The Small House at Allington

By: Anthony Trollope

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 22 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

The Small House at Allington introduces Trollope's charming heroine, Lily Dale, to the Barsetshire scene. Lily is the niece of Squire Dale, an embittered old bachelor living in the main house on his property at Allington. He has loaned an adjacent small house rent free to his widowed sister-in-law and her daughters, Lily and Bell. But the relations between the two houses are strained, affecting the romantic entanglements of the girls.

Lily has long been unsuccessfully wooed by John Eames, a junior clerk at the Income Tax Office. The handsome and personable Adolphus Crosbie looks like an enticing alternative, but Adolphus has his eye on the rigid Lady Alexandrina de Courcy, whose family is in a position to further his career. Bell, meanwhile, must choose between the local doctor, James Crofts, and her wealthy cousin, Bernard.

Listen to the classics: download more of Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire.

(P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of the great English Victorian novelists....A sharp but sympathetic observer of Victorian social and political life." (Daniel S. Burt, The Biography Book)

Ahhh!

Here's a story to sink into and lose yourself for hours and hours. Trollope was one of the great early psychologists. His characters are brimming with life, pride, longing, courage and foolishness, and the effect of so many lives overlapping and colliding is mesmerizing. This is an old-fashioned story, and once in motion it seems unfair that it must end. Pitch-perfect reading. Go for it!

Soap Opera

If you imagine how people spent leisure time before day time TV, read this slow over time.

Delightful, Fresh

The Small House at Arlington will go down as one of my favorites. The language throughout the book is beautiful and the reader is very good. It's one of those books that you simply want to savor every moment.

The Adventures of a Hobbledehoy

I’ve said it before—and I’m about to say it again. Listening to Simon Vance read Anthony Trollope is a delight. The saga of Barsetshire continues, this time in a novel which, of the five I’m now familiar with, has the greatest number of loose ends. It feels very much like a length of tapestry cut from a much broader composition (yes, I know, they all are; but this one has the least sense of resolution).

Maybe it’s the fact that by the final pages our hero (a self-confessed hobbledehoy) doesn’t end up with everything he wants (while some more minor characters do); maybe it’s because the introduction of Mr. Plantagenet Palliser hints at the next series of six novels. Whatever the reason, the sense of incompleteness, of stepping on the last stair only to find that it isn’t there, adds to the novel’s—I was about to write “realism”, but that’s its own school—so I will fall back on “true-to-life-ness”. While some of the Barsetshire books could be read on their own, I believe this one benefits from the broader setting of the four novels that precede it. And, I presume, the one that follows.

As usual with Trollope, there’s the sense of a man who likes people, enjoys telling a story, and tells a story that, even when dealing with the seamier side of society, can make you smile (ironically or sarcastically, but still, a smile). Along the way there are many telling observations about us human beings; how we lie to each other and to ourselves, how we mature—or fail to do so. I think what I enjoy most about Trollope is that his “good” characters are never wholly good and his “bad” characters are never through-and-through bad—not even the self-misguided Adolphus Crosbie or that manipulative semi-siren, Amelia Roper. We see wealth and poverty—and the poverty of those supposed by the world to be wealthy. But we don’t get preached at about either one. Trollope takes life as most of us do—as it comes. There is a lighter touch, a defter hand at work here than say, Dickens.

Delightful

This is the first Trollope novel I've read, and I found it charming. I will definitely be looking for more.

excellent narrator

It's an engaging story but is made excellent by the narrator, He gives a voice to each character.

Small pleasure in Small House

Although I generally love Trollope, this book was disappointing. It starts off with the usual Trollope flair, has lots of colorful characters, some of whom appeared in other works. But after a very long build-up to the central love affair's conclusion, it peters out to an extremely unsatisfying ending.