"Dr. Wortle's School."

(I was spelling it wrong before).

I finished this novel last night. I liked it, though not as much as some of the other Trollope novels (especially Orley Farm and The American Senator) that I've read in recent years. It was more melodramatic in parts, and I felt like Trollope was either unsure of, or uncomfortable with, the American journey of Mr. Peacocke, and it didn't read as true - and wasn't as interesting - as other parts of the novel.

I can't really discuss the plot without a very large "spoiler," but it's one Trollope reveals in the third chapter  (less than 25 pages in in the edition I have), so it's not very spoilerish to reveal it.

Dr. Wortle runs a school. It's a prep school for Eton and the like. It's very expensive but is well thought of. Dr. Wortle is also a clergyman, though his clerical duties seem to be less important to him than the school is. He's also someone who likes his comfort - he enjoys good food and good wine, he isn't in the least bit ascetic. He is married and has one daughter Mary, who plays a role in a subplot (the typical Trollopian plot of "trying to marry well and happily, but at least well, if happily isn't a possibility").

His school has grown to the size where he must hire another instructor. He finds Mr. Peacocke, recently from St. Louis (though born and bred in England). Mr. Peacocke taught in St. Louis but, for some reason, left precipitously. Dr. Wortle doesn't worry all that much about it, and employs him.

And Mr. Peacocke is *wonderful.* He's a good teacher, is well-regarded by the boys, is a natural athlete. And at one point, he even saves one of the younger pupils from drowning. His wife, who is very pretty, is also well-regarded, and some of the younger boys seem to see her as a bit of a mother figure.

But, there is unhappiness coming. As Mr. Peacocke and his wife have a secret. (This is the spoiler I alluded to above). She married young and badly, to a reprobate whose family (like hers) lost his plantation following what Trollope calls "The War of the Secession" (which was, apparently, a British term for our Civil War; of course the Brits had their own civil wars to refer to as Civil Wars). Her husband - Ferdinand Lefroy - was a drunkard and was abusive (verbally and possibly physically) to her. The times being what they were, she could not do what a woman would hopefully do these days, and divorce the abusive husband. But eventually Lefroy abandoned her at St. Louis, to go fight on the Mexican border. She meets Mr. Peacocke, at that time a single man, and he watches out for her, makes sure she is safe and okay. And eventually falls in love with her.

Then word comes that Lefroy has died. And after a decent period, his widow and Mr. Peacocke are married. And as Mrs. Peacocke notes later in the book, Mr. Peacocke is as good as her first husband was bad, and her second marriage is as joyful and filled with love as her first was sorrowful.

But good things cannot last. Word comes that perhaps Ferdinand Lefroy is not so dead after all - that in fact, it was his brother Robert who died. And it casts doubt on Mr. Peacocke, and hints that his wife is a bigamist (no matter an unwitting and unwilling one).

And the most interesting part of the book for me dealt with the fallout of that. Dr. Wortle knows he SHOULD, as a man of the Church of England, shun and drive away these two sinners - but he has come to like them both so well (as I said, Mrs. Peacocke was a very pretty woman) - that he cannot quite bring himself to. And Mr. Peacocke swears he will travel to America and find out for sure, and if he can, find real proof of Ferdinand's death, thus making his wife and himself, honest people. Dr. Wortle knows he "should" turn Mrs. Peacocke out of the dwellings she and her husband had as part of their being part of the school, but he cannot. And then, and then:

Mrs. Stantiloup, who had a complaint against Wortle from earlier, when he charged her five pounds extra for special care her son required, begins spreading rumors. Because she can, and because the Mrs. Stantiloups of the world are really only happy when they are seeing someone else brought low. (And yes, I have known a few Mrs. Stantiloups in my time).

One of the newspapers, as part of a "human interest" story, speaks of the friendship of Dr. Wortle and Mrs. Peacocke, hinting (or so it seems) that it may be more than just a friendship. And the Bishop reads it, and (innocently enough) sends it on to Wortle to warn him of the rumors. But Wortle takes it quite the wrong way, believes the Bishop is censuring him, flies off the handle, prepares to take legal action against the paper AND the Bishop....but eventually thinks better of it.

It's interesting to see the thought processes that Dr. Wortle goes through in this. And how he eventually decides, wisely, to let the whole thing drop- not to respond to the editorial, not to rise to the bait. He is counseled by a friend that these things will die a natural death, they will be pushed out of the paper by the next scandal, unless one of the parties to the scandal inflames things again by responding. (This seems to be good advice: when someone lies about you, don't make it worse by angrily responding in a huff).

And yes, the school suffers: the whispering campaign (likely started by Mrs. Stantiloup) leads to boys being withdrawn from the school under very flimsy pretexts. ("He's always had a weak chest and we want him to be closer to us." "His mother misses him too much")

Eventually, Mr. Peacocke finds the information he needs (or does he? Then the question comes up of "was there maybe a cousin named Ferdinand Lefroy, as well?"), returns home, and order is restored.

As I said: the American sojourn of Mr. Peacocke among the rougher classes of men is not nearly as interesting; I get the feeling that Trollope didn't quite know how to write a roughneck American accent (I don't think American adventurers of that era would refer to another man as a "chap") and that he didn't quite know what to do with that part of the story. Chapters 14 through 17, where Dr. Wortle deals with the scandalous editorial and all its fallout, are far more interesting and feel far more true to life.

Earlier, I quoted Susan Hill in her "Howard's End is on the Landing" as saying that Dickens wrote caricatures of Victorian life whereas Trollope wrote more true-to-life depictions. I still think that's true. I think Trollope, by and large, has subtler characters and, at least in some places, a more nuanced portrayal of the agonies a person can go through when they're wronged. And I do think that his portrayal of the "cathedral close" or the world of the clergy is more believable and more fully realized than his portrayal of the American frontier.

But one way in which Dickens and Trollope are alike, is in the names they use. There are some delightful names in here - I already mentioned Mrs. Stantiloup, the ferocious critic of Dr. Wortle. But there's also Mr. Puddicombe, a fellow cleric who fundamentally supports Dr. Wortle in his position but is largely too wishy-washy (well, until the end) to publicly support him. And "Ferdinand Lefroy" just SOUNDS like a disreputable person to me.

As I said: I don't think, in my opinion, this is one of Trollope's best works. It felt rushed in places and was more melodramatic than some of his other novels. But it was still an enjoyable read. (And I could totally see it done up in Masterpiece Theater style as some kind of a filmed production - I think it would make a very good story that way).

Incidentally, if you want to read it, there are free online versions (for Kindle at the like) from Project Gutenberg: Dr. Wortle's School, in e-format

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One other piece of news: I alluded to a "somewhat difficult student" I was to have this semester. Turns out the person dropped my class over the weekend and apparently will not be taking it. I feel a bit like a bird that from prison bars has flown....that was just how severe the difficulty was presented to me as being. (I was told: "If the person threatens to sue you, don't get concerned; they can't sue professors and have it stick."). So now things look totally different for this semester and the big cloud I was worrying about hanging over one of my classes is gone.