. . . had Lizzie Eustace been trained as an actress, she would have become a favourite with the town. When there came to her any fair scope for acting, she was perfect. In the ordinary scenes of ordinary life . . . she could not acquit herself well. There was no reality about her, and the want of it was strangely plain to most unobservant eyes. But give her a part to play that required exaggerated, strong action, and she hardly ever failed.
Now and then, I can say exactly how a particular book came to my notice. Here, it was a Miss Manners column that drifted onto the subject of heirlooms. She pointed to The Eustace Diamonds as an illustration of just how tangled the subject can get. Could anyone but Anthony Trollope home in on some obscure point of law, and spin an entire novel out of it?
Is it just me, or . . . does the book’s central character, a woman in her early 20s, bear a striking resemblance to a well-known political figure of today? Habitual liar: Check. In excellent financial circumstances, but complains of being ill-treated: Check. Refers to people by insulting nicknames: Check. Doesn’t really understand the situations she professes to describe: Check. Claims that anything she particularly wants is her personal property, when it legally is not: Check.
The 80 chapters of The Eustace Diamonds originally appeared in the Fortnightly Review—which, as its name indicates, came out once a month—in twenty installments, from July 1871 through February 1873.
In Chapter IX, the author helpfully names all the Fawn girls. The married sister is Clara (Mrs. Hittaway); the others in order of age are Augusta (“who was not wise”), Amelia (“the wise one of the family”), Georgiana (later spelled Georgina), Diana, Lydia, Cecilia, and lastly Nina. In Chapter III, the unmarried daughters’ age spread is given as “down from seven-and-twenty to thirteen”. By the time the main narrative picks up, the youngest is “not yet fifteen”, making the oldest sister dangerously close to thirty. Later in the book Cecilia is sometimes grouped with Nina, sometimes not, suggesting that she is no more than seventeen: almost grown up, but not yet “out”.
Disheartening detail: Three engaged couples figure prominently in the book: Lucy Morris and Frank Greystock, Lizzie Eustace and Lord Fawn, Lucinda Roanoke and Sir Griffin Tewett. Of these six people, only one shows consistent, unwavering affection for her fiancé; a second may have feelings, but he’s such a weasel it’s hard to care. Among the rest, most of them actively dislike each other.
The serial publication had no illustrations. (Darn!) Each volume of the book had a frontispiece. The one for Volume I is shown above; the one for Volume II is shown with installment 13, which includes the scene it depicts. The artist isn’t named, but fortunately he has a nice clear signature:
That’s George Willis Bardwell (1868–1937), whose dates mean that the illustrations might still be under copyright in a few “Life + A Whole Lot” countries.
This ebook is based on the two-volume Dodd, Mead (New York, 1912) edition (Volume I; Volume II). I’ve divided it into 20 segments, corresponding to the installments of the original serial publication.
Typographical errors are marked with mouse-hover popups and are listed again at the end of each four-chapter segment. The word “invisible” means that the letter or punctuation mark is missing, but there is an appropriately sized blank space. “Corrected from Fortnightly Review” means that I had doubts, so I checked the book’s reading against the serial version.
THE
EUSTACE DIAMONDS
BY
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
VOL. I.
VOL. II.
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1912
University Press:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge
The Chronicles of Barsetshire. Comprising:
THE WARDEN, 1 Vol.
BARCHESTER TOWERS, 2 Vols.
DR. THORNE, 2 Vols.
FRAMLEY PARSONAGE, 2 Vols.
THE SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON, 3 Vols.
LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET, 3 Vols.
The Parliamentary Novels. Comprising:
THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS, 2 Vols.
CAN YOU FORGIVE HER, 3 Vols.
PHINEAS FINN, 3 Vols.
PHINEAS REDUX, 3 Vols.
THE PRIME MINISTER, 3 Vols.
THE DUKE’S CHILDREN, 3 Vols.
The Manor House Novels. Comprising:
ORLEY FARM, 3 Vols.
THE VICAR OF BULLHAMPTON, 2 Vols.
IS HE POPENJOY, 2 Vols.
JOHN CALDIGATE, 2 Vols.
THE BELTON ESTATE, 2 Vols.
The Autobiography of Anthony Trollope. 1 Vol.
CHAPTER | PAGE | |
---|---|---|
I. | Lizzie Greystock | 1 |
II. | Lady Eustace | 13 |
III. | Lucy Morris | 25 |
IV. | Frank Greystock | 37 |
V. | The Eustace Necklace | 49 |
VI. | Lady Linlithgow’s Mission | 65 |
VII. | Mr. Burke’s Speeches | 76 |
VIII. | The Conquering Hero comes | 89 |
IX. | Showing what the Miss Fawns said, and what Mrs. Hittaway thought | 98 |
X. | Lizzie and her Lover | 114 |
XI. | Lord Fawn at his Office | 130 |
XII. | I only thought of it | 138 |
XIII. | Showing what Frank Greystock did | 147 |
XIV. | “Doan’t thou marry for Munny!” | 160 |
XV. | “I’ll give you a Hundred-guinea Brooch” | 173 |
XVI. | Certainly an Heirloom | 188 |
XVII. | The Diamonds are seen in Public | 199 |
XVIII. | And I have Nothing to give | 211 |
XIX. | As my Brother | 225 |
XX. | The Diamonds become Troublesome | 240 |
XXI. | “Ianthe’s Soul” | 248 |
I.vi XXII. | Lady Eustace procures a Pony for the Use of her Cousin | 263 |
XXIII. | Frank Greystock’s First Visit to Portray | 271 |
XXIV. | Showing what Frank Greystock thought about Marriage | 285 |
XXV. | Mr. Dove’s Opinion | 295 |
XXVI. | Mr. Gowran is very Funny | 304 |
XXVII. | Lucy Morris Misbehaves | 319 |
XXVIII. | Mr. Dove in his Chambers | 327 |
XXIX. | I had better go away | 343 |
XXX. | Mr. Greystock’s Troubles | 355 |
XXXI. | Frank Greystock’s Second Visit to Portray | 367 |
XXXII. | Mr. and Mrs. Hittaway in Scotland | 383 |
XXXIII. | It won’t be True | 391 |
XXXIV. | Lady Linlithgow at Home | 404 |
XXXV. | Too Bad for Sympathy | 415 |
XXXVI. | Lizzie’s Guests | 428 |
XXXVII. | Lizzie’s First Day | 439 |
XXXVIII. | Nappie’s Gray Horse | 455 |
CHAPTER | PAGE | |
---|---|---|
XXXIX. | Sir Griffin takes an Unfair Advantage | 1 |
XL. | You are not angry | 7 |
XLI. | Likewise the Bears in Couples agree | 13 |
XLII. | Sunday Morning | 26 |
XLIII. | Life at Portray | 34 |
XLIV. | A Midnight Adventure | 47 |
XLV. | The Journey to London | 61 |
XLVI. | Lucy Morris in Brook Street | 72 |
XLVII. | Matching Priory | 88 |
XLVIII. | Lizzie’s Condition | 100 |
XLIX. | Bunfit and Gager | 108 |
L. | In Hertford Street | 120 |
LI. | Confidence | 132 |
LII. | Mrs. Carbuncle goes to the Theatre | 140 |
LIII. | Lizzie’s Sick-Room | 155 |
LIV. | “I suppose I may say a Word” | 170 |
LV. | Quints or Semitenths | 182 |
LVI. | Job’s Comforters | 188 |
LVII. | Humpty Dumpty | 201 |
LVIII. | “The Fiddle with One String” | 216 |
LIX. | Mr. Gowran up in London | 222 |
LX. | Let it be as though it had never been | 234 |
II.vi LXI. | Lizzie’s Great Friend | 249 |
LXII. | “You know where my Heart is” | 269 |
LXIII. | The Corsair is afraid | 279 |
LXIV. | Lizzie’s Last Scheme | 290 |
LXV. | Tribute | 298 |
LXVI. | The Aspirations of Mr. Emilius | 310 |
LXVII. | The Eye of the Public | 322 |
LXVIII. | The Major | 334 |
LXIX. | “I cannot do it” | 347 |
LXX. | Alas! | 363 |
LXXI. | Lizzie is threatened with the Treadmill | 371 |
LXXII. | Lizzie’s Triumphs | 385 |
LXXIII. | Lizzie’s Last Lover | 395 |
LXXIV. | Lizzie at the Police-Court | 412 |
LXXV. | Lord George gives his Reasons | 421 |
LXXVI. | Lizzie Returns to Scotland | 429 |
LXXVII. | The Story of Lucy Morris is concluded | 445 |
LXXVIII. | The Trial | 458 |
LXXIX. | Once more at Portray | 470 |
LXXX. | What was said about it all at Matching | 482 |