This is my fourth Trollope novel, and the first one that doesn't belong in a series of novels. If I were a more disciplined reader I'd probably read through his novels in some kind of order instead to reading a Palliser, a Barestshire, another Palliser and a stand alone, like I was ordering food...more

This is a short book by Trollope standards, and as such it really has only one storyline, although there is a romantic subplot so minor that it feels somewhat desultory.

The central story hinges on a peculiarly Victorian dilemma. The eponymous Dr Wortle, technically a clergyman but in effect a sch...more

Dr Wortle's School was written late in Anthony Trollope's career and was published the year before he died. My online Yahoo Trollope group has recently been reading books from the last years of Trollope's life and I think we have been looking for a decline in his power to portray the psychology o...more

Every novel by Trollope is intellectually stimulating yet comforting at the same time. Underlying each passage is a wry sense of humour, as if Trollope were standing back and observing the human condition in a loving yet amused way. This particular novel sets a challenge to the reader: if a coupl...more

In his novels, Anthony Trollope is gifted with such a fine moral sense that it is almost always a pleasure to read him. Within two or three chapters of the beginning, I am cast into interesting dilemmas usually related to marriage. Never have I encountered a writer who is so admirably consistent...more

Loved the audio book.

Review to follow

This book was written before divorce was accepted as an option for abused spouses. To modern eyes and ears there would be a very easy and quick answer to Mrs. Ella Peacocke's (yes, she is beautiful) dilemma. So there is a dated feeling about this book, but it was still enjoyable because, of cours...more

Bigamy figures in this novel, as it does in at least two of Trollope's other novels.

Dr. Wortle runs a preparatory school. He hires the Reverend Henry Peacocke as his assistant. Peacocke brings with him his American wife, Ella, who serves as the school's matron. Then trouble arrives with an Americ...more

To call anything written by Trollope "minor" is to commit a great sacrilege; however, Dr. Wortle's School, while written late in Trollope's life—and published the year preceding his death—is far from the range, breadth, and scope that one associates with Trollope's work.

Trollope is not a hit-or-m...more