He Knew He Was Right

De: Anthony Trollope

Narrado por: Nigel Patterson

When Louis Trevelyan's young wife meets an old family acquaintance, his unreasonable jealousy of their friendship sparks a quarrel that leads to a brutal and tragic estrangement.

Often considered to be his masterpiece, Anthony Trollope's 1869 novel explores the themes of marriage, love, and the rights of women in 19th-century England.

With a cast of independent, forceful characters and lively subplots, Trollope creates a penetrating and often comic dissection of the mores of Victorian society.

Public Domain (P)2016 Nigel Patterson

Tedious!

I’ve been reading Trollope for 45 years, so I consider myself a super fan, but this study in sexual jealousy is tedious and dreary. There is little plot and the love stories are all predictable. There is a tiny bit of excellent comic relief. I only finished this because I’m stubborn. The narration was very good.

real life

I enjoy Trollope ' s storytelling style. Complex characters and always a mix between tragedy and a happy ending.
Well made recording. Very enjoyable.

Nigel Patterson as the narrator is great

The first time I encountered Anthony Trollope’s most popular work, He Knew He Was Right, was in a BBC production. My teen aged children and I enjoyed it. I had not read the book that the mini-series was based on. When I was offered the opportunity to review the book narrated by Nigel Patterson, I was happy to finally get a chance at the source.


He Knew He Was Right was written in 1869. It is very important that the listener keep that in mind. It was a very different world, especially for women. The book follows Louis Trevelyan, a wealthy gentleman, who while traveling in one of the Empire’s colonies (it is a fictitious colony)
meets the girl of his dreams, Emily Rowley. Although Emily has been raised outside of England, she does come from a good family as her father is the governor of the colony. Emily and her family travel back to England for the wedding. The first two years of marriage are wonderful complete with a baby boy. Then Louis begins to take exception to an old family friend, a man her father’s age, visiting Emily. He demands she no longer see the man because he suspects infidelity. Emily digs her heels in and refuses to end her harmless friendship. Louis takes it as proof that he wife is not faithful.


There are several subplots to this book, which is over 300 pages in print and 30 hours in audio. The subplots involve other couples including Emily’s sister, Nora. Each couple has their own challenges to overcome, several involving social standing or economic position. While the subplots are interesting, it is Louis and Emily’s story that is the main attraction.


I did have to keep reminding myself of the 1869 publication date because I had a persistent and overwhelming need to slap Louis. Emily never, in deed or word, gives him cause to doubt her but he is so insecure he cannot trust her. It is a combination of Emily’s stubbornness and Louis’s insecurity that cause this to blow up into a major disaster involving both families and dividing friends. That being said, it really is a great book and worth the impulse to slap Louis.


Mr. Patterson does a great job narrating this book. He captures the characters and their emotions. He also handles the language well. Sometimes narrators can allow the more formal language of the 19th century to sound stilted but Mr. Patterson does not. He makes the language flow naturally. I have not had a disappointing listen from Mr. Patterson yet. If you are going to invest in He Knew He Was Right as an audiobook, get the right one with Nigel Patterson as the narrator.

So long…

I love a good, meaty novel. With this run time, that’s what I expected. Instead, it just droned on and on with nothing happening. Or rather, it was the same thing over and over. The characters were not likable and though I stuck with it, I kept looking at the time remaining (ANOTHER 9 hours of this?!), I wish I hadn’t.

Life in Another Time

Written in 1869, He Knew He Was Right, tells about life in England in "the good ole days". Nigel Patterson does his usual superb job narrating. When Patterson reads you can be assured that it will be marvelous!

Trollope delivers again

I like Trollope stories for their ability to give me many different stories rolled into one. This one delivers that as usual. An argument between two fools who never learned to communicate becomes tedious however. Neither one willing to give an inch leads to a tragic and completely predictable outcome. Thank god for the other stories woven into this book because they are what kept me reading. I honestly couldn’t care less about Louis and his wife after a few hours. That kind of pigheadedness has no redemptive qualities. Nigel Patterson does a fair job of narrating, but he’s no Timothy West.

Sympathy for human dilemma

Most of his books delve deeply
into the relationship between
men and women often exploring
laws attitudes passions beliefs
literally tearing people apart

Trollope at his wordiest

I always thought Trollope was at his worst when writing romantic subplots: the dear sweet woman at odds with the headstrong young man: “No no no no!” “Yes yes yes!” “No no no!” “Yes yes yes!” And even in his best books, he will use a thousand words when a hundred would suffice.

But he can capture the dynamics of other relationships so well, and zeroes in perfectly on the power dynamics and self-delusions of his characters.

This novel takes all of Trollope’s faults to the hilt. I’ve enjoyed audiobooks of Trollope when working on projects and chores where I can’t focus too closely on the audiobook. After all, Trollope is sure to repeat himself more than once if I happen to space out or use a power tool during a minute or two.

In the case of this book, he repeats himself four or five times at least so I could probably use a buzz saw while listening to most of the book.

As for the narrator, I want to be kind. But it is as though a nice intelligent friend were reading it. You never are so engrossed as to be immersed and can believe that the characters themselves are speaking. And it is often the case that I could not tell one character from another. But the narrator somehow seemed so nice, I’m sure I’d like to have him over for dinner. But I don’t think I will buy another book read by him.

Not his best

**Please do not include SPOILERS in your reviews!** 😑😑

This one was a bit of a slog. I enjoyed most of the storylines, but Emily’s went on much longer after I stopped caring. The others were entertaining but predictable, and I found myself skipping through several chapters near the end. The narrator was mostly tolerable but his American accents (especially the women) were dreadful.

A husband drives himself mad with jealousy

Making the subject of a character's psychology the subject of the novel represents an unusual approach for Trollope. In He Knew He Was Right the husband deludes himself into the certainty that his wife has betrayed him and he gradually slides into a devouring delusion that destroys his marriage, his life's normality, his body and, ultimately, his sanity. The husband's jealousy is baseless, but understandable. Trivialities are blown out of proportion by the husband's suspicion on and his wife's outraged dignity. He [or She] Knew He [She] Was Right is the awful knell that drives so many people over the edge. Trollope effectively presents the seeming logic of the sundered couple, each of whom feels certain of his/her righteous position. Over and over again, neither husband nor wife can make the ultimate sacrifice and admit herself/himself wrong. The situation is torture, painfully depicted by Trollope. The emotional and psychological tug of war goes through many permutations until all reason is gone. In the end, Trollope cleverly lets us understand that both husband and wife have carried off his/her own conflicting and cherished delusion as confirmed belief.