‘Talk of honey falling from people’s mouths!—he drops nothing less than champagne and pineapples.’
‘How very difficult of digestion his conversation must be!’
It may feel as if Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) wrote hundreds of novels. In fact there were just 47—about three times as many as Dickens—cranked out at a pace of one or two a year.
One of those 47 novels was Orley Farm. A while back I got a hankering to read it, and . . .
Allow me to vent.
After poring over the options at Major Online Retailer, I carefully selected the one available edition that professed to have the original Millais illustrations. When it arrived, I found myself holding a volume of raw OCR, and realized that Major Online Retailer, unlike its antiquarian-books subsidiary, does not make it easy to identify and exclude Print On Demand books. If I wanted a nice text and the right illustrations, I would have to prepare it myself. This led to a further interesting discovery: the POD volume used the very same publicly downloadable OCR that I would use as my own starting point. Same missing or invisible punctuation, same scanning errors, same uncorrected typos . . . same two missing pages. That’s why OCR, no matter how good, can only be a starting point.
Now then. Ahem. Orley Farm was first published serially—not in a periodical, but as 20 free-standing monthly installments—beginning in March 1861. Look closely at the book, and you will see that each 4-chapter chunk is exactly 32 pages long (two octavo signatures) and has exactly two illustrations. In fact this is one of the hidden benefits of serial publication. Even if you end up buying the novel in book form, the pictures will be evenly distributed through the volume, instead of being huddled together at the beginning, as so often happens.
For “not in a periodical”, read “not in a British periodical”. Beginning in May 1861 and continuing on a two-month delay to the end of the book, each installment appeared in Harper’s (New) Monthly Magazine. I don’t know whether this publication was authorized or not; the International Copyright Act was three decades away, so it may be an academic distinction. If it wasn’t authorized, I can only say they did a very good job of copying the engravings.
Food for thought: The plot of Orley Farm revolves around an act of forgery, twenty years in the past. (If you are French, incidentally, you will have no trouble remembering the calendar date of the Significant Event.) The sole motive of the crime . . . was to ensure something that today would be required by law, namely the support of a minor child.
As you might expect, given the subject, Orley Farm has an enormous number of attorneys. You can tick them off as you meet them:
The female characters cannot, of course, be lawyers; instead they are all named Mary. If you include derivatives, compounds and variant forms—Miriam, Maria, Marian, Mary Anne—there are at least seven all told. (Fun fact: In 1922, when women were finally admitted to the English bar, two of the first four were named . . . Mary.)
John Everett Millais (1829–1896) was not much past 30, but was already a Big Name. In Algernon Graves’s eight-volume list of Royal Academy exhibitors, Millais takes up five double-columned pages, which gives you some idea. Highlights include:
He must have liked Trollope, because he took time off from painting to illustrate several of his novels.
The engraver was an equally big name, Dalziel. Didn’t he have a first name? Well, yes, he did: it was George. Or Edward. Or possibly John, or Thomas . . . or Margaret. Or maybe none of these. In addition to the Dalziel Brothers—and sister—themselves, the engraving firm had at least two dozen employees. All used the same “Dalziel” signature.
In this ebook, the illustrations are generally shown where the book put them, shifted to the nearest paragraph break where appropriate. There were some minor rearrangements in part 19, involving the frontispiece to Volume II; see notes to part 19 (chapters II.XXXIII-XXXVI).
This ebook is based on the 1862 book version (Volume I, Volume II); two missing pages were supplied from a different copy of the same edition. The cover image (above) is from the first serial issue, chosen because the books didn’t have a nice cover. I’ve divided the etext into four-chapter segments, as in the serial version, because it was a convenient size to work with. Besides, it gives a clearer idea of where the cliffhangers—all nineteen of them—fall.
The word “aint” is almost always printed without apostrophe; exceptions—most of them in a single installment—were left as I found them. The words “goodnatured” and “illnatured” are sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not. Variation between “The Cleeve” and “the Cleeve” is in the original. It may or may not have been the author’s intention, but it’s what the typesetter set, so there it stands. Line-end hyphens were sometimes invisible. I haven’t identified them individually; the same goes for other line-final punctuation if the omission was unambiguous. All -ize spellings are in the original. It’s unusual to find these old-fashioned spellings alongside the newfangled single quotation marks (‘inverted commas’)—but, again, there you have it.
The original book was heavily foxed, to the point where a modern humorist would throw in a few additional adjectives like “wolved” or “badgered”. You can expect to find a good many splodges on the illustrations; I didn’t try to clean them up.
Page numbers in [brackets] indicate full-page illustrations that have been moved to the nearest paragraph break. Page numbers ending in “a” were printed as unpaginated plates (blank on the back) facing a numbered page.
Typographical errors are marked with mouse-hover popups and are listed again at the end of each section. The word “invisible” means that the letter or punctuation mark is missing, but there is an appropriately sized blank space.
ORLEY FARM.
BY
ANTHONY TROLLOPE,
AUTHOR OF
“DOCTOR THORNE,” “BARCHESTER TOWERS,” “FRAMLEY PARSONAGE,” ETC.
With Illustrations
BY J. E. MILLAIS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY.
1862.
[The right of Translation is reserved.]
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
CHAPTER | PAGE | |
---|---|---|
I.— | THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE GREAT ORLEY FARM CASE | 1 |
II.— | LADY MASON AND HER SON | 10 |
III.— | THE CLEEVE | 21 |
IV.— | THE PERILS OF YOUTH | 27 |
V.— | SIR PEREGRINE MAKES A SECOND PROMISE | 33 |
VI.— | THE COMMERCIAL ROOM, BULL INN, LEEDS | 38 |
VII.— | THE MASONS OF GROBY PARK | 49 |
VIII.— | MRS. MASON’S HOT LUNCHEON | 60 |
IX.— | A CONVIVIAL MEETING | 65 |
X.— | MR., MRS., AND MISS FURNIVAL | 74 |
XI.— | MRS. FURNIVAL AT HOME | 81 |
XII.— | MR. FURNIVAL’S CHAMBERS | 89 |
XIII.— | GUILTY, OR NOT GUILTY | 97 |
XIV.— | DINNER AT THE CLEEVE | 105 |
XV.— | A MORNING CALL AT MOUNT PLEASANT VILLA | 113 |
XVI.— | MR. DOCKWRATH IN BEDFORD ROW | 121 |
XVII.— | VON BAUHR | 129 |
XVIII.— | THE ENGLISH VON BAUHR | 137 |
XIX.— | THE STAVELEY FAMILY | 143 |
XX.— | MR. DOCKWRATH IN HIS OWN OFFICE | 154 |
XXI.— | CHRISTMAS IN HARLEY STREET | 161 |
XXII.— | CHRISTMAS AT NONINGSBY | 169 |
XXIII.— | CHRISTMAS AT GROBY PARK | 180 |
XXIV.— | CHRISTMAS IN GREAT ST. HELENS | 186 |
XXV.— | MR. FURNIVAL AGAIN AT HIS CHAMBERS | 193 |
XXVI.— | WHY SHOULD I NOT? | 201 |
XXVII.— | COMMERCE | 210 |
XXVIII.— | MONKTON GRANGE | 216 |
XXIX.— | BREAKING COVERT | 225 |
XXX.— | ANOTHER FALL | 232 |
XXXI.— | FOOTSTEPS IN THE CORRIDOR | 240 |
XXXII.— | WHAT BRIDGET BOLSTER HAD TO SAY | 246 |
XXXIII.— | THE ANGEL OF LIGHT | 257 |
XXXIV.— | MR. FURNIVAL LOOKS FOR ASSISTANCE | 265 |
XXXV.— | LOVE WAS STILL THE LORD OF ALL | 271 |
XXXVI.— | WHAT THE YOUNG MEN THOUGHT ABOUT IT | 281 |
XXXVII.— | PEREGRINE’S ELOQUENCE | 289 |
XXXVIII.— | OH, INDEED! | 296 |
XXXIX.— | WHY SHOULD HE GO? | 302 |
XL.— | I CALL IT AWFUL | 315 |
CHAPTER | PAGE | |
---|---|---|
I.— | HOW CAN I SAVE HIM? | 1 |
II.— | JOHN KENNEBY GOES TO HAMWORTH | 9 |
III.— | JOHN KENNEBY’S COURTSHIP | 15 |
IV.— | SHOWING HOW LADY MASON COULD BE VERY NOBLE | 22 |
V.— | SHOWING HOW MRS. ORME COULD BE VERY WEAK-MINDED | 33 |
VI.— | A WOMAN’S IDEA OF FRIENDSHIP | 42 |
VII.— | THE GEM OF THE FOUR FAMILIES | 48 |
VIII.— | THE ANGEL OF LIGHT UNDER A CLOUD | 55 |
IX.— | MRS. FURNIVAL CAN’T PUT UP WITH IT | 65 |
X.— | IT IS QUITE IMPOSSIBLE | 72 |
XI.— | MRS. FURNIVAL’S JOURNEY TO HAMWORTH | 83 |
XII.— | SHOWING HOW THINGS WENT ON AT NONINGSBY | 90 |
XIII.— | LADY MASON RETURNS HOME | 97 |
XIV.— | TELLING ALL THAT HAPPENED BENEATH THE LAMP-POST | 106 |
XV.— | WHAT TOOK PLACE IN HARLEY STREET | 114 |
XVI.— | HOW SIR PEREGRINE DID BUSINESS WITH MR. ROUND | 122 |
XVII.— | THE LOVES AND HOPES OF ALBERT FITZALLEN | 129 |
XVIII.— | MISS STAVELEY DECLINES TO EAT MINCED VEAL | 136 |
XIX.— | NO SURRENDER | 145 |
XX.— | WHAT REBEKAH DID FOR HER SON | 153 |
XXI.— | THE STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION | 161 |
XXII.— | WHAT THE FOUR LAWYERS THOUGHT ABOUT IT | 169 |
XXIII.— | THE EVENING BEFORE THE TRIAL | 176 |
XXIV.— | THE FIRST JOURNEY TO ALSTON | 185 |
XXV.— | FELIX GRAHAM RETURNS TO NONINGSBY | 193 |
XXVI.— | HOW MISS FURNIVAL TREATED HER LOVERS | 202 |
XXVII.— | MR. MOULDER BACKS HIS OPINION | 210 |
XXVIII.— | THE FIRST DAY OF THE TRIAL | 216 |
XXIX.— | THE TWO JUDGES | 225 |
XXX.— | HOW AM I TO BEAR IT? | 231 |
XXXI.— | SHOWING HOW JOHN KENNEBY AND BRIDGET BOLSTER BORE THEMSELVES IN COURT | 240 |
XXXII.— | MR. FURNIVAL’S SPEECH | 250 |
XXXIII.— | MRS. ORME TELLS THE STORY | 257 |
XXXIV.— | YOUNG LOCHINVAR | 266 |
XXXV.— | THE LAST DAY | 273 |
XXXVI.— | I LOVE HER STILL | 281 |
XXXVII.— | JOHN KENNEBY’S DOOM | 289 |
XXXVIII.— | THE LAST OF THE LAWYERS | 296 |
XXXIX.— | FAREWELL | 305 |
XL.— | SHOWING HOW AFFAIRS SETTLED THEMSELVES AT NONINGSBY | 314 |
PAGE | |
---|---|
ORLEY FARM | Frontispiece. |
SIR PEREGRINE AND HIS HEIR | 17 |
“THERE WAS SORROW IN HER HEART, AND DEEP THOUGHT IN HER MIND” | 36 |
“THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IRON, SIR; NOTHING” | 46 |
AND THEN THEY ALL MARCHED OUT OF THE ROOM, EACH WITH HIS OWN GLASS | 73 |
MR. FURNIVAL’S WELCOME HOME | 87 |
“YOUR SON LUCIUS DID SAY—SHOPPING” | 98 |
OVER THEIR WINE | 111 |
VON BAUHR’S DREAM | 136 |
THE ENGLISH VON BAUHR AND HIS PUPIL | 141 |
CHRISTMAS AT NONINGSBY.—MORNING | 169 |
CHRISTMAS AT NONINGSBY.—EVENING | 175 |
“WHY SHOULD I NOT?” | 201 |
MONKTON GRANGE | 216 |
FELIX GRAHAM IN TROUBLE | 227 |
FOOTSTEPS IN THE CORRIDOR | 240 |
THE ANGEL OF LIGHT | 257 |
LUCIUS MASON IN HIS STUDY | 283 |
PEREGRINE’S ELOQUENCE | 289 |
LADY STAVELEY INTERRUPTING HER SON AND SOPHIA FURNIVAL | 306 |
PAGE | |
---|---|
LADY MASON LEAVING THE COURT | Frontispiece. |
JOHN KENNEBY AND MIRIAM DOCKWRATH | 11 |
GUILTY | 32 |
LADY MASON AFTER HER CONFESSION | 40 |
BREAD SAUCE IS SO TICKLISH | 48 |
“NEVER IS A VERY LONG WORD” | 77 |
“TOM,” SHE SAID, “I HAVE COME BACK” | 89 |
LADY MASON GOING BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES | 97 |
SIR PEREGRINE AT MR. ROUND’S OFFICE | 126 |
“TELL ME, MADELINE, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW” | 144 |
NO SURRENDER | 149 |
MR. CHAFFANBRASS AND MR. SOLOMON ARAM | 172 |
THE COURT | 191 |
THE DRAWING ROOM AT NONINGSBY | 202 |
“AND HOW ARE THEY ALL AT NONINGSBY?” | 206 |
HOW CAN I BEAR IT? | 240 |
BRIDGET BOLSTER IN COURT | 247 |
LUCIUS MASON, AS HE LEANED ON THE GATE THAT WAS NO LONGER HIS OWN | 265 |
FAREWELL | 305 |
FAREWELL | 311 |
[Volume I] AND THEN THEY ALL MARCHED OUT OF THE ROOM, EACH WITH HIS OWN GLASS 73
page number “73” missing
[Volume II] LADY MASON LEAVING THE COURT Frontispiece
[This illustration has been moved to its natural position in Chapter II.XXXIII (part 19).]
[Volume II] FAREWELL 311
text has 314
[The duplicate Farewells are not an error: both illustrations in the final installment have the same caption.]