What do you think?
Rate this book
Rachel Ray
Rachel Ray offers a masterly and entertaining evocation of a small community living its life in mid-nineteenth-century England. The novel first appeared in 1863, a year in which public reaction against the excesses of the popular sensationalist novel prompted Trollope to state that he was writing about "the commonest details of commonplace life among the most ordinary people."
391 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1863
85 people are currently reading
1499 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Trollope
2,284 books1,757 followersAnthony Trollope became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works, known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire; he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.
Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...
Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 134 reviews
February 9, 2021
Rachel Ray is my first exposure to Anthony Trollope. Trollope was a popular Victorian author, and perhaps it is quite a remiss on my part for not becoming acquainted with him before. But with this read, I intend to rectify my omission.
As an introduction to Trollope works, Rachel Ray may not be the best starting point. It isn't one of his more popular novels, but still, I think it is a good enough introduction to the world of Trollope.
The title of the book, Rachel Ray, is rather deceiving. It gives us the impression that what we are about to read is the story of a young girl. Of course, the key part of the story touches on the life of Rachel Ray, who is the female protagonist, but it is not about her. The best description of this novel would be that it is more or less a story of the everyday life of a provincial Victorian town with the life patterns, the attitudes, the jealousies, the gossip that often leads to misrepresentations and misunderstandings, romance, class differences, politics, and religion, all being thrown together.
A sweet but unsettled romance of Rachel Ray with a newcomer to the town, Mr. Luke Rowan, and a dispute over a business establishment between this Mr. Rowan and an established brewer of the town serves as the backdrop for Trollope to tell his story of this provincial Victorian town. The story, on the whole, revolves around these two intermingled plots. The newcomer, Mr. Luke Rowan, disturbs the peace of the quiet Baselhurst with his imperious and egotistical conduct. His offence is considerable when he declares war against the brewer Mr. Tappit. But when he falls in love with an insignificant but beautiful Rachel, the offense becomes almost a sin and unpardonable. Trollope says quite a lot through these two simple storylines. Quite satirically, he portrays the indignation of the Baselhurst people who believed themselves to have been injured by the actions of this stranger who comes with all authority from London. Not only that, Trollope brings out the general, conventional, religious, and political attitudes of these provincial people through this outcome.
Trollope's writing is surprisingly light for a Victorian novel. The overall tone was cheery. The satire is unmistakable. Considering as a whole, his style is more in line with Jane Austen than his Victorian contemporaries. I felt a similar touch to Jane Austen all through the novel. Trollope is a Victorian novelist who is comparatively easy to read and who, with care, avoids being verbose, and I truly like that about him. It always makes the reading experience very pleasurable as it did here.
Rachel Ray as my first Trollope was an enjoyable read. It may not fall within Trollope's best works, but it still was an entertaining story that held my interest all through. This will be just a beginning for me and I hope that I'll have a pleasant journey with him.
As an introduction to Trollope works, Rachel Ray may not be the best starting point. It isn't one of his more popular novels, but still, I think it is a good enough introduction to the world of Trollope.
The title of the book, Rachel Ray, is rather deceiving. It gives us the impression that what we are about to read is the story of a young girl. Of course, the key part of the story touches on the life of Rachel Ray, who is the female protagonist, but it is not about her. The best description of this novel would be that it is more or less a story of the everyday life of a provincial Victorian town with the life patterns, the attitudes, the jealousies, the gossip that often leads to misrepresentations and misunderstandings, romance, class differences, politics, and religion, all being thrown together.
A sweet but unsettled romance of Rachel Ray with a newcomer to the town, Mr. Luke Rowan, and a dispute over a business establishment between this Mr. Rowan and an established brewer of the town serves as the backdrop for Trollope to tell his story of this provincial Victorian town. The story, on the whole, revolves around these two intermingled plots. The newcomer, Mr. Luke Rowan, disturbs the peace of the quiet Baselhurst with his imperious and egotistical conduct. His offence is considerable when he declares war against the brewer Mr. Tappit. But when he falls in love with an insignificant but beautiful Rachel, the offense becomes almost a sin and unpardonable. Trollope says quite a lot through these two simple storylines. Quite satirically, he portrays the indignation of the Baselhurst people who believed themselves to have been injured by the actions of this stranger who comes with all authority from London. Not only that, Trollope brings out the general, conventional, religious, and political attitudes of these provincial people through this outcome.
Trollope's writing is surprisingly light for a Victorian novel. The overall tone was cheery. The satire is unmistakable. Considering as a whole, his style is more in line with Jane Austen than his Victorian contemporaries. I felt a similar touch to Jane Austen all through the novel. Trollope is a Victorian novelist who is comparatively easy to read and who, with care, avoids being verbose, and I truly like that about him. It always makes the reading experience very pleasurable as it did here.
Rachel Ray as my first Trollope was an enjoyable read. It may not fall within Trollope's best works, but it still was an entertaining story that held my interest all through. This will be just a beginning for me and I hope that I'll have a pleasant journey with him.
May 11, 2011
Written in 1863, near the beginning of his career, Rachel Ray is one of Anthony Trollope's sweetest, tightest, and most charming novels. The eponymous young lady is the daughter of one widow and sister of another. She falls for a handsome young man named Luke Rowan, who is the partner in a local brewery run by Mr. Thomas Tappitt, who has three young daughters to marry off. When Luke falls hard for Rachel, the Tappitt family becomes his enemy -- especially after he impugned the quality of their beer and how he could improve it.
Another enemy of the relationship is the local evangelical contingent, headed by the Rev. Mr. Prong and Rachel's sister Dorothea Prime -- two of the most unlovable characters Trollope has ever created.
On the other side is Mrs. Butler Cornbury, the well-wishing daughter of the Rays' pastor, the Rev. Charles Comfort, and the Rays' farmer neighbors, the Sturts.
In the conflict between these forces, and the wavering of Rachel's mother, it becomes evident that ... but I don't want to spoil the gratifying and well configured conclusion.
If you are not familiar with Trollope's works, I think that Rachel Ray would be a good place to start. Over the last six years participating in a group read of his novels, I would have to say that the overwhelming majority of them are superb; and only one or two can be classified as legitimate stinkers. That's not bad considering the man wrote forty-seven novels.
Another enemy of the relationship is the local evangelical contingent, headed by the Rev. Mr. Prong and Rachel's sister Dorothea Prime -- two of the most unlovable characters Trollope has ever created.
On the other side is Mrs. Butler Cornbury, the well-wishing daughter of the Rays' pastor, the Rev. Charles Comfort, and the Rays' farmer neighbors, the Sturts.
In the conflict between these forces, and the wavering of Rachel's mother, it becomes evident that ... but I don't want to spoil the gratifying and well configured conclusion.
If you are not familiar with Trollope's works, I think that Rachel Ray would be a good place to start. Over the last six years participating in a group read of his novels, I would have to say that the overwhelming majority of them are superb; and only one or two can be classified as legitimate stinkers. That's not bad considering the man wrote forty-seven novels.
July 1, 2016
Provincial balls, virginal heroines, bumbling clergymen, and lashings of EVOO.
March 31, 2022
An introspective look into provincial affairs using the backdrop of the Trollopian universe. A dramatic and often humorous microcosm of the countryside on the cusp of the industrial revolution. Rachel Ray is a homely girl, living with her widowed mother and sister in the fictitious village of Bragg's End. In the neighboring town, Luke Rowan—a London gentleman who holds stake in the local brewing facility—arrives and causes quite a stir in both industry and matters of the heart. Although Rachel is content with her life, her sister’s evangelical fear of society causes her to question some of her own familial doctrines. Once Luke Rowan comes into the picture, these zealous guidelines are ruffled greatly, causing a ripple effect of progressive thought on all tiers of stratification.
Anthony Trollope is as prolific as Charles Dickens and less dense than most of his Victorian brethren. I feel this is an excellent stand-alone novel for its societal implications and opportunities for group discussion. I am eager to dive into his Barchester series and immerse myself in those clerical dramas.
Anthony Trollope is as prolific as Charles Dickens and less dense than most of his Victorian brethren. I feel this is an excellent stand-alone novel for its societal implications and opportunities for group discussion. I am eager to dive into his Barchester series and immerse myself in those clerical dramas.
September 17, 2020
A Controversial Book
I do not know about British or American media, but in German newspapers the adjective “controversial” is being more and more used as a means of labelling a person or a book as inflicted with, and probably inflicting upon others, intellectual leprosy. Thus, the epithet “controversial” can be bestowed both upon downright jerks as well as on intellectuals whose opinions are at variance with the more and more left-leaning published opinion, blurring the line between the jerks and those whose ideas deserve to be taken seriously and to be given some consideration. Another, doubtless unintended, side effect of this shift in meaning of the adjective “controversial” is the fact that it implies that there are people and opinions that are basically uncontroversial, which must make them rather bland and boring. Imagine a politician or an intellectual who has never sparked off real discussion or uttered any thought that divided public opinion but just chewed the cud. Admittedly, this is not very tough to imagine these days.
On the other hand, it is quite hard to believe but Anthony Trollope’s rather Arcadian novel Rachel Ray was, in its day and age, a most controversial book. At first sight, this may puzzle the modern reader because its major conflicts focus on the obstacles that Rachel’s and Luke Rowan’s families and friends pose to their love affair as well as Rowan’s strife for more influence in a Devonshire brewery his great-uncle set up with a certain Mr. Tappitt. Rowan wants to brew high-quality beer, whereas Mr. Tappitt, who has been used to running the business on his own and without any interference from a third party, is averse to any change at all, the upshot of it all being that either Mr. Tappitt must pay out the newcomer or that Rowan takes over and makes the older partner a handsome annual allowance. These everyday conflicts are dealt with in a most contemplative, quite humorous manner, and one of the most urgent questions treated in the first third of the novel is the world-shaking controversy of whether a young woman like Rachel should be allowed to visit a country-ball or not, and one where people are actually … waltzing! Almost any character introduced so far has their say in the matter, and Mrs. Prime, Rachel’s elder battle-axe sister, even falls out with her family over this question and moves out.
Talking of Mrs. Prime, we are approaching the reason why Rachel Ray had it in itself to divide contemporary readers’ opinions because she and the Heepish Low Church clergyman Prong, who has zeroed in on Mrs. Prime as his wife and her first husband’s money as his own, are probably among the most despicable characters Trollope ever created. There are basically no redeeming features in the portrayal of these two zealots, and once again – you may remember Mr. Slope from the Barsetshire series – Trollope clearly shows his contempt of Low Church bigotry. The only problem was that Rachel Ray was originally a kind of remittance work: Trollope was asked by his friend Norman Macleod to write a serialized novel for his magazine Good Words, whose readership mainly consisted of lower middle-class Evangelical and Nonconformist individuals. When Trollope had finished the novel and sent it in to Macleod, this Presbyterian preacher decided that the negative portrayal of characters like Mr. Prong, Mrs. Prime and the squinting and backbiting Miss Pucker might make the whole work unpalatable to most of his readers, and so he declined to publish it. He paid Trollope half of the £1,000 he originally promised, and the author struck another deal with Chapman & Hall, which gained him another £500 for an edition of 1,500 copies.
What was likely to cause rifts, ripples and reverberations in Trollope’s society would nowadays at best evoke a placid smile from readers, but ironically there is another aspect of the book that will not leave a modern public cold, whereas it might have run smoothly for most Victorian readers – and this is Trollope’s leanings towards anti-Semitism that shine through in Rachel Ray, as in some of his other books. One of the sub-plots of the novel deals with a parliamentary election and the Conservative local candidate is challenged by a Liberal, a tailor by the name of Hart who happens to be a Jew. The disturbing thing is that all the characters we are supposed to like reject and oppose Mr. Hart, on the ground of his being Jewish, and they hardly mince their words in their criticism. One may say that it is never good to confuse the voices of the characters in a book with the voice of the author, but then we might suppose that Trollope’s narrator is hardly any different from Trollope himself, which makes it very hard to stomach that even this avuncular narrator himself joins his characters in their vile anti-Semitic prejudice. At one point, his obloquy trades in the same racist stereotypes that would later be the staple fare of political anti-Semitism in Europe:
This sounds like taken from Richard Wagner’s miserable pamphlet Das Judenthum in der Musik, and I admit that it is one of the reasons why I cannot recommend Rachel Ray as highly as I might other works by Anthony Trollope – all the less so as anti-Semitism was by no means the only common attitude for Trollope’s contemporaries to hold towards Jewish people. Luckily, these anti-Semitic rants do not run throughout the entire novel but they do leave a very disturbing impression. Still, Trollope is able to capture the reader’s interest and sympathy despite these racist lapses, and as quite often he does this through some of his characters. While I did not particularly like the cock-sure Luke Rowan or the rather passive and submissive Rachel, I did like and sympathize with Rachel’s mother Mrs. Rowan. This rather timid and impressionable matron is torn between her love for her younger daughter as well as her liking for Ray’s suitor on the one hand and her awe of that uptight sourpuss, Mrs. Prime, and her misgivings about the honesty of young men in general on the other, and it is quite fascinating how Trollope has us participate in the mother’s inner conflict.
Rachel Ray may not be on the same level as the author’s more renowned works, it may even come over as rather homespun on the whole, but it does have some magic moments for all that.
I do not know about British or American media, but in German newspapers the adjective “controversial” is being more and more used as a means of labelling a person or a book as inflicted with, and probably inflicting upon others, intellectual leprosy. Thus, the epithet “controversial” can be bestowed both upon downright jerks as well as on intellectuals whose opinions are at variance with the more and more left-leaning published opinion, blurring the line between the jerks and those whose ideas deserve to be taken seriously and to be given some consideration. Another, doubtless unintended, side effect of this shift in meaning of the adjective “controversial” is the fact that it implies that there are people and opinions that are basically uncontroversial, which must make them rather bland and boring. Imagine a politician or an intellectual who has never sparked off real discussion or uttered any thought that divided public opinion but just chewed the cud. Admittedly, this is not very tough to imagine these days.
On the other hand, it is quite hard to believe but Anthony Trollope’s rather Arcadian novel Rachel Ray was, in its day and age, a most controversial book. At first sight, this may puzzle the modern reader because its major conflicts focus on the obstacles that Rachel’s and Luke Rowan’s families and friends pose to their love affair as well as Rowan’s strife for more influence in a Devonshire brewery his great-uncle set up with a certain Mr. Tappitt. Rowan wants to brew high-quality beer, whereas Mr. Tappitt, who has been used to running the business on his own and without any interference from a third party, is averse to any change at all, the upshot of it all being that either Mr. Tappitt must pay out the newcomer or that Rowan takes over and makes the older partner a handsome annual allowance. These everyday conflicts are dealt with in a most contemplative, quite humorous manner, and one of the most urgent questions treated in the first third of the novel is the world-shaking controversy of whether a young woman like Rachel should be allowed to visit a country-ball or not, and one where people are actually … waltzing! Almost any character introduced so far has their say in the matter, and Mrs. Prime, Rachel’s elder battle-axe sister, even falls out with her family over this question and moves out.
Talking of Mrs. Prime, we are approaching the reason why Rachel Ray had it in itself to divide contemporary readers’ opinions because she and the Heepish Low Church clergyman Prong, who has zeroed in on Mrs. Prime as his wife and her first husband’s money as his own, are probably among the most despicable characters Trollope ever created. There are basically no redeeming features in the portrayal of these two zealots, and once again – you may remember Mr. Slope from the Barsetshire series – Trollope clearly shows his contempt of Low Church bigotry. The only problem was that Rachel Ray was originally a kind of remittance work: Trollope was asked by his friend Norman Macleod to write a serialized novel for his magazine Good Words, whose readership mainly consisted of lower middle-class Evangelical and Nonconformist individuals. When Trollope had finished the novel and sent it in to Macleod, this Presbyterian preacher decided that the negative portrayal of characters like Mr. Prong, Mrs. Prime and the squinting and backbiting Miss Pucker might make the whole work unpalatable to most of his readers, and so he declined to publish it. He paid Trollope half of the £1,000 he originally promised, and the author struck another deal with Chapman & Hall, which gained him another £500 for an edition of 1,500 copies.
What was likely to cause rifts, ripples and reverberations in Trollope’s society would nowadays at best evoke a placid smile from readers, but ironically there is another aspect of the book that will not leave a modern public cold, whereas it might have run smoothly for most Victorian readers – and this is Trollope’s leanings towards anti-Semitism that shine through in Rachel Ray, as in some of his other books. One of the sub-plots of the novel deals with a parliamentary election and the Conservative local candidate is challenged by a Liberal, a tailor by the name of Hart who happens to be a Jew. The disturbing thing is that all the characters we are supposed to like reject and oppose Mr. Hart, on the ground of his being Jewish, and they hardly mince their words in their criticism. One may say that it is never good to confuse the voices of the characters in a book with the voice of the author, but then we might suppose that Trollope’s narrator is hardly any different from Trollope himself, which makes it very hard to stomach that even this avuncular narrator himself joins his characters in their vile anti-Semitic prejudice. At one point, his obloquy trades in the same racist stereotypes that would later be the staple fare of political anti-Semitism in Europe:
”English country gentlemen are not to be classed among that section of mankind which speaks easily in public, but Jews, I think, may be so classed. The men who speak thus easily and with natural fluency, are also they who learn languages easily. They are men who observer rather than think, who remember rather than create, who may not have great mental powers, but are ever ready with what they have, whose best word is at their command at a moment, and is then serviceable though perhaps incapable of more enduring service.”
This sounds like taken from Richard Wagner’s miserable pamphlet Das Judenthum in der Musik, and I admit that it is one of the reasons why I cannot recommend Rachel Ray as highly as I might other works by Anthony Trollope – all the less so as anti-Semitism was by no means the only common attitude for Trollope’s contemporaries to hold towards Jewish people. Luckily, these anti-Semitic rants do not run throughout the entire novel but they do leave a very disturbing impression. Still, Trollope is able to capture the reader’s interest and sympathy despite these racist lapses, and as quite often he does this through some of his characters. While I did not particularly like the cock-sure Luke Rowan or the rather passive and submissive Rachel, I did like and sympathize with Rachel’s mother Mrs. Rowan. This rather timid and impressionable matron is torn between her love for her younger daughter as well as her liking for Ray’s suitor on the one hand and her awe of that uptight sourpuss, Mrs. Prime, and her misgivings about the honesty of young men in general on the other, and it is quite fascinating how Trollope has us participate in the mother’s inner conflict.
Rachel Ray may not be on the same level as the author’s more renowned works, it may even come over as rather homespun on the whole, but it does have some magic moments for all that.
June 3, 2021
Early Trollope—lacks the complexity, the humor, and the gutting character portraits of his more mature work.
For completists.
For completists.
July 25, 2010
Absolutely and completely delighful, happy read. :) From my limited Trollope reading so far, I take back what I said about beginning him with "Ayala's Angel" and think THIS book a far better representation of the general feel and scope of his work.
While not anywhere near as thoughtful, or thought-provoking as, say, the Barsetshire Chronicles, more light, fluffy, happy, and, I'll say it--romantic ;) but altogether a novel one wants to fall into and never return from. This is Victorian English Country-side escapism for the modern reader at its best! Even though Trollope didn't go into too much detail of the little cottage at Bragg's End (Rachel's home) I could still practically smell the roses.
Anyway, this edition, Penguin Classics, has a great intro that makes the book and its subject matter of even more interest. A great friend of Trollope's, who happened to be 1) an Evangelical minister; and 2) the editor of a very popular Evangelical literary magazine, asked Trollope to write him a short novella for his magazine, tending the theme and format to the particular readers he catered to, the Evangelical/Baptist population in Britian.
Trollope knew his friend well, and knew in particular, that this Evangelical friend was no lover of the dour, "this world is a vale-of-tears-and-nothing-else" preachings and teachings of some of his set. Trollope undertook to play to those feelings and in "Rachel Ray" we encounter 1) the idea that dancing isn't all bad; 2) two preachers, one somewhat hypocritical yet kindly, and one somewhat hypocritical and totally creepy; and 3) the idea that Evangelicals (as Trollope saw them) weren't the only good Christians around (in fact, some of them were particularly foolish and un-Christian.)
So, this friend of Trollope's, the editor and preacher, may have liked the book personally, but he knew it just wouldn't go with his audience and he declined to publish it. As much as I love Trollope and think he was a very good man, he acted, in this instance, kind of like a baby, insisted on his pay regardless (which was his due) but put a few fresh barbs against what he thought of as the silliness of the movement into his manuscript and found another buyer, all the while criticizing his friend publicly (that last was the part I thought was poor sportsman-like). Anyway, I found the story and the intro fascinating.
Returning to the actual book, this is pure Trollopiana. You love the main characters, Rachel, Luke, (readers who know my family, isn't that a funny thing--those names? If I'd read this years ago, I could have blamed the kids' names on this), and Rachel's mother. You want to hate Rachel's sister and the nasty Tappits family, but you end up seeing another side of them that you just can't totally despise. Unfortunately you don't ever love the nasty Mr. Prong (the icky ultra-dour preacher), but we love to be disgusted with him anyway--not as any type of comment on Evangelicals, but only on his greasy character.
So anyway, anyone in need of a delightful, quick, nostalgic read, go for it. Thanks Jo--for buying it for me!!
This might be of interest to anyone who contemplates true courtship and maidenly modesty and obedience of children to parents and ecclesiastical leaders.
While not anywhere near as thoughtful, or thought-provoking as, say, the Barsetshire Chronicles, more light, fluffy, happy, and, I'll say it--romantic ;) but altogether a novel one wants to fall into and never return from. This is Victorian English Country-side escapism for the modern reader at its best! Even though Trollope didn't go into too much detail of the little cottage at Bragg's End (Rachel's home) I could still practically smell the roses.
Anyway, this edition, Penguin Classics, has a great intro that makes the book and its subject matter of even more interest. A great friend of Trollope's, who happened to be 1) an Evangelical minister; and 2) the editor of a very popular Evangelical literary magazine, asked Trollope to write him a short novella for his magazine, tending the theme and format to the particular readers he catered to, the Evangelical/Baptist population in Britian.
Trollope knew his friend well, and knew in particular, that this Evangelical friend was no lover of the dour, "this world is a vale-of-tears-and-nothing-else" preachings and teachings of some of his set. Trollope undertook to play to those feelings and in "Rachel Ray" we encounter 1) the idea that dancing isn't all bad; 2) two preachers, one somewhat hypocritical yet kindly, and one somewhat hypocritical and totally creepy; and 3) the idea that Evangelicals (as Trollope saw them) weren't the only good Christians around (in fact, some of them were particularly foolish and un-Christian.)
So, this friend of Trollope's, the editor and preacher, may have liked the book personally, but he knew it just wouldn't go with his audience and he declined to publish it. As much as I love Trollope and think he was a very good man, he acted, in this instance, kind of like a baby, insisted on his pay regardless (which was his due) but put a few fresh barbs against what he thought of as the silliness of the movement into his manuscript and found another buyer, all the while criticizing his friend publicly (that last was the part I thought was poor sportsman-like). Anyway, I found the story and the intro fascinating.
Returning to the actual book, this is pure Trollopiana. You love the main characters, Rachel, Luke, (readers who know my family, isn't that a funny thing--those names? If I'd read this years ago, I could have blamed the kids' names on this), and Rachel's mother. You want to hate Rachel's sister and the nasty Tappits family, but you end up seeing another side of them that you just can't totally despise. Unfortunately you don't ever love the nasty Mr. Prong (the icky ultra-dour preacher), but we love to be disgusted with him anyway--not as any type of comment on Evangelicals, but only on his greasy character.
So anyway, anyone in need of a delightful, quick, nostalgic read, go for it. Thanks Jo--for buying it for me!!
This might be of interest to anyone who contemplates true courtship and maidenly modesty and obedience of children to parents and ecclesiastical leaders.
November 21, 2020
An enjoyable read, a quick one for Trollope.
In Trollope’s style, we see Characters at their best and worst. Romance, evil, idolatry, bigotry, condescension, rudeness... if there was a soap opera in Trollope’s time...? But no, his novels have so much more depth. He brings you along and makes you part of the character. I always appreciate how he makes his characters very well rounded. You’re not always rooting for the hero or heroine because they are human and can be jerks sometimes too. And we’re not always hating the villains because they also are human and we are alllowed to understand that and see them all as multi-dimensional.
I enjoy Trollope’s writing and this book was a pleasure to read.
In Trollope’s style, we see Characters at their best and worst. Romance, evil, idolatry, bigotry, condescension, rudeness... if there was a soap opera in Trollope’s time...? But no, his novels have so much more depth. He brings you along and makes you part of the character. I always appreciate how he makes his characters very well rounded. You’re not always rooting for the hero or heroine because they are human and can be jerks sometimes too. And we’re not always hating the villains because they also are human and we are alllowed to understand that and see them all as multi-dimensional.
I enjoy Trollope’s writing and this book was a pleasure to read.
November 6, 2020
Just as lovely and delightful a novel as anyone could hope to read! Trollope touches just briefly on the small town politics and social prejudice that keep the novel moving, while crafting believable characters who charm a reader’s heart.
June 7, 2017
This was a prime example of how well Trollope writes his female characterizations. One of his minor characters has squinty eyes and a narrow view of life, and she is the one who sees something and starts all the trouble. The widowed sister whose sour countenance can be full of dark looks does, indeed, have a sour, dark outlook on life. Young Rachel Ray herself, though shy and obedient, has more fortitude within than one might expect.
The Trollope Society has this classed with the Comic Novels. I'm not sure what criteria they used in their classifications. I find many amusing passages in all of Trollope's novels and this one included much drama. However, not to give too much away, there is within this some womanly manipulation of a husband that I suppose some would find comic.
Because I've become such a fan, I'm beginning to think my ratings of Trollope are less reliable than perhaps other readers' opinions. That said, this is another read that sits toward the top of my 4-star pile. It's also shorter than many of my Trollope favorites, so you wouldn't run amiss even starting with this one to see if you like him enough to reach for his longer novels.
The Trollope Society has this classed with the Comic Novels. I'm not sure what criteria they used in their classifications. I find many amusing passages in all of Trollope's novels and this one included much drama. However, not to give too much away, there is within this some womanly manipulation of a husband that I suppose some would find comic.
Because I've become such a fan, I'm beginning to think my ratings of Trollope are less reliable than perhaps other readers' opinions. That said, this is another read that sits toward the top of my 4-star pile. It's also shorter than many of my Trollope favorites, so you wouldn't run amiss even starting with this one to see if you like him enough to reach for his longer novels.
November 11, 2020
I read somewhere that this a good novel for beginners to Anthony Trollope’s works and I can only agree. The characters were brilliantly observed and named and the book was a delight, the romance was almost the least of the charm- it was the huge effect on a whole community wrought by a single newcomer and the nominal character, Rachel Ray herself. I found it so amusing that gossip can have such a powerful effect on people’s lives, happiness and reputation, just as nowadays with the press, Twitter and other social media!
Read
January 22, 2016I liked it. Trollope has great insight into human nature, can make all his observations, pleasant and unpleasant, with a light touch of humor. Able to keep the suspense up. Would like to read more of his work.
November 19, 2022
I enjoyed this standalone Trollope. It’s a simpler story than many of his other novels that I’ve read but I found it compelling at points. The main story is the romance between Rachel Ray and Luke Rowan and the obstacles that keep them apart. This is a particularly good example of how strict the Victorian behavior code was for young men and women (especially young women!). There are several antagonists towards Luke and Rachel in the story and they’re all interesting. Mr Tappitt can’t admit it’s time for him to retire from the brewery that Luke wants to take over for him. Mrs Tappitt has a thwarted motherly ambition. Mrs Prime, Rachel’s much older sister, is dogmatically religious.
Mrs Prime is possibly the most complex character in the novel. She is the original cause of suspicion that the innocent Luke and Rachel are up to no good (because she thinks they have an assignation in a public, outdoor place, lol). She was widowed early in life, but I had trouble figuring out her motivations for being so judgmental against Rachel. I think Mrs Prime should have ended up as Mrs Prong after all. It would have been a fitting punishment. The funny thing about Mrs Prime is that she is more of a ‘modern woman’ than Rachel is. She has an income from her first marriage and she is determined to keep it for her own use instead of surrender it to a husband’s care.
In contrast to Mrs Prime, I loved Mrs Butler Cornbury’s championing of Rachel’s relationship with Luke. Clearly Trollope favors her judgment of the Rachel/Luke relationship. He has two “managing females” in Mrs Butler and Mrs Tappitt. This was a point of humor in the novel, especially in Mrs Tappitt’s managing of her husband whom she calls “T”. Though I do believe Mrs Tappitt managed her husband towards a good end, it also seems accurate that Mr Tappitt was a little hen pecked.
Mrs Ray and Mrs Sturt are two other lovable characters. Mrs Ray is a bit weak willed, but in the end, I think she grows as a character. She’s so sweet that it’s hard to find fault with her. Mrs Sturt, to her own satisfaction, plays a pivotal role at the novel’s end.
The last thing I want to mention is that this is one of the few Trollopes I’ve read with a very middle class cast of characters. The highest born character is the local squire and the High Church Vicar and his daughter. I enjoyed how much this novel dealt with the workaday world of trade and life in a marketing town.
Mrs Prime is possibly the most complex character in the novel. She is the original cause of suspicion that the innocent Luke and Rachel are up to no good (because she thinks they have an assignation in a public, outdoor place, lol). She was widowed early in life, but I had trouble figuring out her motivations for being so judgmental against Rachel. I think Mrs Prime should have ended up as Mrs Prong after all. It would have been a fitting punishment. The funny thing about Mrs Prime is that she is more of a ‘modern woman’ than Rachel is. She has an income from her first marriage and she is determined to keep it for her own use instead of surrender it to a husband’s care.
In contrast to Mrs Prime, I loved Mrs Butler Cornbury’s championing of Rachel’s relationship with Luke. Clearly Trollope favors her judgment of the Rachel/Luke relationship. He has two “managing females” in Mrs Butler and Mrs Tappitt. This was a point of humor in the novel, especially in Mrs Tappitt’s managing of her husband whom she calls “T”. Though I do believe Mrs Tappitt managed her husband towards a good end, it also seems accurate that Mr Tappitt was a little hen pecked.
Mrs Ray and Mrs Sturt are two other lovable characters. Mrs Ray is a bit weak willed, but in the end, I think she grows as a character. She’s so sweet that it’s hard to find fault with her. Mrs Sturt, to her own satisfaction, plays a pivotal role at the novel’s end.
The last thing I want to mention is that this is one of the few Trollopes I’ve read with a very middle class cast of characters. The highest born character is the local squire and the High Church Vicar and his daughter. I enjoyed how much this novel dealt with the workaday world of trade and life in a marketing town.
November 23, 2020
It has been many years since I last read a novel by Anthony Trollope. Fortunately, Rachel Ray is the usual bright and amiable production by this Victorian novelist.
The tale is set in the town of Baslehurst in Devonshire, where a young man who has a part ownership of a local brewery courts a country lass named Rachel Ray. Alas, the courtship is endangered from several sources:
Her widowed sister, Miss Prime, thinks of all men as wolves who are not somber and clerical, as her late husband was. Mr Tappit of the brewery acts as if he owns the brewery outright, though he does not; and when young Luke Rowan wants to take over, as he is legally entitled, the Tappits spread ugly rumors around about Luke which endanger the relationship with Rachel.
The tale is set in the town of Baslehurst in Devonshire, where a young man who has a part ownership of a local brewery courts a country lass named Rachel Ray. Alas, the courtship is endangered from several sources:
Her widowed sister, Miss Prime, thinks of all men as wolves who are not somber and clerical, as her late husband was. Mr Tappit of the brewery acts as if he owns the brewery outright, though he does not; and when young Luke Rowan wants to take over, as he is legally entitled, the Tappits spread ugly rumors around about Luke which endanger the relationship with Rachel.
August 18, 2017
Loved this Trollope novel. It dealt with the relationship problems of Rachel and Luke Rowen. The only problem was the denigration of Jews that must have been prevalent in Trollope's day, but it was hard to read those words. It was also a shorter novel than usual. Wonderful!!
August 8, 2020
Now that I’ve read Trollope’s two series, I get to make my way through his standalone novels. Something like 30 more to go! Rachel Ray reminded me a little of Frances Burney’s Evalina in that it shows just how vulnerable a young woman’s reputation could be if she does not have good parental guidance or guardianship. All I can say is thank goodness for Mrs. Butler-Cornbury, who is a sort of fairy godmother in this novel, though she is a terrible anti-Semite as was, I suspect, Trollope.
Unlike a lot of Trollope’s other novels, Rachel Ray takes place entirely in the countryside (Devonshire) and concerns itself almost exclusively with the lower middle classes. The Butler-Corburys are as high as we go, and he is only a country squire – i.e. a big fish in a very small pond. Rachel is a lady but she is poor and her mother, while loving, is weak-willed. Rachel’s closest friends are the Tapitt sisters, the daughters of the local brewer. When young Luke Rowan comes to the brewery to take his inherited share and co-manage it, he falls in love with Rachel but afoul of Mr. Tapitt, who resents his meddling and lack of humility. Mrs. Tapitt had hoped to match one of her daughters to Luke and resents Rachel’s “luck”. Meanwhile, Rachel’s unforgiving and overly-pious older sister, the widow Prime disapproves of Rachel’s behavior with Luke.
Ultimately it was a sweet romance with deft plotting. It isn’t that the ending is a surprise, but how one gets there is quite enjoyable. Also, as usual, there are some politics as well , typical Trollope. And while I didn’t entirely like her, I am glad Mrs. Prime avoided a particularly bad end that might have been her fate.
Unlike a lot of Trollope’s other novels, Rachel Ray takes place entirely in the countryside (Devonshire) and concerns itself almost exclusively with the lower middle classes. The Butler-Corburys are as high as we go, and he is only a country squire – i.e. a big fish in a very small pond. Rachel is a lady but she is poor and her mother, while loving, is weak-willed. Rachel’s closest friends are the Tapitt sisters, the daughters of the local brewer. When young Luke Rowan comes to the brewery to take his inherited share and co-manage it, he falls in love with Rachel but afoul of Mr. Tapitt, who resents his meddling and lack of humility. Mrs. Tapitt had hoped to match one of her daughters to Luke and resents Rachel’s “luck”. Meanwhile, Rachel’s unforgiving and overly-pious older sister, the widow Prime disapproves of Rachel’s behavior with Luke.
Ultimately it was a sweet romance with deft plotting. It isn’t that the ending is a surprise, but how one gets there is quite enjoyable. Also, as usual, there are some politics as well , typical Trollope. And while I didn’t entirely like her, I am glad Mrs. Prime avoided a particularly bad end that might have been her fate.
September 26, 2025
This was a very enjoyable experience. I appreciated the straightforward storyline with interconnected characters vs one big storyline with offshoot characters and storylines that don't matter in the grand scheme (looking at you The Small House at Arlington and The Last Chronicle of Barset).
This is the story of Rachel Ray who lives with her widowed mother and older sister. The older sister is very dogmatic and legalistic about her religion and tries to transfer that over to others around her (especially Rachel). Mrs. Prime (older sister) sees Rachel one evening alone with a young man so assumes the worst of both. Back in town, The Tappitts own the brewery and Rachel is friends with the three daughters whose mother has plans for the same young man that was seen with Rachel.
This read really fast and while I don't think it was top tier Trollope, it was definitely one I would read again for the enjoyment of seeing how things pan out and come together for everyone.
This is the story of Rachel Ray who lives with her widowed mother and older sister. The older sister is very dogmatic and legalistic about her religion and tries to transfer that over to others around her (especially Rachel). Mrs. Prime (older sister) sees Rachel one evening alone with a young man so assumes the worst of both. Back in town, The Tappitts own the brewery and Rachel is friends with the three daughters whose mother has plans for the same young man that was seen with Rachel.
This read really fast and while I don't think it was top tier Trollope, it was definitely one I would read again for the enjoyment of seeing how things pan out and come together for everyone.
July 29, 2018
Not Trollope's best effort, but still great fun.
October 19, 2020
Have you ever had clotted cream? In Anthony Trollope's Rachel Ray, Rachel's love interest Luke Rowan says it's the one thing in all the world he likes best. Three years ago, my wife and I took a six-day Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy tour in southern England. Our guide arranged for us to attend a cream tea. As opposed to an afternoon tea or a high tea, at a cream tea scones are served with strawberry jam and clotted cream. It's a dairy spread like butter, but sweeter and richer. It's pretty special.
Rachel Ray, considered one of Trollope's lesser novels, was published in 1863. The only other Trollope novel I've read is The Eustace Diamonds, and I remember liking that a lot. He is mostly known as the author of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, stories of the clergy and their goings on. I read that Trollope's novels enjoyed a resurgence during the dark days of World War II, when Brits devoured his depictions of happier times in England.
This story takes place in rural southwestern England. Rachel Ray is a 19 year-old young woman who lives with her widowed sister and widowed mother. Romantic love is the farthest thing from her mind. She has a simple, sheltered and reasonably happy life. She is beautiful and industrious. Her mother is a good person, but finds herself easily swayed by others' opinions. She believes that unmarried young men are wild beasts. Rachel's sister wears her widowhood like a badge of honor - the Debbie Downer of the neighborhood. Luke Rowan, the young and energetic and clever part-owner of the town brewery, bursts into Rachel's life. She feels emotions she's never felt before.
As the story unfolds, there are a number of parallel plot lines. Luke wants to bring the brewery up to date, but he is resisted at every turn by the manager Mr. Tappitt. However, Luke knows that he is on equal legal footing with Mr. Tappitt, based on his inherited stake in the brewery. Rachel's widowed sister Dorothea is being wooed by the new parson Mr. Prong. And most interestingly, Rachel and Luke's budding romance is being thwarted by interested parties around the neighborhood. But behind the scenes there are two women who secretly have Rachel's back.
What a pleasurable read! This is why I love Victorian novels so much. I don't need anything but a story about people, their lives and their loves. I don't need a mystery, or a murder, or anything supernatural.
I was amused by the depiction of the formalities expected of young single people:
Luke: "I may call you Rachel, then?"
Rachel: "Oh, no, please don't. What would people think?"
By the way, if you enjoy reading stories centered around young people, written with wit, try the books of Booth Tarkington, written in the early 1900's, such as Penrod, Penrod and Sam, and Seventeen. Wonderful.
One of my favorite scenes in Rachel Ray occurs in Chapter 13, when Luke defends Rachel against the unjust comments his mother is repeating about her. What angers us more as readers than when parents interfere in true love? On the other hand, I was impressed with Trollope also taking the time perhaps not to defend but to explain what appeared to be malicious thoughts and actions of the Tappitts vis-a-vis Luke and Rachel.
The book is full of moving scenes of human decency. Here, Rachel's neighbor lady Mrs. Sturt, who is concerned deeply for Rachel's happiness, speaks to her kindly while they wait for the outcome of Pastor Comfort's ominous visit to her mother regarding Luke:
Mrs. Sturt: "What does they know about lads and lasses?"
Rachel: "He's a very old friend of mamma's."
Mrs. Sturt: "Old friends is always best, I'll not deny that. But look thee here, my girl, my man's an old friend too. He's know'd thee since he lifted thee in his arms to pull the plums off that bough yonder, and he's seen thee these ten years a deal oftener than Mr. Comfort. If they say anything wrong of thy joe there, tell me, and Sturt'll find out whether it be true or no. Don't let ere a parson in Devonshire rob thee of thy sweetheart."
There are sentiments like these in nearly all Victorian novels, but that is because they are so true. Rachel remembers her first meeting with Luke under the elms:
"The words that had been spoken between them on that occasion had been but trifling - very few and of small moment, but now they seemed to her to have contained all her destiny."
Rachel Ray, considered one of Trollope's lesser novels, was published in 1863. The only other Trollope novel I've read is The Eustace Diamonds, and I remember liking that a lot. He is mostly known as the author of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, stories of the clergy and their goings on. I read that Trollope's novels enjoyed a resurgence during the dark days of World War II, when Brits devoured his depictions of happier times in England.
This story takes place in rural southwestern England. Rachel Ray is a 19 year-old young woman who lives with her widowed sister and widowed mother. Romantic love is the farthest thing from her mind. She has a simple, sheltered and reasonably happy life. She is beautiful and industrious. Her mother is a good person, but finds herself easily swayed by others' opinions. She believes that unmarried young men are wild beasts. Rachel's sister wears her widowhood like a badge of honor - the Debbie Downer of the neighborhood. Luke Rowan, the young and energetic and clever part-owner of the town brewery, bursts into Rachel's life. She feels emotions she's never felt before.
As the story unfolds, there are a number of parallel plot lines. Luke wants to bring the brewery up to date, but he is resisted at every turn by the manager Mr. Tappitt. However, Luke knows that he is on equal legal footing with Mr. Tappitt, based on his inherited stake in the brewery. Rachel's widowed sister Dorothea is being wooed by the new parson Mr. Prong. And most interestingly, Rachel and Luke's budding romance is being thwarted by interested parties around the neighborhood. But behind the scenes there are two women who secretly have Rachel's back.
What a pleasurable read! This is why I love Victorian novels so much. I don't need anything but a story about people, their lives and their loves. I don't need a mystery, or a murder, or anything supernatural.
I was amused by the depiction of the formalities expected of young single people:
Luke: "I may call you Rachel, then?"
Rachel: "Oh, no, please don't. What would people think?"
By the way, if you enjoy reading stories centered around young people, written with wit, try the books of Booth Tarkington, written in the early 1900's, such as Penrod, Penrod and Sam, and Seventeen. Wonderful.
One of my favorite scenes in Rachel Ray occurs in Chapter 13, when Luke defends Rachel against the unjust comments his mother is repeating about her. What angers us more as readers than when parents interfere in true love? On the other hand, I was impressed with Trollope also taking the time perhaps not to defend but to explain what appeared to be malicious thoughts and actions of the Tappitts vis-a-vis Luke and Rachel.
The book is full of moving scenes of human decency. Here, Rachel's neighbor lady Mrs. Sturt, who is concerned deeply for Rachel's happiness, speaks to her kindly while they wait for the outcome of Pastor Comfort's ominous visit to her mother regarding Luke:
Mrs. Sturt: "What does they know about lads and lasses?"
Rachel: "He's a very old friend of mamma's."
Mrs. Sturt: "Old friends is always best, I'll not deny that. But look thee here, my girl, my man's an old friend too. He's know'd thee since he lifted thee in his arms to pull the plums off that bough yonder, and he's seen thee these ten years a deal oftener than Mr. Comfort. If they say anything wrong of thy joe there, tell me, and Sturt'll find out whether it be true or no. Don't let ere a parson in Devonshire rob thee of thy sweetheart."
There are sentiments like these in nearly all Victorian novels, but that is because they are so true. Rachel remembers her first meeting with Luke under the elms:
"The words that had been spoken between them on that occasion had been but trifling - very few and of small moment, but now they seemed to her to have contained all her destiny."
January 4, 2013
It's exciting to be able to find so many lost classics in the Gutenberg research project. I long ago gave away my large Trollope collection, thinking that I was done with this Victorian novelist. Time passes, however, and I felt an urge to read Trollope again, and was glad to have easy access to his books and glad that I've ventured in Trollope land many times. The territory is familiar, comforting and funny.
Rachel Ray is not one of Trollope's "heavy" novels, but it is very enjoyable. Trollope is an expert at dealing with the problem of rumour and gossip, and how they ruin people's lives. He is also an expert on the cold-blooded Evangelism of his time, and most of the novel is a bitingly satirical of the two main proponents of this unhappy creed.
At the center of the novel, however, are Rachael and her mother, and it is this relationship which, to me, is so intriguing. Rachel is obedient, kind and respectful, and her mother is very, very weak. Rachel's main struggle, I think, is to come to terms with her mother's weakness, and to forgive her for it.
I need to mention the anti-semitism in the novel. It is not altogether clear where Trollope the narrator, or Trollope the author stands on this issue. This authorial lack of clarity tarnishes an otherwise great book. The degree of Trollope's anti-semitism is unclear throughout. Trollope is a product of his time and, though he satirizes the anti-semitic remarks somewhat, he does not come out with any clear repudiation of them.
This satire is also noticeable in his narrative treatment of female characters. How tongue-and-cheek is he really being when he writes that it is Rachel's duty to obey her newly-wed lord and master. I have heard it argued that Trollope was a proto-feminist, but his satire, again, is unclear to me.
Rachel Ray is not one of Trollope's "heavy" novels, but it is very enjoyable. Trollope is an expert at dealing with the problem of rumour and gossip, and how they ruin people's lives. He is also an expert on the cold-blooded Evangelism of his time, and most of the novel is a bitingly satirical of the two main proponents of this unhappy creed.
At the center of the novel, however, are Rachael and her mother, and it is this relationship which, to me, is so intriguing. Rachel is obedient, kind and respectful, and her mother is very, very weak. Rachel's main struggle, I think, is to come to terms with her mother's weakness, and to forgive her for it.
I need to mention the anti-semitism in the novel. It is not altogether clear where Trollope the narrator, or Trollope the author stands on this issue. This authorial lack of clarity tarnishes an otherwise great book. The degree of Trollope's anti-semitism is unclear throughout. Trollope is a product of his time and, though he satirizes the anti-semitic remarks somewhat, he does not come out with any clear repudiation of them.
This satire is also noticeable in his narrative treatment of female characters. How tongue-and-cheek is he really being when he writes that it is Rachel's duty to obey her newly-wed lord and master. I have heard it argued that Trollope was a proto-feminist, but his satire, again, is unclear to me.
March 29, 2008
Rachel meets a young man and falls for him; he acts honorably, she acts honorably, but her mother is resistant to their match until she comes to realize how very honorable they both are. Rachel and her beau are both fairly bland characters and there seems to be no particular reason why they should stay apart or, for that matter, come together. Far more interesting is Rachel's battle-ax of a sister, who becomes engaged to a sanctimonious preacher.
About two thirds of the way through the book a special election is held, in which one member of the rural establishment runs against an upstart candidate who is urban, flashy and -- shockingly to the populace -- Jewish. Trollope is squarely on the side of the conservative establishment candidate and he uses the election to separate out the reliable good characters from those with suspect modernizing tendencies. What this means is that, late in the book, many of the people who have seemed nicest are revealed to be anti-semitic, while the comic villains are suddenly shown to be open-minded and tolerant. As a reader it was fascinating to me to see Trollope effectively reverse the moral standing of his entire cast of characters.
I picked this book up on a table in the Philippines (I bet there is a story on how it got there) and it was one of my only books on a long backpacking trip. So I had plenty of time to think about Rachel (more time than she deserved really) and the poetic justice of Trollope's antisemitism ruining his own novel.
About two thirds of the way through the book a special election is held, in which one member of the rural establishment runs against an upstart candidate who is urban, flashy and -- shockingly to the populace -- Jewish. Trollope is squarely on the side of the conservative establishment candidate and he uses the election to separate out the reliable good characters from those with suspect modernizing tendencies. What this means is that, late in the book, many of the people who have seemed nicest are revealed to be anti-semitic, while the comic villains are suddenly shown to be open-minded and tolerant. As a reader it was fascinating to me to see Trollope effectively reverse the moral standing of his entire cast of characters.
I picked this book up on a table in the Philippines (I bet there is a story on how it got there) and it was one of my only books on a long backpacking trip. So I had plenty of time to think about Rachel (more time than she deserved really) and the poetic justice of Trollope's antisemitism ruining his own novel.
May 4, 2011
This modest, medium-length novel is one of Trollope’s best, and it has an interesting backstory.
The editor of an evangelical magazine asked Trollope to write a novel for them to serialize and he went to work on Rachel Ray, which criticizes, satirizes, and triumphs over its pinched, power-hungry evangelical characters. The magazine refused it and it was published elsewhere.
The story is simple and there are no sub-plots. Rachel Ray is a modest girl who leads a retiring life with her widowed mother and her widowed sister. The latter, Mrs Prime, controls Mrs Ray and tries to make Rachel conform to her narrow religious beliefs. When Rachel falls in love with and becomes engaged to Luke Rowan, a would-be gentleman-brewer, Mrs Prime moves out of the house and Rachel is instructed to write to Luke and say the engagement is off. Rachel pines and grows pale.
Can Mrs Ray be counted on to develop a backbone? Will Luke return to marry Rachel? Will Rachel be allowed to marry her beau or will Mrs Prime prevail with her religion-based abuse of power?
2011 No 72 Coming soon: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The editor of an evangelical magazine asked Trollope to write a novel for them to serialize and he went to work on Rachel Ray, which criticizes, satirizes, and triumphs over its pinched, power-hungry evangelical characters. The magazine refused it and it was published elsewhere.
The story is simple and there are no sub-plots. Rachel Ray is a modest girl who leads a retiring life with her widowed mother and her widowed sister. The latter, Mrs Prime, controls Mrs Ray and tries to make Rachel conform to her narrow religious beliefs. When Rachel falls in love with and becomes engaged to Luke Rowan, a would-be gentleman-brewer, Mrs Prime moves out of the house and Rachel is instructed to write to Luke and say the engagement is off. Rachel pines and grows pale.
Can Mrs Ray be counted on to develop a backbone? Will Luke return to marry Rachel? Will Rachel be allowed to marry her beau or will Mrs Prime prevail with her religion-based abuse of power?
2011 No 72 Coming soon: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
January 14, 2024
I quite enjoyed traveling through Baslehurst with Rachel Ray. Trollope takes us on the journey of a young woman's path to romance, which would have been admittedly smoother without the interferencs from those around her. Rachel Ray is one of Trollope's shorter works and certainly doesn't have as much drama as some of his other work, but the story is sweet and the characters are so much fun.
March 14, 2023
3.5 stars
Read with the ‘Trolloping’ group in February 2023
There are women who cannot grow alone as standard trees; - for whom the support and warmth of some wall, some paling, some post, is absolutely necessary; - who, in their growth, will bend and incline themselves towards some such prop for their life, creeping with their tendrils along the ground till they reach it when the circumstances of life have brought no such prop within their natural and immediate reach.
The opening sentence of this novel describes the character of Mrs Ray, a widow, and the mother of two daughters. Her oldest daughter, Dorothea, is also a widow, despite only being in her late 20s. Dorothea (also called Dolly) has a small amount of money under her own control, and she delights in the small power it gives her. She has devoted her energies to a Dorcas Society, in which she makes clothes for the poor. Although its aims are charitable, it is typical of Trollope that he picks out the self-righteousness at its core. Mrs Ray’s younger daughter is called Rachel, and we know that she is pretty and her mother’s favourite. She has a firmer character than her mother, but is portrayed as a good and obedient and loving daughter.
Trollope is really at his best when dissecting human nature, and I appreciate the subtlety and deep emotional intelligence that comes into play in all of his books. The beginning of this book particularly charmed me, because it sets up this dilemma: we have a young, pretty girl of marriageable age, but her mother and sister are inclined to think of men as ‘wolves’ who are there to take advantage of such young women as Rachel Ray. Insert a man - one Luke Rowan, who has awakened romantic thoughts in the previously unsusceptible head of Rachel - and thus begins a drama. Because Mrs Ray doesn’t trust her own judgement, and is used to relying on others, she asks for advice on a matter more crucial to her than any other: Can this man be trusted with her daughter? Her older daughter says no, and declares that she will leave their home if there is such an iniquitous behaviour as a romance between the two; and the mother’s more worldly clergyman, Mr. Comfort, says a guarded yes. What he says, in fact, is why shouldn’t a pretty young girl go to a dance? So Rachel does go to the dance, her older sister moves out of the house, and Mr Luke Rowan makes his interest in her known to all of their small Devonshire community. Then the question becomes: Is Luke Rowan a good ‘un or a bad ‘un?
In most of Trollope’s novels, at least the ones that I have read, the romance is the most obvious ‘hook’ of the storyline but much of the novel is made up of other personalities, issues and emotions. The interesting thing about this novel is that much of it revolves around the issues of work, ownership, power and beer. Luke Rowan comes from a higher social class than Rachel Ray but he means to make his living by joining a local brewery of which he has inherited a large share. The current brewer, a Mr Tappitt, neither wants to pay off this young man, nor include him in the ownership of the brewery. Much is made of the fact that Mr Tappitt brews bad beer, and that Luke Rowan - a young man of energy and ambition - wants to brew good beer. Mr Tappitt is used to having power and authority in his community and family - he is the father of four daughters, all of them of marriage age - and he both resents this young upstart and fears the outcome of a fight which might lead to the diminishment of his own powers. He wants to deny Luke Rowan’s legal rights, but he is increasingly caught in a legal vise. Domestically, other forces range against him - including a wife who would rather see him retire to a more salubrious place that would benefit her and their daughters.
The conflict between these two men takes up quite a bit of the novel, and politics gets involved, too, when each of the men chooses to support a different man for the position of local MP. (One of the candidates is Jewish, and the offensive anti-Semitic language used to describe him is a discordant note in an otherwise enjoyable novel. Even when historical context is taken into account, it’s still not an easy thing to read gross caricature from a writer as sensitive as Trollope.) The conflict also complicates the romance between Luke Rowan and Rachel Ray, as Luke Rowan is too preoccupied with his career and property struggles to attend to his romance. Rachel and her family - and the reader - are strung along for quite a long time. Is Luke Rowan a trustworthy man, or not?
There is quite a lot of male ego in this novel, and Luke Roman is not the most admirable of lovers. Although I enjoyed the novel as a whole, mostly for Trollope’s wry and sharp commentary, I certainly wouldn’t bother to read it for - or as - a romance.
Read with the ‘Trolloping’ group in February 2023
There are women who cannot grow alone as standard trees; - for whom the support and warmth of some wall, some paling, some post, is absolutely necessary; - who, in their growth, will bend and incline themselves towards some such prop for their life, creeping with their tendrils along the ground till they reach it when the circumstances of life have brought no such prop within their natural and immediate reach.
The opening sentence of this novel describes the character of Mrs Ray, a widow, and the mother of two daughters. Her oldest daughter, Dorothea, is also a widow, despite only being in her late 20s. Dorothea (also called Dolly) has a small amount of money under her own control, and she delights in the small power it gives her. She has devoted her energies to a Dorcas Society, in which she makes clothes for the poor. Although its aims are charitable, it is typical of Trollope that he picks out the self-righteousness at its core. Mrs Ray’s younger daughter is called Rachel, and we know that she is pretty and her mother’s favourite. She has a firmer character than her mother, but is portrayed as a good and obedient and loving daughter.
Trollope is really at his best when dissecting human nature, and I appreciate the subtlety and deep emotional intelligence that comes into play in all of his books. The beginning of this book particularly charmed me, because it sets up this dilemma: we have a young, pretty girl of marriageable age, but her mother and sister are inclined to think of men as ‘wolves’ who are there to take advantage of such young women as Rachel Ray. Insert a man - one Luke Rowan, who has awakened romantic thoughts in the previously unsusceptible head of Rachel - and thus begins a drama. Because Mrs Ray doesn’t trust her own judgement, and is used to relying on others, she asks for advice on a matter more crucial to her than any other: Can this man be trusted with her daughter? Her older daughter says no, and declares that she will leave their home if there is such an iniquitous behaviour as a romance between the two; and the mother’s more worldly clergyman, Mr. Comfort, says a guarded yes. What he says, in fact, is why shouldn’t a pretty young girl go to a dance? So Rachel does go to the dance, her older sister moves out of the house, and Mr Luke Rowan makes his interest in her known to all of their small Devonshire community. Then the question becomes: Is Luke Rowan a good ‘un or a bad ‘un?
In most of Trollope’s novels, at least the ones that I have read, the romance is the most obvious ‘hook’ of the storyline but much of the novel is made up of other personalities, issues and emotions. The interesting thing about this novel is that much of it revolves around the issues of work, ownership, power and beer. Luke Rowan comes from a higher social class than Rachel Ray but he means to make his living by joining a local brewery of which he has inherited a large share. The current brewer, a Mr Tappitt, neither wants to pay off this young man, nor include him in the ownership of the brewery. Much is made of the fact that Mr Tappitt brews bad beer, and that Luke Rowan - a young man of energy and ambition - wants to brew good beer. Mr Tappitt is used to having power and authority in his community and family - he is the father of four daughters, all of them of marriage age - and he both resents this young upstart and fears the outcome of a fight which might lead to the diminishment of his own powers. He wants to deny Luke Rowan’s legal rights, but he is increasingly caught in a legal vise. Domestically, other forces range against him - including a wife who would rather see him retire to a more salubrious place that would benefit her and their daughters.
The conflict between these two men takes up quite a bit of the novel, and politics gets involved, too, when each of the men chooses to support a different man for the position of local MP. (One of the candidates is Jewish, and the offensive anti-Semitic language used to describe him is a discordant note in an otherwise enjoyable novel. Even when historical context is taken into account, it’s still not an easy thing to read gross caricature from a writer as sensitive as Trollope.) The conflict also complicates the romance between Luke Rowan and Rachel Ray, as Luke Rowan is too preoccupied with his career and property struggles to attend to his romance. Rachel and her family - and the reader - are strung along for quite a long time. Is Luke Rowan a trustworthy man, or not?
There is quite a lot of male ego in this novel, and Luke Roman is not the most admirable of lovers. Although I enjoyed the novel as a whole, mostly for Trollope’s wry and sharp commentary, I certainly wouldn’t bother to read it for - or as - a romance.
November 25, 2020
I was very satisfied with this first Trollope (for me) and I am looking forward to reading more of his books. The characters developed in the course of the story and turned out to be different than first anticipated. Trollope created many surprising turns of events where those who criticized others ended up themselves in awkward situations.
June 6, 2018
Read for a group read with the Anthony Trollope Society Facebook group. I liked this relatively simple (compared to many of his longer books) novel, set in a small village and town in Devonshire. Trollope originally was asked to write this for serialization in an Evangelical magazine, but after seeing the way the highly religious characters were portrayed (not well) the offer was withdrawn. The story is a simple one - the romance between Rachel and the new man in town, Luke Rowan - which is caught up in a legal battle for the local brewery and opposition from Rachel’s very religious widowed sister. There are several very amusing scenes and as always Trollope does an excellent job of portraying the inner thoughts and feelings of women.
May 11, 2016
Fun bit of the drawing room comedy typical of the time, with a few good swipes at the church thrown in.
February 17, 2021
I was in need for an Anthony Trollope story, and Rachel Ray fit the bill. A short Trollope when compared with some of his huge tomes. Although I don't like some of his nineteenth century attitudes, I can still enjoy the stories. I didn't know anything about the story before reading, so I won't say much about it, except that I think the book is as good as the The Warden, which was a good introduction to the Barsetshire series.
Want to read
September 2, 2021A standalone TBR
November 25, 2020
An easy read with funny parts, but lacking in characterization.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 134 reviews