I first read my way through a selection of the works of Anthony Trollope back in the 1980s and 1990s. I’d started with Dickens when we’d lived in Rochester and then moved onto Trollope, probably inspired by The Barchester Chronicles on TV. Has there ever been a better Obidiah Slope than Alan Rickman, the part was made for him?
After the Barchester books I moved onto Trollope’s six Palliser novels. I find Trollope infinitely more readable than Dickens. So when it came to revisiting my classics in 2025 I decided to start with the Pallisers and The Eustace Diamonds. The Eustace Diamonds is actually number three in the series but I don’t think it will matter too much reading them out of order.
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Lady Eustace with the diamonds
How AI sees it? |
The Eustace Diamonds, as the name suggests, revolves around a set of diamonds that belong to the Eustace family. Well they did, until the anti heroine Lizzie Greystock comes along, seduces Lord Florian Eustace and quickly marries him. Following the wedding we are told Florian made Lizzie a gift of the diamonds, at the same time ensuring his succession before then turning his toes up and going off to meet his maker.
Enter Mr Camperdown, the Eustace family lawyer, who makes it his goal to get the diamonds back into "safe keeping" for future generations of Eustaces, notably Lizzie’s son who is the old Lord Eustace’s heir.
We then have to introduce the second couple in the story, Frank Greystock and Lucy Morris. Frank is Lizzie’s cousin, and is a barrister and member of Parliament. Unfortunately he is short of money, and knows that if he marries he must marry for money. Lucy is a governess which means that on paper she is not a good marriage proposition for Frank. So what does he do? He goes and proposes to her.
Naturally the course of true love never runs smooth and this was especially the case in 19th Century England. It could be said Frank proposes to Lucy when he is on the rebound from being beaten to Lizzie’s hand by Lord Fawn. Ironically Lizzie later confesses to Frank that she had only accepted Lord Fawn’s proposal of marriage because she wanted to get back at Frank for not proposing to her.
Lizzie hanging onto her diamonds creates a dilemma for Lord Fawn. There is no doubt he needs her wealth, but as a member of the government administration he can’t stand the thought of any controversy around the diamonds reflecting badly on him; at the same time he realises that if he breaks off the engagement that will reflect badly on him as well.
It is sometimes difficult for us to appreciate how important honour was in the 19th century in 2026 when our politicians appear happy to lie to us every other day. And although, as Frank explains to Lizzie, the days of Englishmen fighting duels over a woman’s slighted honour were behind them, I think we can also understand that a broken agreement of marriage was a very serious offence at the time the book was set.
Lizzie refuses to accept Lord Fawn’s ultimatum to give back the diamonds and engages Frank, as her relative and a man of the legal profession, to fight her corner. As Lizzie’s contempt for Lord Fawn increases we find her desire for Frank rekindled, to the point where they are spotted in a passionate embrace by the factotum at her estate in Scotland.
Oh dear, this cannot end well for Lucy and the diamonds can it!
The central portion of the novel feels to lose its way slightly as Trollope indulges his passion for fox hunting by incorporating a description of the sport into the storyline. Your perception of this portion will depend very much on your viewpoint on fox hunting, but for me it was very enjoyable to read a graphic description of Lizzie enjoying the thrill of riding a horse cross country, presumably side saddle, and riding home safely at the end of the day.
The second side story, of how Frank obtains his ride for the day, provides amusement and also a fascinating insight into the logistics of hunting in the Victorian era. The chapter is entitled “Nappie’s Grey Horse” and is well worth a stand alone read.
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Nappie's Grey Horse?
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The hunting action takes place in Scotland, and it is when the party are returning to England that a key incident in the story takes place with the theft of the diamonds from Lizzie’s hotel room. The twist in the tale is that Lizzie had already removed the diamonds from their strongbox, so in fact only the strongbox was taken. Realising that she can use this to her advantage, Lizzie keeps the fact that the diamonds are still in her possession a secret known only to her, and of course, the thief.
All this time, Lucy has left her governess role, due to a clash with Lord Fawn, and is acting as a companion to the fiery Lady Linlithgow. Lady Linlithgow imposes a strict regime on Lucy which includes her not being able to receive Frank as a visitor.
Lucy accepts this regime stoically, but it doesn’t seem an ideal basis for starting a life together does it?
On her return from Scotland Lizzie sets up home with Mrs Carbuncle, and of course her diamonds, safely (she thinks) locked in her writing desk. She is courted by another character, Lord George de Bruce Carruthers, a dashing but mysterious adventurer and soldier of fortune and possible diamond thief (surely not).
But Lizzie’s original suitor, Lord Fawn, is put under pressure by Lady Glencora Palliser (who could resist Susan Hampshire) to renew his suite.
What will happen next?
As the police net closes in on the thieves, with Trollope giving us Bunfit and Gager as the Victorian version of Barnaby and Jones, or possibly Morse and Lewis, Lizzie considers taking flight to Scotland, but wants to wrangle a commitment out of Lord Fawn first on the basis that if she can’t have Frank then she’ll settle for Fawn’s bells and whistles.
There are three constant Victorian era themes at play here. The first is the apparent need for a woman to marry in order to make herself complete, secondly, and leading on from that, is the acceptance that people would enter into loveless marriages, with both partners openly despising one another, and finally the concept of living in constant debt. On the latter, for some, and Lizzie’s father is quoted as an example, this is a deliberate lifestyle choice to simply not pay their bills. For others, and here Frank is the example, some inadequate economies are attempted, but the lifestyle expected of a man in his position, together with clients who choose not to pay their way, leads to an ever gloomier relationship with their bank manager.
Into this maelstrom steps Mr Emilius to make a play for Lizzie’s hand, or more importantly, her home at Portray Castle. Now we’d left Emilius at Portray making a play for Lizzie’s unfortunate companion Miss Macnulty but it appears he has his eyes on a much higher prize.
You don’t get the impression Trollope likes Mr Emilius, describing him as “a greasy, fawning, pawing, creeping, black-browed rascal, who could not look her (Lizzie) full in the face, and whose every word sounded like a lie”.
Trollope is frustrated that Lizzie can’t see this for herself.
As we read on we find Lord Fawn has written Lizzie his letter leaving the decision on their marriage to her but really hoping that she'll give it a miss. Mrs Carbuncle encourage Lizzie to accept his offer and thinks that she might but at the same time thinking that she might not.
As she hesitates there comes a knock on the door from Major Mackintosh, chief of police. who wants to talk to Lizzie about the theft of her diamonds.
Lizzie has no choice but to face up to her fate.
A slight aside
I recently attended a church carol service which I believed was to follow the traditional format of nine readings and nine carols. It might have been six and six that I had been used to but the numbers don't matter, what matters is that someone had taken it upon themselves to simplify the readings into what I took to be a modern idiom. This really shouldn't have bothered me, but I was surprised when I realised that it did. When I analysed why I felt this way I realised that there was a certain enigmatic mystery in the archaic and yet familiar words and phrases of the King James Bible, which was lost when the readings were set in the language of the 21st Century. This took me right back to Donald Pleasance playing Rev. Septimus Harding in The Barchester Chronicles.
“If there is no music, there is no mystery. If there is no mystery, there is no God. If there is no mystery, there is no faith. Have I lived for sixty years on a misunderstanding?”
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Harveywetdog/Author - David Robinson CEng FIET
David spent approaching 50 years in Her Majesty's Electricity Supply Industry before retiring
He was part of the highly successful design team on the Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station Project before spending 25 years producing safety cases to keep our aging AGR fleet generating for the good of the nation
He is responsible for the Harveywetdog YouTube Channel which he maintains as an outlet for his creative talents
David has experienced blood cancer treatment twice but refuses to be a victim
All views are of course his own but might be influenced by the medication he's had to take
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