Book description
"What a villain you are ... a villain and a poor weak silly
fool. She was too good for you."
Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie,
Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her for the aristocratic Lady
Alexandrina. Although crushed by his faithlessness, Lily still
believes she is bound to her unworthy former fianc for life and
therefore condemned to remain single after his betrayal. And when a
more deserving suitor pays his addresses, she is unable to see past
her feelings for Crosbie. Written when Trollope was at the height of
his popularity, The Small House at Allington contains his most
admired heroine in Lily Dale - a young woman of independent spirit who
nonetheless longs to be loved - and is a moving dramatization of the
ways in which personal dilemmas are affected by social pressures.
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in
English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the
beginning of the First World War.
Anthony Trollope (1815-82) was one of the most widely enjoyed and
prolific novelists of the nineteenth century. His books include the
great Chronicles of Barsetshire, of which The Small House at
Allington is the fifth volume. Trollope worked for the Post
Office for much of his adult life, combining postal and literary
business as he travelled around the British Empire. He has been
credited with the creation of the distinctive British pillar box.
The other five titles in the Chronicles of Barsetshire are
The Warden, Barchester Towers, Dr Thorne,
Framley Parsonage and The Last Chronicle of Barset,
all of which are published in the Penguin English Library.
