Customer Reviews
A chick-lit-rom-com - By: Brownbear101, 28 Jul 2010 
This book considers whether it is better to have romance or realism & concludes that they are not necessarily different things. Part one of a six part series. A pleasant read that falls between the stools of taking itself too seriously & not being serious enough.
This would be a far more widely read book today if Trollope had been a woman or published under a woman's name, because it is pure chick lit & yet has become muddled up with the idea that it concerns politics & therefore is a heavy read. This is partly the fault of politicians (well what is not?) like John Major who have listed Trollope as their favourite author & perhaps partly a marketing failure by the publishers. Women readers lap up Jane Austin & I don't see very much to choose between her works & this volume as both concern various problem romances leavened with what passes for humour.
Three women are each faced with variations of the same dilemma, which man to marry. Lady Glencora wanted the rascally, romantic & poor Burgo but has been forced to marry the straight laced & undemonstrative Plantagenet Palliser, soon to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. She spends the book plotting to run off with Burgo. Alice Vavasor,in a back story that is necessary but implausible, was engaged to her rotten cousin George Vavasor then switched horses to John Grey who is a Palliser clone but without Palliser's ambition & then she switches back again. Finally there is Alice & George's rich & newly widowed aunt Greenow who can have either the wealthy & worthy farmer Cheesacre or the worthless scallywag Captain Bellfield.
The three situations are rough copies of each other but Lady Glencora seeks to undo a choice she has been forced into, Alice to justify the choices she has made & Greenow to please herself as to her choice. In the meantime the men behave like assorted cads & boundersin interesting different flavours, with the exception of John Grey who simply sets out to win Alice's love.
It's all jolly stuff spoiled somewhat by Alice's manouvers being rather implausible because it is necessary for her to reject the perfect John Grey & to take up with Vavasor whom she already knows to be a bad'un. For this to work Trollope makes George appear to be rather a sweetie at first before the mask is ripped away & the dark side of his character is revealed. This is all rather extreme & if Alice has already broken off her engagement once because she knows his character, how can she be going round again? I know these things happenin real life but they don't make sense there either. The title asks whether you can forgive Alice for vacillating but of course a modern reader doesn't really care about the breaking of the social taboo against jilting a man & so is left with an emphasis on the reasons for her choice & the men she is choosing between.
It would be obvious if you didn't already know, that Trollope himself longed to be a politician & most of the male characters are trying to become an MP, eventually try or already are MPs. This background isn't really necessary to make the novel work but of course the story of Lady Glencora & Palliser continuesin the next five booksin this series so I was willing to take this as background for the future.
Nothingin here will change your life, nor on this evidence will many readers, John Major apart, decide that Trollope is the finest writer they know but this is a pleasing & entertaining read.
Follow your heart - By: Gregory S. Buzwell, 13 Jul 2010 
In this, the first of the Palliser novels, Anthony Trollope tells three inter-twined stories. In the first the lovely but indecisive Alice Vavasor dithers awkwardly between the two menin her life - the saintly John Grey (upstanding, respectable, wealthy and, yes, a bit dull) & her cousin George (dashing, charismatic, charming & about as acceptablein polite society as a nine-pound note). In the second the coquettish Mrs Greenow - perpetually dabbing at her eyesin posed melancholy rememberance of her rather uninspiring deceased husband - teases & toys with the affections of her two suitors: the wealthy but oily Mr Cheesacre & the charming but thoroughly shabby Captain Bellfield - hero of many non-existent battlesin places no-one can ever find on a map. Finally,in the third strand of the narrative, Trollope tells the tale of Plantagenet Palliser & his efforts to risein the government of the day while keeping his delightfully free-spirited wife, the very lovely Lady Glencora, under some sort of control.
As ever with Trollope the real joy of the novel liesin the characters. Somehow the peoplein his books are every bit as memorable as thosein Dickens & yet they always manage to remain on the right side of caricature. My personal favouritein Can You Forgive Her? is Mrs Greenow, perpetually playing her two suitors off against each other. At one point Captain Bellfield goes down on bended knee & pursues the widow around her drawing room professing his undying love only to be met with Mrs Greenow's superbly withering comment 'You've pushed all the chairs about, you stupid man'. She's fabulous & she steals every scenein which she appears.
There is, however, a serious message beneath all the comedy. Trollope shows how a womanin Victorian Britain who, for whatever reason, does not have a husband could easily find herselfin an awkward situation, both financially & alsoin terms of the role she playsin society. He also manages to highlight the corrupt nature of politics, where money speaks louder than good intentions, & shows,in the character of Burgo Fitzgerald, how a broken heart can more than off-set the advantages of birth & status. The financial aspects of society are shownin full, but equally Trollope shows how ultimately it is love & friendship that define our lives.
Can You Forgive Her? is a lovely book, full of humour & drama (the fox hunting scene is superbly dramatic, & Mrs Greenow's picnic with her bickering admirers is a comic masterpiece) but with an important message at its heart. Highly recommended.
Impressive - By: Didier, 06 Aug 2008 This is the first book of the so-called 'Palliser-' or 'political' novels by Anthony Trollope, & if the next 5 volumes are as good as this one that would be nothing short of amazing. If you've read the Barsetshire-chronicles, you'll immediately recognize the inimitable Trollope-style, with its painstakingly detailed analyses of the characters' feelings & emotions. And therefore, remotein time as the settings of these novels may be, ever so much is recognizable & relevant evenin the 21st century. I found myself constantly thinking 'I would have felt so too', sympathizing with some characters & disliking others because all of them are painted so life-like you'll feel you've met themin the flesh.
In this particular novel the heroine, Alice Vavasor, is torn between two lovers: her cousin George (ambitious & attractive but with a temper) & the stoic gentleman John Grey. Shein turn accepts & then rejects both & is unable to forgive herself for being a 'jilt' (hence the title).
There's nothing much sensational about the plot (is there ever with Trollope?) & the pace is slow, much slower probably than what we've become used to, but nevertheless this is a book thoroughly to be enjoyed.
A masterpiece! utterly brilliant! - By: H. Lacroix, 23 Apr 2008 "Can you forgive her" is the best Trollope book I have ever read & although I am far from having read them all, I must have been through at least 12 of them. In "Can you forgive her?" spirited Alice Vavasor cannot reconcile herself to the idea of marrying the man she truly loves because his sedate style of life doesn't agree with Alice's idea that people who have knowledge & opportunity should make something useful of their lives.As a woman she cannot take an active partin political life & is therefore determined to be the helpmate of someone willing to take risks & to serve his fellowmen. She becomes engaged to her cousin whose political ambitions she respects but finds herself distraught at having promised herself to a man she cannot love... & then starts the long campaign of Mr John Grey, jilted lover of the resolute Alice, who is unable to come to terms with the fact that the woman he cherishes is not to be his & who is determined he shall overcome all obstacles & marry her after all.
The book is peopled with unforgettable characters from the wonderful aunt Greenow to the memorable farmer Cheeseacre who is desperate to get married but whose ideas of romance consistin telling the woman he covets how lucky she is to have been selected as his prospective bride...
And we meet Glencora Palliser, Alice's cousin, a young woman who has been married off to a prominent member of the establishemnt & who is deeply unhappy as she cannot forget the good-for-nothing but handsome & blue-eyed Burgo Fitzgerald her heart longs for...and a host of other people just as brilliantly sketched.
It is a very accomplished book, great fun & superbly written , with fewer repetitions thanin other Trollope books, a book I have already read 3 times & which I will re read again as I find it incredibly good, & as its heroine, although complicated & sometimes annoying, is one of the best creations ever brought to life. You cannot help but feel for Alice whose unhappiness is all of her own doing but who will not resign herself to a life of empty social obligations & who yearns for more... & you have to respect her for that!
Passionate, wise and surprisingly entertaining - By: 100wordreviewer, 23 Jan 2007 I started reading the Palliser novels after seeing a review describing them as "still the best description of British political life". They do, indeed, contain a lot of politics - particularly the later volumes, "Phineas Finn" & "Phineas Redux"; & this remains astonishingly contemporary. But the most up-to-date aspect of this extraordinary series of books is the sexual politics, as a series of vividly drawn women & men struggle to find happiness between social convention & sexual attraction. "Can You Forgive Her", which features the headstrong Lady Glencora Palliser & the intense Alice Vavasor both torn between desirable rakes & steady pillars of society, is to my mind one of the best of the series. It's also very funny, alive with irony & sophisticated wit.
For: beautiful writing, unforgettable characters, entertaining read.
Against: nothing. But it is quite long.
