An Old Man's Love

Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9
Word count
391K words
Chapters
40

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Social ObservationFamily BondsLove EntanglementsLate-Life LoveGentry ClassPsychological InsightPsychological NuanceMoral DilemmaVictorian EraEnglish Gentry

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.An Old Man's Love by Anthony TrollopeAuthor: Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Apr 8, 2008

Editor's review

An Old Man's Love is a late, short work by Trollope, yet it renders late-life affection, the ethics of engagement, and family relations with fine-grained restraint. Its interest lies not in dramatic conflict but in the wavering and self-persuasion of its characters: the restraint, hesitation, and sense of duty of an elderly gentleman facing matters of the heart are unfolded layer by layer through plain narration. Trollope excelled at moral dilemmas in ordinary life, and this book continues that mode; both dialogue and psychological portraiture reward patience, suiting readers who like slow pacing and attention to inner change. For Chinese readers it is also a light entry into Victorian ideas of courtship and gentlemanly ethics. As a public-domain eBook it is easy to obtain and suits quiet, chapter-by-chapter reading; afterwards one may ask whether the characters' choices still hold today. Note that the pace is slow and incident sparse; those expecting strong plot momentum may find it mild.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read one or two chapters a day to keep the relationships coherent
  2. Note the old man's inner monologues and jot down key moments of hesitation
  3. After finishing, compare with contemporary views on love and marriage and form your own judgment
  4. Read the opening and ending first, then return to the middle psychological passages

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40

FAQ

Is this book one of Trollope's major works? It is usually not listed among his most famous major works but is a shorter late novel. Its value lies in concentrating Trollope's enduring concern with marital ethics and character psychology, making it a light entry into his style rather than a substitute for long series such as the Barsetshire novels.
The pace is slow; what if I can't get through it? Adjust your approach: don't chase plot momentum; focus instead on dialogue and psychological shifts, and after each chapter recall what the old man decided and why he hesitated. If it still feels mild, skim the dialogue-heavy passages or read a summary first to grasp the framework, then dip into selected sections.
Do I need to know Victorian background? No special preparation is required, but a little knowledge of period conventions around engagement, property, and women's status makes the characters' logic easier to follow. When discussion turns to engagement and family, pause and consider how those rules shape the characters' choices.

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About the author

Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882 Author

Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) was a prolific English novelist of the Victorian era, with 83 works held in this collection. He is best known for the Barsetshire novels, including The Last Chronicle of Barset, Barchester Towers, and Framley Parsonage, which are set in a fictional English county and portray the daily life, social manners, and power struggles of the clergy and gentry. Other major works, such as The Way We Live Now, The Prime Minister, Orley Farm, and Can You Forgive Her?, turn to politics, business, and marriage, revealing with careful restraint and gentle irony the tension between social convention and personal ambition. Public information is limited, yet his plain narrative style, large casts of clearly drawn characters, and depiction of Victorian social structure retain lasting value for readers.