The eternal triangle of 19th cent. English literature was marriage, love and property. Any two, with some difficulty, may be joined but to bring together all three is not at all easy of accomplishment. If the sensibilities of the woman are also to be consulted, especially if she be of independent mind, the project will seem impossible of completion.
Clara Amedroz is of decidedly independent mind, in reduced circumstances and at 27, of an advanced age for marriageability. Her father is late in life and has allowed a favored son to ruin the family’s fortune. The son’s death, in the opening pages, results in a distant cousin, a squire named Will Belton, becoming the heir, through an entail, of the Belton Estate, upon the death of the father. Clara’s only other relation is an in-law aunt, Mrs. Winterfield, upon whose prospective generosity rests Clara’s only expectation. Capt. Alymer, MP for Perivale in the Low Church interest, is Mrs. W’s nephew and the second son of a baronet and his formidable Lady.
How the triangle is to be made complete in these circumstances is Trollope’s subject, and he deftly plays the characters against these themes through many unanticipated, if not unexpected, turns