Becky Sharp Revisited

The third novel in the Pallisers series, "The Eustace Diamonds" is the least overtly political, though some of the main characters from the series re-appear in the book in minor roles. It could certainly be read independently of the other books in the series.

Lizzie Eustace is in many respects a latter-day Becky Sharp. Though less ruthless and more self-deceiving than Thackeray's anti-heroine, she is shallow, beautiful, manipulative, and without redeeming qualities. After marrying the dying Sir Florian Eustace for his money, she embarks on an expensive career as a society widow, and the story revolves around her possession—and subsequent loss—of a diamond necklace which has been an heirloom in the Eustace family, and which she claims is her personal property.

Though real-life Lizzies are highly unpleasant people, the fictional version is highly entertaining, and after several hundred pages of gripping legal, criminal and shenanigans, it is hard not to feel sorry when the naughty Lady Eustace is finally delivered up to her fate. The reading, by Timothy West, is top-notch. If you are not familiar with Trollope's work, this is as good a place as any to start.

21 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Lizzie Rocks!

Timothy West's narration is so at one with the story that it sweeps the listener into another world. Brilliant story and beyond superb narration. Timothy reads with such passion. Listening to Trollope's stories has made me a lean, mean machine as I listen at the gym and sometimes end up staying for three hours rowing, cycling and running just so I can hear the next part of the story. I listen every day and these books are a huge chunk of my life. Bravo to Timothy West. He is totally magnificent. He has turned me into a Trollope tragic. I cannot write an objective review because I listen with gobsmacked love. A complete addict!

11 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Great Fun

What a fantastic listen! Lizzie Eustace is a woman that you learn to hate and also to love. All the characters of this novel are well drawn and delightful.
We listened to this while driving across the country (Canada). It made the trip fly by!

11 persone l'hanno trovata utile

A Real Treasure!

I enjoyed the Eustace Diamonds immensely.A little more light hearted the some other of Trollope's works, and as such a highly entertaining companion over a period of grim weather.Timothy west is as always the perfect reader.

9 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Classic Trollope

Another great yarn by Trollope. And Anthony West is again the perfect narrator. If you like Trollope, you'll enjoy this.

8 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Bedtime reading

Trollope has so many wonderful narrators that I feel guilty singling this one out. Simon Vance has done a wonderful version of this same book.

But this is the one I listened to this time around. I have a great fondness for Timothy West for other performances he's given over the years; his deep and pleasing voice strikes just the right note of gossipy intimacy.

Lizzie Eustace, widow with a life interest in her husband's estate, gives out that one of the heirlooms of the estate - a fabulously expensive diamond necklace - was given to her as her own property by her late husband. This sets off a whirlwind of legal wrangling that comes to an abrupt end when the diamonds are stolen.

Did she steal them herself? It's not really a whodunnit: the reader always knows more than the police, and indeed more than any other single character. It's more of a how's-it-going-to-play-out story than a mystery (although there are enough dogged English detectives to satisfy any mystery fan), and how it plays out is with, in usual Trollope fashion, lots of ins and outs, advances and retreats, love and dislike, overconfidence and fear.

Trollope has the great gift of making his characters, and his narrative, seem lifted from real life with the most minimal shaping involved. Few of his characters, even Lizzie the Great Liar, are thoroughly bad; few, even Frank Greystock, the closest the book has to a real hero, are thoroughly good. Events unfold with a messiness that subverts the clean progression of narrative. And yet somehow by the end, the loose ends are tied up and poetic justice is dispensed.

One character in the story comes to a particularly sad end: although there's some ambiguity about it, she appears to fall prey to mental illness - not raving; histrionics are rare in the book - but in a subdued and thoroughly convincing monomania. I hope she returns in a later volume, restored to health, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

An enjoyable Trollope outing. Got me through one of the worst colds I've ever had. Good for bedtime unwinding.

7 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Disappointing

Having loved The Way We Live Now, I had high expectations for this Trollope novel, which is really a stand-alone with a Palliser connection shoe-horned in. My usual fear of re-hashing the plot isn't a factor here as the book seemed all over the place, the various storylines more jumbled together than inter-connected . . . more stew than mosaic.

Lizzie Greystock Eustace has been a very naughty girl; even her family despairs of her. At the outset, I rolled my eyes a bit on her nabbing a noble, getting preggers pronto, and then his quick death. A bit convenient I thought. I wasn't really getting the "Diamonds" aspect as a concern, but back in bad old days of primogeniture, it was a big deal that they were considered a "family" asset rather than her own inheritance, as she asserted. They would be the property of the kid anyway 20 years later, so what's the big deal? A lot as it turned out, but that wasn't apparent until later in the book. I got the impression that she knew better at first, but came to believe her own lie by the end.

Anyway . . . my problem was that she's such a forceful character that the story really dragged whenever she was offscreen. Unfortunately, much of the other text concerned her cousin Frank's noble fiancée (the Victorians needed their fix on that, I don't), standing by him while he seems poised to jilt her. Breach of Promise plots are another that don't resonate with this modern reader. There is another subplot concerning a friend of Lizzie's, Mrs. Carbuncle, and her feverish plans to marry off her anti-social (perhaps even lesbian?) niece well. That angle proved mildly amusing, as did the appearances of a minor character, Lizzie's cranky old bat of an aunt .

When she is present, Lizzie is such a drama queen (to use a modern term) that she breathes life into the story, speaking forcefully and hatching plots. By the end I grew to like her as she seemed to be penalized as an example of what happens to nonconformists. She does, however, seem to use the kid as a convenient "prop" rather than actually caring about him, dumping him in her Scottish castle with a governess for long periods while she schemes in London.

The ending was, I believe, satisfying for its original readers, but not for me. I could only recommend the story for folks looking for a Trollope fix. Palliser series fans should be aware that the connection consists of Cora's befriending Lizzie with their meeting once, a time or two "offscreen" where Cora defends Lizzie (who has become notorious), and a very dull chapter on her husband's attempt at introducing decimal coinage.

Timothy West's narration, while excellent, still relied on the material he had with which to work.

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Timothy West is Trollope!

Any additional comments?

I am an Anthony Trollope enthusiast, and this is my first time to read The Eustace Diamonds. It is third in the Pallisers series but is definitely a stand-alone book--a character study of one very determined but unscrupulous widow and of the people in her world. Timothy West as narrator is definitely Anthony Trollope as narrator. The humor comes through superbly! Wonderful story, wonderful audiobook!

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

The Palliser books stand alone

The six Palliser books are wonderful. Timothy West is a superb narrator and brings the characters to life. Although it is very rewarding to listen to the series in sequence, I feel that each books is enjoyable on its own, without listening to them all. Highly recommended

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Better than Barsetshire. Better than Dickens.

The Chronicles of Barsetshire are great. The Palliser novels are even better. And this, the third in that series, may be the best so far. Beyond his engaging characters and plots, Trollope’s genial intelligence pervades every sentence. And where Dickens preaches, Trollope observes:

“…within the bones and flesh of many of us, there is but one person,—a man or woman, with a preponderance either of good or evil…Such persons are simple, single, and, perhaps, generally, safe. They walk along lines in accordance with certain fixed instincts or principles…But there are human beings who, though of necessity single in body, are dual in character…to whom evil is sometimes horribly, hideously evil, but is sometimes also not hideous at all. Of such men it may be said that Satan obtains an intermittent grasp…Such men,—or women,—may hardly, perhaps, debase themselves with the more vulgar vices. They will not be rogues, or thieves, or drunkards,—or, perhaps, liars; but ambition, luxury, self-indulgence, pride, and covetousness will get a hold of them, and in various moods will be to them virtues in lieu of vices.”

The idea that, like the preponderantly good, the preponderately wicked are safer, even more reliable than those whose characters teeter on the knife edge between good and evil, certainly registers with my life experience. It’s an observation typical of its author, and perhaps the thematic heart of this, if not all his books.

The pairing of Timothy West and Anthony Trollope succeeds as perfectly as that of Patrick Tull and Patrick O’Brien. West conveys Trollope’s congenial, attractive presence in every syllable.

2 persone l'hanno trovata utile