Doctor Wortle's School
Doctor Wortle's School, alternatively Dr. Wortle's School or Dr Wortle's School, published in 1881, is a novel by Anthony Trollope, his fortieth book.
Plot summary
The novel takes place in the respectable, fictional parish of Bowick, Victorian England, with the main plot concerning itself with the renowned Dr. Wortle's Christian seminary academy. The community's morals are outraged and the school's credibility wounded upon the discovery that Mr. and Mrs. Peacocke, a respectable English scholar and an American woman, hired to the academy by Wortle, are indeed improperly married. Their wedlock was rendered asunder by their chance meeting, some years prior, of Mrs. Peacocke's first husband, an abusive drunkard named Colonel Ferdinand Lefroy. Hearing that an ambiguous Colonel Lefroy was killed during the Civil War, the two believed it was Ferdinand, because Ferdinand's brother told them so and they married. Yet it is their strange persistence in living as husband and wife, even after the shocking revelation that Ferdinand was actually alive, that creates a scandal. Wortle, though religious, sympathises with the Peacockes and is understanding of their love for each other and hatred for Colonel Lefroy. The book is thus of the interest in providing multiple stories: that of Wortle's attempt to rebuild his reputation, provide rebuttal for malicious slander and all the while insist he was right in hiring the Peacockes; Mr. Peacocke's journey to America in search of Ferdinand's true status; the sexual concerns of the Wortles' daughter Mary and the insights of the community members who see the intentional bigamy as a sin.
External links
- Dr. Wortle's School at Project Gutenberg
- Doctor Wortle's School public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- "The Westminster review, Volume 116" – Google Books
- "A life of John Calvin: a study in the shaping of Western culture" – Google Books
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- The Macdermots of Ballycloran (1847)
- The Kellys and the O'Kellys (1848)
- La Vendée: An Historical Romance (1850)
- The Three Clerks (1858)
- The Bertrams (1859)
- Castle Richmond (1860)
- Orley Farm (1862)
- The Struggles of Brown, Jones & Robinson (1862)
- Rachel Ray (1863)
- Miss Mackenzie (1865)
- The Belton Estate (1866)
- The Claverings (1867)
- Nina Balatka (1867)
- Linda Tressel (1868)
- He Knew He Was Right (1869)
- The Vicar of Bullhampton (1870)
- Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite (1871)
- Ralph the Heir (1871)
- The Golden Lion of Granpère (1872)
- Harry Heathcote of Gangoil (1874)
- Lady Anna (1874)
- The Way We Live Now (1875)
- The American Senator (1877)
- Is He Popenjoy? (1878)
- John Caldigate (1879)
- An Eye for an Eye (1879)
- Cousin Henry (1879)
- Ayala's Angel (1881)
- Doctor Wortle's School (1881)
- The Fixed Period (1882)
- Kept in the Dark (1882)
- Marion Fay (1882)
- Mr. Scarborough's Family (1883)
- The Landleaguers (1883)
- An Old Man's Love (1884)
Chronicles of Barsetshire |
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Palliser novels |
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- Co-founder, The Fortnightly Review
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