business if he had only himself to consider; as it is he drags his wife and many children down with him. Realistically he shouldn't have married - he could probably have lived very contentedly as a single man on his tiny income.
DeleteSovay
Yes indeed, a very good description of him Sovay: I found his whole storyline in Framley Parsonage very depressing.
DeleteI agree that Josiah should never have married, or at least not have had children to support. I could see him as a "circulating preacher" in our frontier times, but he doesn't seem to fit into
Delete... English rural life as I think of it. I'm surprised that he wasn't a non-Conformist, but maybe I have a distorted view of Anglican clergy, seeing them as less "fired-up" about their faith. Josiah is headed for a great deal of trouble in which his amazing wife can't help except with moral support.
DeleteOh dear he is such a sad character, and in Framley Parsonage people do try to help but it never does any good.
DeleteMy impression of CofE at the time was that there were some clergymen who took their role and their faith very seriously indeed (think of the ones who had 'doubts' and suffered agonies - Mrs Oliphant and Mrs Gaskell both very good on that) and others who took the job because it suited or was expected or was nicely-paid for not too much effort.
It’s quite a while since I read “The Last Chronicle of Barsetshire” so I can’t remember whether there is any information about the Rev. Crawley’s family background, but ‘Josiah’ does hint at some Puritan or non- conformist influence.
DeleteSovay
I think being "a man that you can kick’" reflected class as well as age prejudices. You would horsewhip an equal and kick a social inferior. Presumably you had to take someone with you to hold them while you carried out the operation.
ReplyDeleteThey are like people getting involved in a duel, with one young chap asking the other to be his second. They are also bored over Christmas and this gives them something to do, an unusual outing.
DeleteNot sure, but I think the bad-mouther was in fact socially inferior to Lucius, although not of the lowest classes. A lawyer, maybe---I don't really remember. But I know there was some doubt about whether his claims were true....Trollope let you wonder about it.
DeleteThe doubt lasts a long way into the book, but it is eventually resolved. He was very clever at keeping the balance. Mr Dockwrath was an attorney, who had married Lady Mason's maid.
DeleteI think his understanding of the difficulties of young women developed as he went on. This is a relatively early work, isn't it, not as subtle as the Palliser novels, for instance. I am interested too in characters who act admirably but who are repellent and vice versa . Do you have any one in mind? I am thinking of the characters in Anna Karenina. Chrissie
ReplyDeleteOh so much to discuss! I jump around in my Trollope reading so I don't have that feel for what was early and what was late.
DeleteAs I'm sure I've said before - 1066 And All That summed it up with Wrong but Wromantic, Right but Repellant. I've just been re-reading a Robert Graves book (blogpost in January!) which raised the questions again. I love an author who can deal with that nuance - though there are others who I feel just don't see it: they are on the side of their creation who behaves (in my view) badly...
You make "Orley Farm" sound like an entertaining read, but I remember your previous post and am not fooled ...
ReplyDeleteMildred Lathbury in Barbara Pym's "Excellent Women" would disagree about the unimportance of decoration in city churches - in her church in Pimlico, everyone in the decorating party has their designated area (Mildred has recently been promoted to helping with the screen) and the placement of Lady Whosit's lilies is a big deal.
Sovay
tee hee. There is so much Trollope, there isn't any need to read all of them in my important view! As I keep saying, I don't do them in order, and I read ones that people recommend, and that works for me.
DeleteMildred is a long time after Trollope! However you do wonder how much AT knew about the finer details of the arrangements and the rivalry.
There is another entry on church decorating coming soon, from the 1930s.
I think the issue would have been even more burning in Trollope’s time! Mildred’s church IIRC is Victorian, one of the wave of new builds in the mid-19th century, and would have had an eager new congregation fighting over the various church duties and probably multiple Lady Whosits, all prepared to take umbrage if their personal lilies weren’t on the altar.
DeleteLooking forward to 1930s church decoration!
Sovay
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMy impression of church decorating comes mostly from 20th-century detective fiction, but it does seem like one of the battlegrounds of village life! Offhand, I don't remember anything about it in Mrs Olyphant's books. I get a kick out of the two ladies standing perilously on a desk--and in those hoop skirts, I suppose!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI'm making all kinds of mistakes today....This book was definitely a slog for me. If only the rest of it had lived up to the Christmas episode! It's the kind of book in which you want to skip to the ending just to find out what happens, out of simple curiosity more than any real concern for the characters.
DeleteIt - doing the flowers in church - just is one of those fascinating topics isn't it? The upcoming book is a bit vague on the topic, lacking in the drama we like to see, but I have a good picture from modern times.
DeleteI know what you mean about Orley Farm - I wasn't sure if I should be supporting the heroine or not, given the carefully-balanced question about the will
I’m trying to recall the book in which one of the established decorators discovers that the pulpit, which is traditionally hers, has been decorated in her absence by a newcomer …
DeleteChurch flowers are a plot point in Sheila Pim’s “Common or Garden Crime” - it’s Lucy Bex’s month to do the flowers so she quickly identifies an alien spray of poisonous monkshood that has been added to her arrangement.
Sovay