Anthony Trollope's "The Courtship of Susan Bell"

Written 1859 (July)
Published 1860 (August), Harper's New Monthly Magazine
Published in a book 1861 (November),Tales of All Countries: First Series, Chapman and Hall

From: Robert Wright
Subject: Stories - Susan Bell - introduction

This is a lovely little story, giving Trollope a little more space and involving a charming romance. There is nothing like a romance to make Trollope's work shine. This story will leave you feeling good. Not all men are rogues: there are still lots of us decent types around.

Written in 1859 and published in the same periodicals as General Chasse, "Susan Bell" resembles a playlet, set entirely on the stage of a caring, concerned widow's dwelling.

Trollope's first trip to see you colonials provided the background, but it seems the trip was rather more American than European in concept: I mean it was rushed (if this is Thursday it must be Niagra Falls!) and perhaps not entirely successful, judging by a diary entry made on a steamship. Not but that on the way home to Liverpool, our writer hero did not indulge in some onboard flirting perhaps, and one or two novels relate the goings on between gentlemen and ladies when thrown together on the main for a few weeks...

But back to the action, one single night in Saratoga was enough to flavour this little plot, and I know you are going to enjoy it.

From Ellen in response to Rachel:

To Trollope-l

December 10, 1997

Re: Short Story: "The Courtship of Susan Bell"

This is in response to Rachel's comment:

I thought this was a touching and beautifully-phrased story. I found a lot of the writing and language techniques Trollope uses as in The Vicar of Bullhampton, that make the rhythm, pulse and tone, timed use of repetition, of the story so musical and beautiful. I was eager for a happy ending, so I was relieved to find it.

The themes of the story seem to be, from what I've read so far in the footnotes and comments on this list, regular concerns of Trollope's, such as the possible "wolf" in sheep's clothing, fear of rejection, etc.

However, the story seemed like a sketch for a novel. In the end, I wanted more detail, more tension and more development of the characters. For example, the relationship between the two sisters seemed very problematic. Why? Of course we can guess, but I finished the story wanting to read more of it.

Rachel
RYoudelman@aol.com

I am slightly surprized you liked it Rachel. The first time I read it, parts of it made me more than a little ill. I especially could not bear the way the daughter weeps on her mother and confides all. I again and again have a hard time believing in some of these sentimental scenes between mothers and daughters Trollope seems so fond of. Did he really believe that when a young girl loves a young man, her first response is to throw some apron over her head, blush, and run into her mother's arms, fall on her knees and confess?

However, this time through I was drawn to the intensity of the emotion. I have since that first read read Rachel Ray which is a much longer treatment of the same triangle--the selfish dense older sister, the weak fearful mother, the more childlike younger sister. I also liked the characterization of Dunn. I don't think I will assign this one to my students, but I found I could respond to it more in the manner Trollope originally intended.

Ellen Moody

From John Hopfner:

With respect to "Susan Bell," it struck me that the narrative has something of an epistolary flavor. Where the narrator says things like "if I had more space, I'd describe the two girls more fully," it's easy to imagine that the narrator is a friend of yours, complaining about the limitations of the remaining sheets of stationery he's got available for his letter.

In the last day or so, Rachel remarked that she found the story "touching and beautifully phrased." This drew a response yesterday from Ellen Moody:

I am slightly surprized you liked it Rachel. The first time I read it, parts of it made me more than a little ill. I especially could not bear the way the daughter weeps on her mother and confides all. I again and again have a hard time believing in some of these sentimental scenes between mothers and daughters Trollope seems so fond of. Did he really believe that when a young girl loves a young man, her first response is to throw some apron over her head, blush, and run into her mothers arm, fall on her knees and confess?

You're vastly more familiar with Trollope than am I, Ellen, so maybe the scene didn't bother me simply because this isn't the umpteenth time I've found one like it in a Trollope story. But I also felt that, in its context, Susan's reaction wasn't out of bounds. Yes, to modern sensibilities her maidenly confusion and blushes don't feel realistic. But not only is Susan herself reasonably well established as a naif, but her mother is a more senior example of the same type. So I found it plausible that Susan would react like a Delicate Victorian Maiden, rather than like any young woman I myself ever knew.

My sense, in other words, was that Trollope wouldn't automatically have written the same reaction into the story with respect to any and every other young woman. After all, Susan's sister Hetta isn't cast as the same blushing-maiden type, is she? If she has a similar scene in the story, I don't recall it.

Finally, I loved the bit where, when Dunn first declares himself and Susan is cudgeling her brains for a response, the narrator observes that whatever else she might say, she knew she couldn't tell the truth. So the female of the species ever appears, to the baffled male....