The Duke's Children cover

The Duke's Children

Rating 4.2
Word count
1.2M words
Chapters
120

Tags

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.The Duke's Children by Anthony TrollopeAuthor: Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 1, 2003

Editor's review

The Duke's Children is the final novel in Trollope's Palliser series, centred on the Duke's disagreements with his children over marriage, money and rank. Its readability comes from Trollope's characteristic patient narration: it wins not through dramatic conflict but by letting character emerge gradually through conversation, hesitation and everyday choices. The Duke's anxiety about his children's future, the younger generation's insistence on choosing their own spouses, and the tug between family reputation and personal happiness form the novel's main tension. Readers familiar with Victorian English society and politics will find subtle social observation; newcomers to Trollope can read it on its own, though knowing the relationships from earlier books makes entry easier. The prose is that of a nineteenth-century English novel—long sentences, unhurried pace—suited to readers willing to savour dialogue and shifts of mind. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook, it is easy to search by character and chapter, and well suited to book-group discussion chapter by chapter.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who enjoy Victorian English fiction, especially fans of Trollope
  • Literary readers interested in family ethics, marital autonomy and class
  • English literature students studying nineteenth-century narrative and social context
  • Book-group members who can discuss it chapter by chapter around character ties and marriage

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who prefer fast pacing, strong plot conflict or suspenseful twists
  • Readers entirely unfamiliar with nineteenth-century English society who do not wish to fill in the background
  • Readers with limited stamina for English prose who dislike long sentences and slow narrative

Reading tips

  1. Map the Duke's family and the relationships from earlier books before starting, to ease the burden of tracking characters.
  2. Read by marriage storyline—follow each child's romantic choices in turn, then return to the Duke's shifting attitude.
  3. Note each character's change of stance after every chapter to keep hold of Trollope's slowly unfolding psychological portraiture.
  4. If time is short, read the chapters on the Duke's conflicts with his children first, then fill in the political and social subplots.

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
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96
  97. 97
  98. 98
  99. 99
  100. 100
  101. 101
  102. 102
  103. 103
  104. 104
  105. 105
  106. 106
  107. 107
  108. 108
  109. 109
  110. 110
  111. 111
  112. 112
  113. 113
  114. 114
  115. 115
  116. 116
  117. 117
  118. 118
  119. 119
  120. 120

FAQ

Can I read this without having read the earlier Palliser novels?
Yes, it stands on its own with a fairly complete central conflict. But characters and some background carry over from earlier books, so first-time readers may find certain forms of address and past events unfamiliar. It helps to learn about the Duke's family and the series' main characters first, or to begin with an earlier book in the series.
What themes does the book mainly explore?
At its core are the Duke's disagreements with his children over marriage choices, financial arrangements and social standing, which open onto tensions between family authority and personal autonomy, and between aristocratic duty and the pursuit of happiness. Trollope presents these through extensive dialogue and everyday scenes rather than dramatic plot.
How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for language learners?
It is nineteenth-century English fiction—long sentences, dense dialogue, vocabulary not obscure but syntax complex. Readers with some experience of English novels can attempt it, ideally with a character chart and chapter summaries; it is not recommended as a beginner's English reader.

Comments

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About the 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.