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Anthony TrollopeCan You Forgive Her? (February 13, 2008)

LibriVox recording of "Can You Forgive Her?" by Anthony Trollope, read by LibriVox volunteers

"Can You Forgive Her?" is the first in a series of six Trollope novels dealing broadly with 19th Century English political scene. It introduces the reader to Plantagenet and Glencora Palliser, as they court, marry, and as Plantagenet sets out on his political career, which is carried on in the foreground or background throughout the series. Each novel has a focus on other particular characters, as well. In this one, it is the dilemma of Alice Vavasor, who is a young woman choosing between two suitors: one who has all the best qualities, but who prefers a retiring private life, and another, whose qualities are doubtful, but who is ambitious for public office. There is also a comic subplot involving a widowed aunt, who also must choose between two suitors: Mr. Cheeseacre, a dull but stable farmer, and Capt. Bellfield, a charming but somewhat erratic retired military man. (Summary by Karen Merline)

This is the first of Trollop's six "Palliser" novels. LibriVox recordings of the novels two and three in the series are available:

Phineas Finn
The Eustace Diamonds
A recording of Phineas Redux, fourth novel in the series, underway.

For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit LibriVox.org


This audio is part of the collection: LibriVox

Artist/Composer: Anthony Trollope
Date: 2008-02-13
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: librivox; audio book; Palliser Novels; Victorian novel; novel; fiction

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: gooch12 - - May 16, 2009
Subject: Better than expected
There's always a risk in listening to a Librivox book recorded by a group of readers, as you never know what you're going to get. In that respect, this volume of Can You Forgive Her?, was actually much better than expected, considering that there are 80 chapters here and numerous readers.

Most of the readers were very good, which made the recording as a whole fairly enjoyable to listen to.

There were, however, a couple of notable exceptions that I feel compelled to warn you about. One reader was seemingly in a race against the clock to get her chapters in. She went so fast (barely even pausing for punctuation) that it was damn near impossible to follow the story. It didn't help that her chapters were juxtaposed with one of the slower, more deliberate readers of the group.

Another reader was clearly not a native English speaker, and his accent and pronunciation problems were a bit distracting at times. Fortunately, he only read two or three chapters, so it wasn't that big a deal.

Again, most of the readers were terrific (and one gentleman who read a couple of the middle chapters even sounded like a professional voice actor!), so this book is worthwhile even though it's a group project.