Rachel Ray andThe Belton Estate

John Everett Millais, "What Rachel Thought"

In September of the year 1998 a group of us on Trollope-l read as a pair Rachel Ray (1863) and The Belton Estate (1865). We thought of them as a pair because they were about the same size (30 to 32 chapters divided into 2 volumes), came from the same period of Trollope's career (mid-1860s), and (so we thought) were primarily love stories. Many of us had been on Ms Thompson's list and still remembered reading The Claverings (1864) and Lady Anna (1871) as a pair: although spread apart in time, they too were two volume novels, and (so we again thought) primarily domestic romance. I have told the story of that group read in my book, Trollope on the Net. I bring it up here since although contemporary Victorian reviewers had paired Lady Anna with George Eliot's Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) as radical books which questioned the social order, we had discovered that although Lady Anna was subversive of the social hierarchy, it was otherwise wholly unlike George Eliot's novel. In this read we discovered the book which was like Felix Holt was Rachel Ray: Rachel Ray had a signficant political subplot and criticism of reactionary religious fundamentalism. The Belton Estate delved female sexuality unusually frankly and recalled Trollope's short story, "The Parson's Daughter at Oxney Colne" (1861).

This was the first read we had where I deliberately wrote a facilitating essay each week of the read. Hitherto I had relied on spontaneity in myself or others to start us off. Trollope-l was a relatively new list in those days and we had only a small group of contributors; however, the discussion was lively and I rejoice to put it on the Net as both John Mize and Marcella McCarthy have since left Trollope-l and they are missed. Contributors included: Sigmund Eisner, Thilde Fox, Lisa Guardini, Bart Hansen, R. J. Keefe, Kishor Kale, Penny Klein, John Letts, Anne Long, Marcella MacCarthy, Pat Maroney, John Mize, Judith Moore, Duffy Pratt, Jill Spriggs, Joan Wall, John Woolley.

Rachel Ray

Rachel Ray was not serialised. Trollope wrote it between 3 March and 29 June of 1863, after signing a contract with the Rev Norman MacCleod, editor of the religious and conservative periodical, Good Words but when the Rev Norman MacCleod read it, he decided it would upset his readership very much. I tell the story of this in the "Introduction" below. Thus Rachel Ray was first published as a two-volume book in October of that year by Chapman and Hall, with the frontispiece a reproductoin of a watercolor painting by John Everett Millais.

Volume 1

Volume 2

The Belton Estate

The Belton Estate was begun on the 30rd of January and finished the 4th of September in 1865. It was, like Lady Anna, serialised in the Fortnightly Review, a publication intendedly progressive in politics and enlightened in its attitudes towards social relationships and the new modern sciences. As in Nina Balatka, a novella published anonymously in 1865, The Belton Estate embodies some of G. H. Lewes's ideals of realism. The goal of the The Fortnightly (which came out once a month) was to become an English Revue des Deux Mondes. Its policy against anonymity was an ideal Trollope shared: its texts were signed. It was serialised between 15 May 1865 and 1 January 1866, and then published as a book in December of 1865 by Chapman and Hall.

Volume 1

Volume 2

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