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This is one of Trollope's best novels, in the present writer's opinion. Among several intermingled plots, the story arc of Arabella Trefoil is the most rewarding. The husband-hunting Arabella is absolutely one of Trollope's best characters. She is grand-daughter to a great Duke, yet her social position is precarious, because her father was a wastrel younger son who married a woman of low birth (her father was "in trade!"). He engrossed her large fortune and squandered it, leaving his estranged wife and daughter nearly destitute, and yet with an expensive social position to maintain. Read this book for Trollope's masterly delineation of how these circumstances harrow the soul and deform the character of a young woman. With no fortune except a relentless will, Arabella must marry well to save herself from the abyss of middle-aged spinsterhood, poverty, and social death. Arabella has learned to regard the men in her life as stupid but powerful enemies against whom any cruel or dishonest treatment is thoroughly justified. Men are to be flattered, fooled and captured, or dealt with according to the laws of war. Trollope makes clear that Arabella is what her avaricious, hypocritical, patriarchal social class has made her into, and she is a sympathetic character despite her hardened heart. When she is introduced, she is nearly thirty and is nearing the end of the line as a marriageable girl. "I'll tell you what it is, mamma. I've been at it till I'm nearly broken down. I must settle somewhere;—or else die;—or else run away. I can't stand this any longer and I won't. Talk of work,—men's work! What man ever has to work as I do?"
The eponymous American Senator is Elias Gotobed, of the fictional American state of Mickewa, who visits England apparently in order to inflict his opinions on everyone he meets. Trollope's senator is a self-righteous, pontificating horse's ass who offends against hospitality by lecturing and berating his hosts and their other guests at the dinner table about their laws and customs, and by meddling in local quarrels which are none of his business. In the end, the honour of England is avenged against the obnoxious Solon of Mickewa and he beats a retreat to the States with a flea in his ear. One wonders who the model(s) for this character might have been.
A third storyline involves the romantic vicissitudes of Mary Masters, a country lawyer's daughter and a typical Trollopeian nice, well-principled young girl. All these stories are woven together expertly and seamlessly. This is a book to read and re-read. There are many hunting scenes, and the conversations of the horsey set are strikingly well-observed and most enjoyable, whether you approve of blood sports or not.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Fiction, Legislators, Americans, United States, Social life and customs, marriage, fox-hunting, nobility, English class system, United states, fiction, Fiction, general, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), England, fiction, Great britain, fictionPlaces
Great Britain, London, English country houses, Washington DC, Patagonia (fictional country""""""""Times
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The American Senator (Dodo Press)
September 14, 2007, Dodo Press
Paperback
in English
1406521051 9781406521054
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The American Senator
July 25, 2007, Kessinger Publishing, LLC
Hardcover
in English
0548005656 9780548005651
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The American Senator
October 2006, North Books
Hardcover
in English
- Largeprint edition
1582878943 9781582878942
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The American Senator
January 2004, Kessinger Publishing
Paperback
in English
0766183491 9780766183490
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The American Senator: Volume 1
June 1, 2001, Adamant Media Corporation
Paperback
in English
0543893375 9780543893376
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The American Senator: Volume 2
June 1, 2001, Adamant Media Corporation
Paperback
in English
0543893332 9780543893338
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The American Senator (Oxford World's Classics)
May 13, 1999, Oxford University Press, USA
in English
0192837141 9780192837141
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American Senator: Trollope 1994 (The Complete Novels of Anthony Trollope)
January 1994, Ashgate Publishing
Hardcover
in English
1870587367 9781870587365
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The American Senator: Part 1
January 1992, Audio Book Contractors, Audio Book Contractors, LLC
Audiobook on cassette
in English
1556851073 9781556851070
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The American Senator: Parts 1 & 2 (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection)
January 30, 1987, Audio Book Contractors, Inc.
Audio Cassette
in English
- Unabridged edition
155685787X 9781556857874
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The American Senator: Part 2 (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection)
January 30, 1987, Audio Book Contractors
Audio Cassette
in English
- Unabridged edition
1556857861 9781556857867
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- Created April 29, 2008
- 6 revisions
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August 12, 2010 | Edited by WorkBot | merge works |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
April 14, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Linked existing covers to the edition. |
April 29, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |