Customer Reviews

John Caldigate (Oxford World's Classics)

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John Caldigate is a somewhat weak-willed man where women are concerned, as well as where gambling occurs, so he has managed to bankrupt himself as well as get himself "engaged" to several women through the course of the book, all because he can't say No when he should. Women cause him the greater trouble, but when he eventually returns home to England as a wealthy man (hard work was what made him so) and marries the woman he truly loves, his greatest troubles are now with business associates from his past and his wife's relations. What poses a disaster for himself and his wife (mother of his infant son) is a relationship he had with a "fast" woman, an actress, while he was making his fortune in Australia. She shows up in England, wanting money, and claims that she is actually John's wife. Thus John's marriage is bigamous, his son illegitmate, and his wife downfallen. The extent to which her family interferes, even to kidnapping the wife, is outrageous and dramatic. In fact, most of this book is high drama. It is very entertaining, and it resolves itself nicely, although all John's former "fiancees" do spend much time being thankful that they never married him. There is humor here, and there is tension. A very good read.

Some of Trollope's books I eagerly look forward to rereading--it will be fun to read again about the outrageous Mrs. Proudie, for example, and about the slow realization of Ayala that the homely man with the great character and personality is in truth her "angel of light." But once is enough for me for John Caldigate, although I did enjoy it and do recommend it to Trollope fans. Being born in Australia myself, I was especially interested in the parts about gold mining there, and a friend of mine who is intrigued by gold mining and panning loved reading a description of that. Near the end I was obsessed with discovering how the trial came out and couldn't put the book (or, rather, my Kindle) down. The British justice system was thoroughly dealt with and was interesting. The chilling and eerily realistic portrait of Hester Bolton's mother, a puritanical religious fanatic, was fascinating to me. But it wouldn't be fun to read again about her!