Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001
Reply-To: trollope-l@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [trollope-l] John Caldigate: Euphemia Caldigate

The penultimate chapter of this week's chapters in John Caldigate_ left us where we usually are at the end of a novel. Against the greatest imaginable odds the hero has attained a fortune and married the girl. Even Mrs. Bolton, it is hinted, is about to accept John as a family member. In our rejoicing about John's fortune, we may or may not recall that there were one or two loose ends in the early part of the novel. And since the novel at this point is only a bit more than a third finished, we might wonder what the second two thirds will be like. Well, this assignment's final chapter tells us. John receives a letter from Australia signed "Euphemia Caldigate," in which the lady we have known as Mrs. Smith claims to have been married to Caldigate, says she has the means to prove so, and threatens to make the marriage between John and Hester illegal and, what is worse, the new heir illegitimate. Now we learn what has been denied us before: Euphemia and John did indeed live together as man and wife, although John says he never did formalize the marriage.

If Euphemia is able to prove her point, Hester must return to her mother and father in complete disgrace. The heir is no longer the heir. John must be jailed for bigamy. And what is very bad to many of us, Mrs. Bolton is to be proved entirely right.

In our free and easy twenty first century it would be no disgrace for two lonely single people far from home to pool their resources and live together. But in the nineteenth century we are talking about something entirely different. Mrs. Bolton might not be such an anomoly in British culture as we have been taught to believe.

I have often told this group that John Caldigate is one of my favorite novels by Trollope or anyone else. So indeed it is. But if it weren't for the final two thirds of this book, I would make no such claim.

Happy reading,

Sig

Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001
Reply-To: trollope-l@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [trollope-l] John Caldigate: Euphemia Caldigate

I am behind, have only read the first four chapters of this week's schedule, but Sig's post really intrigued me. I was hoping to hear more about the infamous Mrs. Smith. Actually I had thought she might show up in person, perhaps with a child.

Does anyone know if they had "common law" marriages in England and/or in Australia at this time? If they did then John might indeed have been married to Mrs. Smith even though it wasn't, as he put it, formalized.

Dagny

To Trollope-l

April 30, 2001

Re: John Caldigate, Chs 19-24: Mrs Bolton and Mr Daniel Caldigate

As Sig says, the parts of this novel are all necessary: the second two-thirds are read as the outcome of the first third.

Like Dagny, I have fallen a wee bit behind and not yet finished this week's chapters. I do remember that when we get into the matter of whether Caldigate must be regarded as having legally become the husband of Euphemia Smith, Trollope goes into the minutiae of what constitutes a legal marriage. There are many aspects to this, not least of which include the realities that where a marriage takes place and the customs in the local area count. As I recall, the issue turns on the actual legality of what was uttered and done at the moment of the coupling; this harks back to an older view of marriage, one which was prevalent before the Marriage Act of 1751 which looked upon the ceremony with great care: was it done in the present or future tense; who witnessed it; what were the intentions and understanding of the individuals involved. Since Caldigate and Euphemia did not live together for 7 years, the issue of common-law does not explicitly come up. Yet implicitly it does since they did live together.

Another way of putting this aspect is that even if Caldigate did not violate a legal instrument in marrying Hester Bolton, he violated some kind of moral law (in Trollope's mind too), one which has two sides: it has to do with betraying Hester and living outside wedlock with Euphemia. Sig brings up the emotional reality that Trollope expects his readers to dislike Mrs Bolton very much, reject her attitudes towards life, risk, sex, pleasure, and human lapses of all sorts: at the same time, Caldigate has for the Victorian reader crossed cultural boundaries, violated kinship and sexual tabooes -- he has taken this virgin without so much as whispering to her anything of what went before; he can now have impregnated her. So the situation is deeply charged.

Let us recall the title Trollope wanted for the book: Mrs John Caldigate or John Caldigate's Wife. Like Is He Popenjoy? it throws the emphasis of interpretation on the tabooes broken underneath the conventional legalities and accepted customary practices we see the Dean go through in the earlier book (IHP? was written between October 1874 and May 1875 and JC from February to July 1877) and John Caldigate's attempt here. In Caldigate's case this included allowing the Boltons to look into his monetary success and stability, and demanding that they take his good character or change of character on faith. An interesting parallel is that in both novels the young girl is given to the man based on his money. The Boltons talk of how secure Hester will be on this income. This as well as their genuine desire to free her from the tyranny of the mother's fears and possessiveness leads them to give her in marriage to Caldigate.

I would like here to throw out another perspective, one which is not the automatic one readers may feel immediately, but which if you think about it for a while and read carefully, you will see that Trollope leaves room for, indeed at moments urges upon us: in brief, he gives us enough analysis of Mrs Bolton's character versus Mr Daniel Caldigate's so that we will not see her simply as an ogre, nor John Caldigate's simply as a figure who has done the natural thing in hard circumstances, a position which would seem to legitimate dismissing the inhumane awes surrounding tabooes which often work to hurt individuals whose lives have demanded they throw over what are conventions of respectability.

For example, when John tells his father about his attempt to court Hester and get beyond Mrs Bolton, he doesn't seem to register or understand anything deeply about her psychology. His father does: "She is a poor melancholy half-crazed creature" (Folio Society John Caldigate, introd RCTerry, Ch 18, p. 136). In other words, Mrs Bolton does not act simply out of a set of unexamined maxims; she acts out of a psychological stance towards life, one in which she is fearful, sees herself as protecting herself through her daughter from risks she is afraid even to imagine, but mostly revolve around sex. We are told several times she is a young woman, that her husband (Mr Bolton) is much older, strong, autocratic, rich and steady: she has retreated to the arms of a father figure who will care for her gently (and of course not be too demanding in bed or elsewhere -- as we see). Mr Bolton knows this. We are then invited into Mr Bolton's mind as he considers his wife: he realises that his wife's ideas are rationales to prevent her daughter from ever marrying, ever having sex:

"All her religious doctrines were those of the Low Church. But she had a tendency to arrive at similar results by other means. She was so afraid of the world, the flesh, and the devil, that she would fain shut up her child so as to keep her from the reach of all evil ... " (p. 138).

The analysis of this woman's psyche goes on for several more sentences and is picked up now and again throughout the book. I suggest this is quite different from the way the earlier women bullies like Mrs Proudie or Lady Ball are presented. It recalls the sympathetic presentation of Rachel Ray's mother who is fearful for her daughter and herself bullied by a fundamentalist Protestant daughter who is deeply into control, is cold towards others (without sympathy for others), dislikes sensuality, has little feel for physical pleasure: pleasure to Rachel Ray's sister is power over others and hugging all her goods to herself. It's not that we are to favor this woman, but we are not to regard her as an ogre of the piece. It is not comic; it is not broad.

The first impulse is to dislike her, to reject her, but, wait. Does the book? Mr Bolton doesn't ride herd over his wife's impulses nor does her stepson. They think a bit; they look into the matter. Later in the book, they become so incensed because they have been betrayed by Caldigate -- as they see it. Caldigate has put Hester into risk; suppose he were to be Euphemia's husband; suppose he were to tire of Hester. What then?

It is Daniel Caldigate who calls this woman's card, who sees more deeply into the sources of such religious fearfulness and rigidity. Melancholy, "poor" in the sense of cowardly, the kind of person whose nature is in effect not dominating, but submissive, who fears what happens when this submissiveness will come into play. He has brought up a son who is quite different from this: from all we see nerve is one thing John Caldigate has plenty of. He much enjoyed watching rats tear one another to pieces when young. His father is a reader, a thinker, someone who is called a "pagan". This is important. He does not allow religious cant to control his life: he sees through it to its sources in the human psyche. He has brought up a son who lives out the point of view he has thought out.

In what is still one of the best books ever written on Trollope's character, Lucy and Richard Poate Stebbins's The Trollopes, they make a strong case for identifying Trollope himself with another very similar "pagan" character in the later novels: Mr Scarborough. Trollope is himself on the "side" of the Caldigates; sees life through Mr Daniel Caldigate's eyes, but he also sees the way others regard it. He can enter into and sympathize very much with the Babingtons and Shands. The comedy of John Caldigate's visits there is sweet, humane. What I am saying is the opposition between two ways of looking at the world is not so cut-and-dried. We are probably to reject the fearful, the unexamined, and the neurotic approach of a Mrs Bolton, but we are to see that the hard, sceptical and ruthless approach which demands such courage has its flaws. It is unkind. It is selfish. It makes me think of the final line about Tom and Daisy Buchanan as the ultimate modern types: they smashed up things when these things got in their way. The Dick Shands of this world, the Mick Maggots, the Mrs Boltons, Babingtons and Shands don't smash up things which get in their way. They can be smashed.

Really the appropriate wife for Caldigate -- though he would never allow himself to see this as he is full of himself, conceited, thinks he can get away with anything he can reach for -- is Euphemia Smith. She too has lived life as a war of nerves.

This book has all the depths of Is He Popenjoy?, but it is better because its circumscription allows for the point of view which insists on the vulnerability of people like Mrs Bolton, and valuing the mindless cant and maxims of the conventional as even if they are (essentially) hypocritical, they are worth preserving for safety's sake because there may be nothing durable beneath. Now that is not quite fair: John Caldigate turns out better than he appears, but we are to ask if he does so because he goes through a punishing trial which makes him think a bit.

Cheers to all,
Ellen Moody

Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001
Reply-To: trollope-l@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [trollope-l] John Caldigate: Euphemia Caldigate

Yes, there was such a thing as a common law marriage dating back to this time. It would probably not have much bearing on the legal issues in JC.

Common law marriage would generally be raised in a civil case, or in an Estate proceeding. But it would be more difficult to convict someone of bigamy because of a common law marriage which had not yet been determined by some judicial decree.

It's entirely possible that JC could be not guilty of bigamy, yet at the same time be the husband of Mrs. Smith in the eyes of the common law.

Duffy

Date: Mon, 30 Apr 200
Reply-To: trollope-l@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [trollope-l] John Caldigate: The Missing Story

Ever since Chapter 12, when Trollope cut off the narrative of Caldigate's developing relationship with Mrs. Smith in Australia, I have been wondering why he would abandon his readers in this way. This is to suggest a reason.

Perhaps the reason is that he planned to bring about a reversal in the minds of his readers of the estimation in which they held the hero of the story and, naturally, before the hero was brought down he had to be brought up as high as possible. Trollope held back the portion of the story that might result in Caldigate's condemnation so that when Caldigate came home, was restored as the heir to the family fortunes, won the hand of his dream girl, etc. -- in other words climbed to the heights of success -- the reader would be there with him, identifying with him and enjoying his good fortune. Seeing Caldigate as such a winner, the reader would perhaps much more readily condemn Mrs. Bolton for her narrow views, which seemed to be so unjust. However, as we now know, if the reader had had all the facts, then -- perhaps -- Mrs. Bolton would have been right about Caldigate -- unacceptable! I expect that Trollope will slowly bring his hero down and that Mrs. Bolton may appear to be less of an ogre as the story moves along.

So perhaps Trollope is throwing his readers a curve ball here. He has developed a strategy for getting his readers to condemn the conventionally successful hero and tricking them into embracing the outlook of the pessimistic Mrs. Bolton.

I'm still not sure that we can forgive him for this trickery, though!

Todd

Date: Tue, 1 May 2001
Reply-To: trollope-l@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [trollope-l] JC: The Missing Narrative

Todd, I like your reasoning on the missing narrative, building John up in the reader's eyes. It worked for me. I never suspected that they had actually lived together. I thought, the day after the play he might have gone to see her again and actually broken off the engagement and then returned to the goldfields. Much was made of his "faithfulness" over all those years to the image of Hester.

It wasn't until John and Hester actually got married that I knew something was up. As was mentioned, the couple is now married and the book is not near over. So something must happen, I thought then that Mrs. Smith would arrive, possibly with a young child. (Maybe she will yet, I have not read the book before. Although, I have to say that had she become pregnant, I think John would have married her--had he known about the coming baby.) I did not expect though for her to say they were married.

Dagny

Date: Tue, 01 May 2001
Reply-To: trollope-l@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [trollope-l] JC: The Missing Narrative

Dagny: One of the beauties of John Caldigate is that there are surprises along the way. I suggest we continue this discussion on 17 June, when, according to my schedule, we have finished the book. Read on and enjoy.

Sig

To Trollope-l

May 1, 2001

Re: John Caldigate, Chs 19-24: Its Undecidability

There is much that is remarkable in these chapters.

Perhaps the most striking element in this week's instalment is the long tracing Trollope does of the inward life of Mrs Bolton. As Todd and Sig have remarked, Trollope intends us to be appalled by her. To what I wrote on Monday evening, I can now add the unforgivable way she treats her daughter on her wedding day. We all have our personal responses when we read and these shape whatever we say; in this particular case I have a hard time understanding how this girl could not only go to this woman's room, but (in effect) invite her to utter the statements she does. As a group they show the woman longing for Caldigate to be vicious, longing for her daughter's destruction; her "treasure" has been taken from her and not-so-very-unconsciously she seeks revenge. All that is in her power that she can do to poison her daughter's happiness, she does. We are told how she hates her sons-in-law, how she hates their wives.

This is presented in a way that makes it more than just a powerful dramatization of the twisting and harm the psychology of Calvinism (the belief I am elect, others are going to be damned for all eternity) can do; it is explicitly rooted not in doctrine but in an analysis of the woman as a fearful depressive who knows how to use her density to dominate those who are less intense than she and a contrast to Daniel Caldigate who we are told is an unbeliever and sees through the manipulations of cant of others. His letter to sister is better than Jane Austen's Mr Bennet's letter to Mr Collins (I'd stick with the nephew, he has more money) because it carries the weight of dismissing more than mere cant:

"MY DEAR SISTER,

If you will look into your dictionary of natural history you will see that vipers have no stings.

Yours truly,
D. CALDIGATE
(Folio SocietyJohn Caldigate, introd. RCTerry, Ch 21, p. 158)

The novel is then exploring the effect of religion on the psyche and the effect of no religion. It is also exploring how family bonds may be manipulated and make of people one another's possessions which they can destroy. Mrs Bolton can take advantage of her daughter's emotional kindness and need for affection from her. Were Hester colder and harder, the mother would have no hold on her. One reason she does is she herself is so emotional and needy. If we compare Mrs Bolton to Aunt Staubach of Linda Tressel (another hater of sex, men, life, who rationalises this into virtue by a Calvinistic doctrine), we see Aunt Staubach is steely, cold, without real need for affection or others around her; Mrs Bolton is what in psychiatric circles is called the passive-aggressive. Such people are very hard to combat, to throw off. I found the scenes where she irritated her husband because he knew she was lying in the way people do (presenting something in an exaggerated way, putting their choices falsely) utterly true to life -- because he couldn't get himself to call her a liar. Why bother? She'd deny it or go into fits.

Paradoxically, Trollope is not that interested in sexuality itself in this novel. We can see this from how little time he spends on the courtship; how within a very few paragraphs we move through Hester's and John's honeymoon, early time together, her pregnancy. It's paradoxical because of course he is breaking a taboo: he has a hero who has had (in effect) two wives, whether he married the first in completely legitimate ceremony or not.

Todd has brought up an important element here; one I hope others respond to also. He writes:

"Perhaps the reason is that he planned to bring about a reversal in the minds of his readers of the estimation in which they held the hero of the story and, naturally, before the hero was brought down he had to be brought up as high as possible. Trollope held back the portion of the story that might result in Caldigate's condemnation so that when Caldigate came home, was restored as the heir to the family fortunes, won the hand of his dream girl, etc. -- in other words climbed to the heights of success -- the reader would be there with him, identifying with him and enjoying his good fortune. Seeing Caldigate as such a winner, the reader would perhaps much more readily condemn Mrs. Bolton for her narrow views, which seemed to be so unjust. However, as we now know, if the reader had had all the facts, then -- perhaps -- Mrs. Bolton would have been right about Caldigate -- unacceptable! I expect that Trollope will slowly bring his hero down and that Mrs. Bolton may appear to be less of an ogre as the story moves along.

So perhaps Trollope is throwing his readers a curve ball here. He has developed a strategy for getting his readers to condemn the conventionally successful hero and tricking them into embracing the outlook of the pessimistic Mrs. Bolton.

I'm still not sure that we can forgive him for this trickery, though!"

I wonder if there are others like me who have read the book as not promoting affection for Caldigate. I have not disliked him, but I have felt very little affection and certainly as the novel proceeded no identification and no strong positive feelings about his good fortune, even before I came to Euphemia "Caldigate's" letter. Yes we are to admire him for getting on his legs, surviving and coming back with his estate once again secured to him. He has retrieved his past by a determined hard strength of character. At the same time, has he once done anything unselfish? He is hard.

Trollope never lets us get inside his mind. Caldigate has no meditative capabilities; he doesn't examine himself or other people. He is uninterested in others. He wants Hester, goes for her, gets her, and that's it. Mrs Bolton is an obstacle and that's it. I can well believe he goes to church mechanically. I suggest Trollope does nothing to build in the reader identification or affection. The wedding is swiftly got over; all we are told of it is in fact the misery of the moment. Within a very few paragraphs we are told he may be a bigamist. This is very unlike his procedure when he gives us a hero he knows the reader may not like and he wants to promote identification. Think of the kind of excuses and arguments that "all men are like this" that the narrator offers to us in Ayala's Angel on behalf of Frank Houston or The Claverings on behalf of the richocheting Harry or a dozen other novels There is no apology for this guy in this novel thus far anywhere.

Nor is Caldigate the hobbledyhoy sympathetic sensitive male who does not do well with women that Trollope himself seems to indentify with, the John Eames's, the Harry Tudors, nor the inarticulate men who feel deeply, the Thady Macdermots, Louis Trevelyans, Plantagenet Pallisers. He is a successful flirt, something of a ladies man in the hard way: how pretty of him to let Maria know he wants to keep her book. He is complimenting her with his value for her. Were I her, I would not be grateful for this graceful compliment. Her Aunt would certainly know what it's worth. Julia may not be well off with the man she finally took, but there was nothing in Caldigate worth taking. He's just a handsome stallion. Far more space is given to Caldigate's scene with Robert Bolton who has every right to go into a rage at the information about this earlier woman than is given to any scene between Hester and Caldigate. He just sweeps her off her feet. I was amused to see that the narrator explains how this love came about in something of the satiric vein of Austen. The narrator writes: "Of course she loved him with all her heart. He was in all respects one made to be loved by a woman -- and then what else had she to love?" (Ch 20, p. 147). In Persuasion explaining how Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot fell in love, the narrator says: "Half the sum of attractions [his good looks, intelligence, spirit; her prettiness, gentleness, taste, feeling], on either side, might have been enough, for he had nothing to do, and she had hardly any boyd to love".

There are ways of lying that do not demand articulation. But Caldigate has gone beyond this. When the information gets to Bolton that others saw Caldigate on board the ship involved with a woman called Cettini or Smith, Caldigate gives the direct impression to his prospective brother-in-law he did not live with Mrs Smith by telling the part of the truth that will lie for him: "'They say that you promised to marry her when on board'. 'Then they lie ...', and then he implies he hardly saw her afterward again. Later in response to a spiteful anonymous letter (how common are these in Trollope's novels, how much they say about the human spirit), to Hester, he outright lies in a way that shows his disdain for Mrs Smith:

"He had seen her in Sydney, where he had found her exercising her profession as an actress. That had been all. 'I cannot imagine, my dear', he said that you should be jealous of any woman; but certainly not such a one as she' (Ch 22, p. 151).

Mrs Smith is beneath contempt? The anonymous letter shows human nastiness, but the person who treats others as beneath contempt is still contemptible. And how is he regarding Hester here? He seems to think himself all powerful; if he loves her, she need fear nothing. Really?

What I would contend is that Trollope never intended us to like Caldigate. He has done very little to make us like him. He has not worked to make us dislike him. The above dismissal is just about what such a gentleman of this type would say of a woman who had been married before and was living alone and not careful of her reputation. As they say.

I agree that Trollope throws us a curved ball, but I suggest there is more than one curve in this book.

Ellen Moody

Date: Wed, 2 May 2001
Reply-To: trollope-l@yahoogroups.com
 Subject: [trollope-l] JC: The Letter

I caught up yesterday with this week's read of John Caldigate. Of course I knew a letter was coming from Mrs. Smith, calling herself Mrs. Caldigate--but really I had no idea!

Now she is in partnership with Crinkett. It seems to me that this is just blackmail, plain and simple on her part. She hadn't bothered to write John before. He has been married about a year, plus the time for his journey home and his courting of Hester (or should I say of Hester's family).

It appears to me that the only reason she wrote was to make sure he gave Crinkett the money.

She says when the money is received she will let Caldigate's agent see her and Crinkett get married. She couldn't marry Crinkett right then if she is already married to John. Or is that a ploy on her part to show John that now she will also be a bigamist and her and Crinkett's silence will be insured? It is just all too suspicious to me.

Judy, bad Judy, already finished Caldigate and Lady Anna. Thanks for the information re the connection between Trollope's and Dickens' sons. And the extra gold mining info was interesting too. It was a hard life, especially if you were prospected and had to move all the time, carrying all your belongings with you. Aside from at times not having any money to spend, one wanted to be able to travel light.

Dagny

Date: Sat, 12 May 2001
Reply-To: trollope-l@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [trollope-l] John Caldigate

I've been enjoying John Caldigate very much and am grateful to all those who have posted extra information. I have to say that when Sig first said it was his favourite Trollope, I was not really sure why, but now I am a total convert. It amazes me that this novel should languish so, it ought to be on the university curriculum as a novel of marriage and illegitimacy. To take bigamy as a subject in this way is bold and admirable. I am also enjoying the spirit of Hester Caldigate too, one of those few married women in Trollope who are decisive and determined.

Angela

Re: John Caldigate, Chs 19-24: A Bold & Admirable Novel

Angela wrote:

"I've been enjoying John Caldigate very much and am grateful to all those who have posted extra information. I have to say that when Sig first said it was his favourite Trollope, I was not really sure why, but now I am a total convert. It amazes me that this novel should languish so, it ought to be on the university curriculum as a novel of marriage and illegitimacy. To take bigamy as a subject in this way is bold and admirable. I am also enjoying the spirit of Hester Caldigate too, one of those few married women in Trollope who are decisive and determined."

It is astonishing that this one should languish. I suppose it's another instance of the principle of inertia. Teachers teach what they have been taught. John Caldigate is also not in print in an inexpensive paperback so the reader who at least goes to the Trollope shelf in a good bookstore won't come across it. Here is where the importance of the author's reputation comes in: many readers don't go to the Trollope shelf and what they find there is most commonly just one or two Barsetshire or Palliser books. Trollope is still "the chronicler of ' Barsetshire". The Pallisers have appeared because of the film connection. This is changing, but the pace of change is glacial.

It's also curious which books are coming out from behind the Barsetshire and Palliser series. I can see why The Way We Live Now: it is one of Trollope's strongest assessment of modern society, one where he doesn't hide his views away. The title is catchy too and titles (like cover illustrations) count. It could be just this which brought it back in print: it was originally a commercial failure. However, why He Knew He Was Right and not John Caldigate? The problem with He Knew He Was Right as a college text is it is s-o l-o-n-g. I reviewed a Broadview Press proposal for He Knew He Was Right: one of the questions I was asked to respond to was, "Do you think teachers will really assign this text?" I had to answer I was uncertain. Students balk so against such length, and teachers know this. Further Caldigate is much bolder, and has a number of other issues beyond sex and marriage taken from an adult standpoint (which the central plot of He Knew He Was Right is about): the colonialist, the familial, religion as a rationale for ugly behavior within the family.

Hester certainly does come through: I wonder, though, if Trollope's text doesn't make the point that Caldigate did not marry her for that. He married her as a trophy-virgin. As in other Trollope novels, our author has handed a character unexpected luck, and it's the unexpected aspect of it he wants us to see as well as the luck. That's why her family (in the chapters we have before us for this coming week) thought she'd cave in. They never expected her to rise above life as so much banality which we give in to (it's called going along) . She really cares about her decisions and the people she has engaged herself to. She meant her words and her acts count to her for themselves as they are her. Hester cares about what she does in life. I loved how Trollope had Mrs Bolton utter her true motive at long last: "'I will not be conquered by my own child'. Three spoke the human being" (Folio Society John Caldigate, introd. RCTerry, Ch 36, p. 279). Mother as boss; not only as owning the child but as defining the faultline of her role as Authority and valuing it for that, holding fiercely and tenaciously onto whatever is in question so as to keep the power: "'In this struggle, hard as it is, I will not be beat by one who has been subject to my authority" (p. 279). Suddenly all her rationales (morality, sexual and otherwise) fall away. Perhaps the reason John Caldigate is not taken up is it is still ahead of its time. Motherhood is still a taboo subject for real exploration except much more indirectly.

I only wish Trollope had done equal justice to Euphemia Smith whose history and slow changes for the worse we are left to fill in for ourselves and whose treatment can (for some readers) simply reinforce sexual prejudice. Anyone interested in writing a sequel? The Other Mrs John Caldigate?

It's out of copyright unlike _Gone with the Wind_. As we US people know there's been another sequel squashed -- i.e., The Wind Done Been Censored (joke alert).

Cheers to all,
Ellen Moody