Joanna Trollope writes up terrific characters, intriguing ideas, and varying historical periods in gratifying detail, here in this trilogy of novellas. It begins with a young woman escaping England for India and Afghanistan in the mid-to-late ninetheenth century, continues with her daughter and granddaughter, both of whom deal with her legacy as well as their own challenges, and concludes the volume with the story of the granddaughter, who comes of age at the time of WWII.

The fault in these novels is that characters decide to do things that real people - real family members - real relatives - would not ever do. That absurdity pops out with fair regularity.

But other than that, the characters and characterization, the dialogue and wit, and the historical, social evolutionary, and basic human understanding shine forth and carry the day.

A reader leaves the book with sadness that it is done, and then realizes that there is a sequel: Second Legacy.

I've looked through the shelves at the other novels of Joanna Trollope. None of them seem to have the same attractive sense of life as do these two. ( )