Although Trollope had already published the first three titles in his well-received Chronicles of Barsetshire series, The Bertrams appeared relatively early in the author's career. Much of it allows the author to display his future prowess. Unfortunately, much of it is also a slog - at least to me.

The Bertrams is Anthony Trollope's sixth novel (of 47), and one of his better efforts. Although the book came in for criticism for all its travel scenes (it goes to the Middle East twice during the course of the action), it is an excellent character study of a man, George Bertram, who had reason to

This is not one of the more popular novels by Trollope. 350 ratings as opposed to 17.000 for Barchester. Quite a difference. And indeed the novel has some serious faults. The author himself said it was “more than ordinarily bad”.

The main problem of the book is that the conflict between the two chara

Kind of an odd one if enjoyable in my Trollope journey so far. The novel begins with introducing two young men, Arthur Wilkinson and George Betram and two young ladies, Adela and Caroline. Initially we spend far more time with Arthur, his disappointment at university and eventual profession as a cle

So...I'm really not a Goodreads person. But then, what kind of a person am I? I've just read the 37 reviews of The Bertrams which Goodreads has to offer, and I find the novel did not affect me in the way of any of the 37 others who have bothered to say what they think about it, nor did it affect any

Trollope, even this early in his writing career, was astonishingly good at depicting people who make really bad life decisions, at getting in their heads and allowing us to understand their obsessions, their need for control, their self-destructive rigidity, their stubborn adherence to patterns of b

First sentence: This is undoubtedly the age of humanity — as far, at least, as England is concerned.

Premise/plot: The Bertrams chronicles the adventures and misadventures of three men: George Bertram, Arthur Wilkinson, and Sir Henry Harcourt. The novel, as a whole, has a feel of a proverb or two--

An unusual Trollope novel - a blend of satire, cynicism, the usual loved-and-lost plot, with a journey to Jerusalem and an old miser thrown. If you can stomach the casual racism, the travel writing is a fascinating glimpse of the period (including romantic believers in the Holy Land, sceptical archa