Résumé
Résumé de La Petite Maison d’Allington
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love humane novels about families, money and the choices of ordinary people, and for anyone who wants an easy way into Trollope. Enjoy gentle comedy, family drama and love tested by pride and ambition.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
The Small House at Allington is a novel by Anthony Trollope, published in 1864 after running as a serial in the Cornhill Magazine. It is the fifth of his six Barsetshire novels, set in an invented English county of squires, clergymen and old estates. Trollope wrote it in the middle of a busy career at the Post Office, and he gave it the steady, daily pace of a man who wrote before breakfast. It follows a country family and the young men who come near it.
At its center is a quiet question. What happens to a young woman who gives her whole heart to a man who is a weaker person than he seemed? Around Lily Dale, Trollope sets a London clerk who loves her without hope, a squire who wants to arrange his family's future, and a rising man who cares too much about rank. You get the gentle comedy of boarding houses and drawing rooms, and you also get real pain, told without sneering at anyone.
In this summary you will meet the two houses at Allington and the people who live in them. You will follow the engagement at the heart of the book and the pull of London and ambition. You will see what the novel says about pride, money and constancy. Let us begin with the two houses that give the book its title.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Two houses and one family dividedFree
- 2A visitor from London arrives
- 3Lily gives her heart to Crosbie
- 4Johnny Eames and the boarding house
- 5Ambition pulls Crosbie toward Courcy Castle
- 6Bell, Dr Crofts and the squire's plan
- 7What the story says about pride and money
- 8Lily's constancy and quiet courage
- 9How Trollope tells the story
Point clé 1 sur 9
Two houses and one family divided
The novel opens in the village of Allington in the county of Barsetshire. There stand two houses, and the difference between them sets up much of the story. The Great House belongs to Christopher Dale, an old bachelor squire, proud, stubborn and close with his money. The Small House is a modest dwelling on the same estate, and the squire lets it to his widowed sister-in-law, Mrs Dale.
Mrs Dale lives there with her two grown daughters, Isabella, whom everyone calls Bell, and Lilian, called Lily. Bell is the elder and the more composed, a handsome and sensible young woman. Lily is younger, quicker and more open in her feelings. The two sisters love each other deeply, and Trollope gives them a close, teasing friendship that feels real from the first pages.
The arrangement is not quite generous and not quite cold. The squire is polite to the widow, but he never lets her forget whose land she lives on. Mrs Dale accepts the house and gives thanks for it, though she knows that her family is poor and that her daughters have small prospects. The squire is a man who loves his family in his own stiff way and expects obedience in return.
The squire also has a plan. His nephew Bernard Dale, a captain in the army, will inherit Allington one day. The old man would like Bernard to marry one of his cousins, most likely Bell, so that the estate and the family stay joined. He does not say this crudely, but everyone in the village understands it.
This first section matters because it sets the pressures that follow. Money, land and duty weigh on the characters from the start. Trollope shows that a small house can be a place of warmth and also a place where a family feels how little it owns. The young women will have to find their own way within that setting, and the squire's wishes will not always match theirs.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Who’s who
- Lily Dale
- Lily is Mrs Dale's warm, outspoken younger daughter, loved by Johnny Eames and drawn to Adolphus Crosbie.
- Bell Dale
- Bell is Lily's sensible older sister, whose uncle hopes she will marry their cousin Bernard.
- Adolphus Crosbie
- Crosbie is Bernard Dale's fashionable London friend, a charming clerk whose attraction to Lily competes with social ambition.
- Johnny Eames
- Johnny is a young clerk from Guestwick who has loved Lily since their childhood.
- Christopher Dale
- Christopher is the bachelor squire of Allington, uncle to Lily, Bell and Bernard, with firm plans for his family.
- Mrs Dale
- Mrs Dale is Lily and Bell's widowed mother, living near her brother-in-law and protective of her daughters.
- Bernard Dale
- Bernard is the squire's nephew and heir, a soldier who introduces his friend Crosbie to his cousins.
- Dr Crofts
- Dr Crofts is a respected young doctor with little money who quietly admires Bell Dale.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 264,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 17 h 35 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about La Petite Maison d’Allington
What is The Small House at Allington about?
It follows the Dale family in the English village of Allington. Lily Dale falls in love with Adolphus Crosbie, a London clerk, while Johnny Eames loves her and her sister Bell faces a family plan for marriage.
Do I need to read the other Barsetshire novels first?
No. It is the fifth Barsetshire novel, but its story stands on its own. Earlier books add some background and familiar families, though a new reader can follow it without them.
What do the Great House and the Small House mean?
The Great House is the squire's home and stands for property, power and family pride. The Small House is where his widowed sister-in-law and her daughters live, and it stands for affection and a life lived on borrowed ground.
When was The Small House at Allington written?
Trollope wrote it in the early 1860s. It appeared in the Cornhill Magazine in monthly parts and was then published as a book in 1864. It is fiction.
Is The Small House at Allington hard to read?
Trollope writes in a clear, conversational voice. Readers who enjoy character and family drama usually settle in quickly.