My wife and I watched the three-episode dramatisation of Doctor Thorne on ABC television recently, and we found it very unsatisfying, with a too-obvious plot-line, too easily resolved.

But as it’s the third book in Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Chronicles, and having enjoyed the first two volumes so much, I was curious to read the book and see how well or how poorly the television series had handled the story. I’m glad I did so, because the answer is “very badly”. The novel is far more nuanced and interesting and much less schmaltzy-romantic than the dramatisation.

The basic story, though, is the same: Thomas Thorne is an honest, hard-working doctor who has been entrusted with acting as a financial agent by the local squire and his once-wealthy family the Greshams, who have fallen on hard times —well, hard times for those used to living on the fat of the land. They are deeply in debt, primarily to Sir Richard Scatcherd, a self-made millionaire who started life as a humble stone mason.

The main interest in the story arises from Mary, Doctor Thorne’s niece—the illegitimate child of his elder brother. Mary is a quiet, decent young woman whom the doctor has raised as though she were his own daughter. She has been allowed to make friends and spend a good deal of time with the Gresham children as she grows up.

The squire’s heir, Francis (Frank) needs to marry a wealthy wife to save his family from the humiliation of losing all of their property and influence as their debts spiral out of control. But of course, Frank has fallen in love with

2 Mary Thorne, who is both penniless and illegitimate. A mighty battle thus ensues as the family strives to prevent Frank from making an injudicious liaison with Mary. They make every attempt to get him to ‘marry money’, and Mary is pressured from every side to reject Frank’s advances, which she has not encouraged.

The plot thickens as we discover more of Mary’s origins and her relationship to Sir Richard Scatcherd, who is dying of self-induced alcoholic poisoning. Ignorant of this relationship, he makes a will which will bequeath all of his enormous wealth to ‘my sister’s eldest child’ if his own son dies young.

Well, you can see where the story is going. It is told in far too facile a manner in the television series, reducing the plot to a caricature of ‘rich boy falls for poor girl, can’t marry her, poor girl becomes rich, everyone lives happily ever after’. But the book, as I say, is far more nuanced, and depicts the long struggles of conscience which both Mary and her uncle Doctor Thorne have to deal with.

There’s quite a bit of Trollope’s sly satirical humour in the novel, too, as he picks apart the pretensions of his era. Forget the television series, read the book. ( )

I did not enjoy this novel as much as the previous two in the series. It reminded me of third-rate Jane Austen, with the election chapters (and actually the entire Sir Roger plot) being very Dickensian, right down to the character names. Appendix two of this edition, while relevant to the series’s first two novels, seems almost completely irrelevant to Doctor Thorne. ( )

True to the formula, and therefore ultimately uninspired. This is hardly the Trollope who wrote the charming book "The Warden" or the Palliser books, which r were so filled with political machinations and complex characters. ( )

Not quite as humorous as Trollope's Barchester Towers but still a fun look at English country society especially in regards to the ever-present need to marry money! A satirical look at the extent to which money will excuse or obstruct breeding and manners (good and bad) in the matrimonial plans of both young people and their families.

2019 reread via LibriVox audiobook:
I enjoyed this 3rd book in the Barsetshire series even more this time around. ( )

In his introduction to this edition of Doctor Thorne, David Skilton quotes from the October, 1863, edition of Saturday Review: “Mr. Trollope has, in fact, established his novels as the novels of the day, and his is the picture of English life which, for a brief space at least, will be accepted as true by those who wish to see English life represented in fiction.” In Doctor Thorne Trollope focuses his picture on the small village of Greshamsbury and the estate of the Gresham family in fictitious Barsetshire.
Having moved westward from Barchester in this third novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire, Trollope begins the story with a thorough description of Greshamsbury, its history and its inhabitants. Such an experience of being immersed in an unfamiliar setting, meeting its populace, learning about their economic and social situations and their relationships with one another is one of the greatest pleasures I have in reading novels. And Trollope does this “world building” so very well.
It is clear from the novel’s opening chapters that plot and action will be of less significance than character and theme. The story’s main conflict emerges from the love of Frank Gresham, son and heir of the local squire, for Mary Thorne, the portionless niece of the local doctor. In addition to her lack of wealth, Mary is also the child of a rape, and thus unsuited by by “blood,” as well as by financial status, to marry into the Squirearchy. Moreover, Frank’s father, because of poor management of his expenses (especially of his wife’s) has had to sell a favorite portion of his land and to mortgage the rest, so Frank must “marry money” if the property is to remain in Gresham hands. Frank loves his father devotedly and to follow his father’s wishes would mean giving up Mary Thorne. There might have been much suspense in the novel if Trollope, in his role of omniscient narrator, had not in the first chapter assured readers that “I am too old now to be a hard-hearted author and so it is probable that Frank will not die of a broken heart.” Confident in the novel’s happy ending, readers are free to pay attention to character and theme.
Dr. Thorne is filled with characters who caught my interest. Dr. Thorne himself, the novel’s hero, is fascinating and thoroughly sympathetic. He is very good at his profession, a dedicated and sensible physician. He is filled with integrity and is loyal to those he loves. However, there is a little streak of pride and stubbornness in him: though he himself earns his own bread and Mary’s by his profession, he is quite proud of his family connections with the Thornes of Ullathorne, and will not tolerate being patronised. I enjoyed watching the young lovers Mary and Frank mature over the course of the novel, each becoming more worthy of the other. I sympathized with Sir Roger Scatcherd, the extremely wealthy former stone mason, who was miserable in his elevated position. And perhaps my favorite character was Miss Dunstable, the “ointment of Lebanon” heiress, whose hand in marriage Frank is instructed by his mother and aunt to win. Miss Dunstable turns out to be a sensible, good humored, and good hearted woman, and she develops a real fondness for Frank. She is the only one who openly supports his love for Mary. The De Courcy family including Frank’s mother, the Lady Arabella, are treated satirically to show their misplaced priorities. They claim to value “good blood” and family over all else, especially in potential marriage partners, but it is made clear that in their world money and power are the real objects. The interactions between Augusta Gresham and her snooty cousin Lady Amelia de Courcy are entertaining until the true hypocrisy of the De Courcys is revealed: Lady Amelia marries the suitor she had persuaded Augusta to reject.
Two major themes of the novel stood out to me, one being that happiness is not bound up in wealth and position, the other that a person’s value is to be found in character, not in pedigree. I admired Doctor Thorne, Mary, and Frank for their refusal to consider money or lineage as all-important. And those who adhered to those false values, instead of being raised to the status of villains, seemed either laughable or pitiable.
I’d like to spend more time in Barsetshire and so will probably read the last three novels in the Chronicles. I give Doctor Thorne a rating of 4 stars. ( )