Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite

By: Anthony Trollope

Narrated by: Tony Britton

On the death of his son, Sir Harry Hotspur had determined to give his property to his daughter Emily. She is beautiful and as strong-willed and high-principled as her father. Then she falls in love with the black-sheep of the family.Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Not One Of His Best

After The Way We Live Now, this novel was a huge disappointment. Emily is an awful character—a girl so sanctimonious and rigid that she can’t accept the glaring unsuitability of her loutish, drunken, thieving paramour. Despite knowing his irredeemable nature, she insists she can reform him and decides to martyr herself trying. Worse, he’s her cousin. I’ll spare you the ending, but it’s not a happy one. As for the performance, it would have been much better with a female narrator, since most of the dialogue is Emily’s. But if you enjoy falsetto voices, you’ll love Tony Britton’s.

Great Listen/Read

Anthony Trollope never disappoints and this book is one of his best. The characters were described vividly, causing the reader to love, dislike and even have pity on certain ones. The reader did an excellent job too. I've already listened to this book 3 times, each time catching a nugget that I missed, but also, each time, heartbroken for Sir Harry Hotspur. Great, great listen/read!

It’s a sad cautionary tale.

If you like Jane Austin, this is probably not the book for you. He is not as dark as Thomas Hardy, but it is somewhere between the two.

Not Trollope’s Best

I am a great fan of Trollope’s books, and although I appreciated listening to this one I did not find it to be as good as his other books. All that being said, I would still recommend it to listeners.

Narration was superb.

Beautiful

I loved everything about this book and the reader was very good. Pulled me in instantly.

Sweet and sad and marred by prejudice

One of the sweetest, saddest stories of Trollope that I've read. Cousin George, who is a bounder beyond redemption, convinces himself that he loves Emily, and convinces her too; but as her father Sir Harry suspects, he really just wants her money. The result destroys more than one person, emotionally if not physically. Tony Britton gives a wonderful reading.

One thing has to be said, though. One of the darkest crimes charged against George is that he’s in hock to the Jews. Were he in debt to good Anglicans, it wouldn't have been held against him, at least not to the same extent. Reading Trollope can be exasperating.

How could someone who writes such genial fiction, with such engaging characters, continually mar his writing with this ugly prejudice? It's not a question of Trollope simply being a man of his time. The same period gave birth to novels with deeply drawn, sympathetic Jewish characters: novels like Daniel Deronda and Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend. Enjoying Trollope, as I do, can sometimes be a cringeworthy experience. I would have given the story 5 stars otherwise.

Great read

I love most of Trollope's books as I did this one except I was completely surprised with the ending Trollope gave.

Sometimes a Great Fall

This was my introduction to Tony Britton as a narrator and I am very impressed. Timothy West and Frederick Davidson come to mind as comparable in talent.

This book could have been titled Emily after the heroine Miss Hotspur. In some ways she reminds me of Marianne Dashwood "Sense and Sensibility" in her naivet? and of Fanny Price "Mansfield Park" in the strength of her resolve. Like her sister heroines, Emily is not the kind of woman one would willingly cross. The thought of the probable results would terrify me. However, George Hotspur, the anti hero of the piece, had no such terrors. Glib as Willoughby and smooth as Henry Crawford, he was sure of his ability to talk his way out of or into any situation and confident of his ability with women. Like his fellow scoundrels, his weakness of character comes into play. I am not so satisfied with Trollope's bitter sweet conclusion of this little tale but one can't have everything.

Eh.

Sad and repetitive. Skip this one. Narrator was good. Perhaps I had too high expectations.

All the Story, a Third of the Time Commitment

Until now, I thought Trollope was one of those artists who, to give of his best, required an oversized canvas – anywhere from 20 to 30 hours per volume. The shorter works that I know (Doctor Wortle’s School and An Old Man’s Love) failed to engage as thoroughly as the Barsetshire Chronicles, the Palliser saga, or that freestanding masterpiece, The Way We Live Now. But Sir Harry has changed all that.

Here we have all the plot complications, subtle social / psychological / religious insights, and memorable characters usually found in the cathedral close or Gatherum Castle. And the quality of Tony Britton’s performance rivals Timothy West’s Trollope recordings. My only gripe is the navigation: eight weighty chunks, created with almost no reference to chapter breaks.