The Macdermots of Ballycloran

by Anthony Trollope

Book Overview

Trollope's first novel, The Macdermots of Ballycloran--set in the violent Ireland of the 1830's--portrays the destruction of the Macdermot family, victims of history, their own providence, and political hysteria. This book offers a rare glimpse of Irish life before the Famine and reveals some of the tensions in that society which still exert their influence today. The first edition of The Macdermots since 1906, it includes three chapters Trollope...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192821814
• ISBN13: 9780192821812
• Release Date: November 1989
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 736 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 4.6" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

First novel a success

Anthony Trollope's first novel, and a good one. Set in Ireland in the 1830s, it tells the story of a proud but destitute family and their tragic downfall at the hands of a scoundrel. Myles Ussher is an English police captain sent to Ireland to help stop illegal whiskey making. Feemy Macdermot falls deeply in love with him, though he has no intention of returning that love. The locals hate him, and Feemy's brother Thady, when he learns of Ussher's merely using Feemy, kills him in a rage when he believes Ussher is abducting her against her will (they are actually eloping). A trial ensues and after some exciting intervals involving escapes, Thady is convicted and hanged. Trollope offers a sympathetic look at Ireland's troubles during this time period; indeed the "innocent" Feemy might symbolically represent that country while the unfeeling, spiteful Ussher is England. Trollope had spent a good deal of time in Ireland and knew the country and the people well; his use of Irish dialogue is natural and realistic. The trial scene is pretty exciting, and Trollope's broad humor is already clearly evident. The use of the dilapidated Macdermot mansion as the starting and ending point, with the main plot sandwiched inbetween as flashback, gives the novel a cinematic touch. The author would achieve greater novels as his career progressed, but this initial production highlights an auspicious start.