Lady Anna

By: Anthony Trollope

Narrated by: David Beed

"Lady Anna" (1874) is a novel by Anthony Trollope. It describes Lady Anna's attempts to resolve the conflict between her duty to her social class and her duty to the man she loves. The story takes place at about the time of the First Reform Act of 1832. Lady Anna is the daughter of the late Earl Lovel. Her mother married him out of ambition, despite his evil reputation. Soon after their marriage, he told her that he had a living wife, which made their union invalid and their unborn daughter illegitimate.

He then sailed to Italy and did not return to England for twenty years. During those two decades, Lady Lovel struggled to prove the validity of her marriage, and consequently her right to her title and her daughter's legitimacy. She enjoyed neither the sympathy of the public nor the support of her family during this time; her only friend and supporter was Thomas Thwaite, a Radical tailor of Keswick, who gave her and her daughter shelter and financed her legal battles...

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Another Good Trollope Tale

I very much enjoyed this Trollope story. A bit different from some of his others but it held my interest and kept me wondering how it would play out. I thought the narration was quite good. Many have noted some occasional extraneous noise but this was rare and barely noticeable. Hardly a problem.

Also, this narrator announced the beginning and end of each chapter. This is unusual but I experienced it with a couple other books. I rather like it since I prefer to pause my listening at the end of a chapter. Much better this way than the recordings that rush into the next chapter without a pause. Just my thoughts.

All in all a good listen.

Another Trollope

Some distracting noises and glitches in production. But still really enjoyed it. Narrator was good and well understated.

Hurry Up, Already!

That's pretty much what I was begging for by chapter 30 something. I'll probably not read another Trollope, classic or not.

Ehhh

I’m a big Trollope fan, but thought the plot very static, the characters underdeveloped, and the narration just ok, so one of my least favorite.

Reader is just ok...but

Why did the publisher treat this like a legal document, inserting "End of chapter X... Lady Anna by Anthony Trollope....Chapter Y" after every chapter? Totally goofy.

Great Price For A Mediocre Recording of A Trollope Novel

As others have noted, the recording was amateur. There were loud clicks and background noises throughout. The reader occasionally slurred or stumbled over words. The introductions to each chapter (nearly 50) included the book title and that should have been cut.

Having said all that, the reader had a very pleasant voice and did the voices of certain characters in a subtle way that did not overstretch his ability.

As for the story, in many ways this is not one of Trollope’s best. It does include a lot of legal twists and turns, just as many of his books include a lot of political twists and turns. The story of the Italian wife could have been more thoroughly fleshed out instead of quickly and conveniently shunted to the side. I would have preferred a less conventional Trollope ending and a more intriguing female heroine. This one is rather Dickensian and flat — unlike the many spunky and rather modern women in the Palliser series. But I like Trollope. He is always entertaining and holds attention to the end. All of his novels have a baseline of quality that cannot be ignored. The mother, with her driving ambition and her contradictory extremes of behavior, was perhaps the best character in the book. She is unpleasant but it is a realistic portrayal. Having his heroine be a daughter who is an alleged bastard put Trollope out on a limb somewhat with his conservative Victorian audience. That’s another thing I like about him: his willingness to treat with daring subjects. I wish he had done that more with race and national origin than he did. This book has the typical undercurrents of race prejudice common in that era.

If you like Trollope as much as I do and want to hear Lady Anna as an audiobook, this is a great bargain at the time of this writing. $3 and change? I’ll put up with any number of clicks and stumbles. The reader is good; it’s just the recording that needs polishing. Go for it.

A good entry point to meet Trollope

I am working my way through all Trollope's books. While this specific book may not be as widely recognized, I find it to be a compelling story and a great introduction to the author's body of work. Although narrators like Timothy West and Nigel Patterson are known for their exceptional performances of Trollope's works, this particular narration still holds its own. If, like me, you've experienced all the books narrated by the aforementioned narrators, you'll find that this is indeed a decent narration of a lesser-known book.