Enter the drawing rooms of Victorian England and meet three women facing the most momentous decision of their lives: whom to marry. Read Anthony Trollope’s brilliant novel of love, money, and conscience completely free online.
Published serially from 1864 to 1865, Can You Forgive Her? is the novel that launched Anthony Trollope’s greatest achievement: the Palliser series, six linked novels tracing the political and personal lives of the English ruling class. It is also, in its own right, one of Trollope’s most psychologically penetrating works, a study of female choice and male presumption that anticipates the great realist novels of the later nineteenth century.
The title poses a question to the reader. Can you forgive her? The “her” is Alice Vavasor, a young woman of intelligence and independence who cannot decide between two suitors. One is John Grey, a solid, honorable country gentleman who offers security, respectability, and love. The other is George Vavasor, her cousin, a man of ambition, danger, and destructive charm. Alice chooses George. Then she changes her mind. Then she changes it again. Her indecision is not frivolity; it is the expression of a deep conflict between what she wants and what she believes she ought to want. Trollope asks us to forgive her for not knowing her own heart.
On this page, you can experience the novel that established Trollope as the master of political and domestic fiction. We offer the complete 1865 text for online reading.
Book Info
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Title | Can You Forgive Her? |
| Author | Anthony Trollope |
| Year of Publication | 1865 |
| Genre | Novel, Political Fiction, Domestic Fiction |
| Language | English |
| Legal Status | Public Domain Worldwide |
| Format | Online Reading |
Read Can You Forgive Her? Online
Hear the carriage wheels on the gravel and the whispers in the drawing room. Begin this masterpiece of Victorian fiction by entering the world of Alice Vavasor interactively below.
This preview introduces the woman who cannot decide and the men who wait for her decision. However, the full, expansive narrative—the political ambitions of Plantagenet Palliser, the comic misadventures of Aunt Greenow, the villainy of George Vavasor, and the final, hard-won resolution—is available in the complete text for our subscribers.
A subscription unlocks this cornerstone of Victorian literature and the complete Palliser novels of Anthony Trollope. Discover the novelist who understood that politics is personal and the personal is political.
About the Novel Can You Forgive Her?
Can You Forgive Her? is a novel about choices. Alice Vavasor must choose between two men. Lady Glencora Palliser must choose between her husband and her lover. Aunt Greenow must choose between two suitors of very different classes. The novel asks whether these choices are free, whether women can truly decide their own fates in a world that has already decided for them.
Alice Vavasor: The Indecisive Woman
Alice is the novel’s central consciousness and its most problematic character. She is intelligent, well-educated, financially independent. She has everything a Victorian woman could desire—except certainty. She loves John Grey but fears that marriage to him will be a surrender of her independence. She is attracted to George Vavasor’s ambition but knows that he is dangerous. She cannot decide, and her indecision drives the plot. Trollope does not mock her; he sympathizes with her. He understands that women of her class had few real choices and that the appearance of choice could be more agonizing than its absence.
John Grey: The Good Man
John Grey is almost too good to be true. He is handsome, wealthy, virtuous, patient. He loves Alice unconditionally and waits for her through all her vacillations. Modern readers may find him insipid; Victorian readers found him ideal. Trollope walks a fine line, presenting Grey as genuinely admirable without making him unbelievable. His patience is not weakness but strength; his certainty is not complacency but faith.
George Vavasor: The Dangerous Man
George is the novel’s villain, but he is not a simple villain. He has charm, ambition, a vision of political greatness. He loves Alice in his way—possessively, jealously, destructively. He is the man women are warned against and drawn to. His decline into violence and madness is one of Trollope’s most powerful achievements, a portrait of ambition curdling into pathology.
Lady Glencora Palliser
The subplot involving Lady Glencora is, for many readers, the heart of the novel. She has been married for money to Plantagenet Palliser, a man she respects but does not love. She is pursued by Burgo Fitzgerald, a beautiful, bankrupt wastrel who offers passion without security. Her struggle between duty and desire is rendered with extraordinary sympathy. Trollope does not condemn her for her attraction to Burgo; he understands that the heart has its reasons.
Plantagenet Palliser
Palliser is introduced here for the first time, and he will become one of Trollope’s greatest creations. He is a politician, dedicated to public service, obsessed with decimal coinage. He is also, in his way, a loving husband—inarticulate, repressed, incapable of expressing the feelings he nonetheless possesses. His marriage to Glencora will be the subject of the subsequent Palliser novels, a decades-long exploration of love, duty, and companionship.
Aunt Greenow
The comic subplot involves Aunt Greenow, a wealthy widow pursued by two suitors: a young army officer and an elderly farmer. Her manipulation of their affections is played for comedy, but it also illuminates the novel’s central themes. She knows what she wants and how to get it; she is Alice’s opposite, a woman who has learned to use the system rather than be used by it.
The Political Dimension
The novel is the first of the Palliser series, and it introduces the political world that will occupy the later volumes. George Vavasor’s campaign for Parliament, Palliser’s dedication to governance, the constant presence of Westminster—these elements remind us that private choices have public consequences. The personal is political, Trollope insists, and the political is personal.
Why Read the Novel Can You Forgive Her? Today?
Because it asks a question that every generation must answer: what do we owe to ourselves, and what do we owe to others? Alice’s indecision is not a failure of character but a response to an impossible situation. She wants everything—love, independence, meaning, security—and cannot have it. Her struggle is our struggle. Can we forgive her? More to the point, can we forgive ourselves?
FAQ
Is this the first Palliser novel?
Yes. Can You Forgive Her? introduces Plantagenet Palliser and Lady Glencora, who appear in five subsequent novels: Phineas Finn, The Eustace Diamonds, Phineas Redux, The Prime Minister, and The Duke’s Children.
Do I need to read the whole series?
No. Each novel stands alone. But reading them in order enriches the experience, allowing you to watch characters develop over decades.
Is this novel feminist?
In its sympathies, yes. Trollope takes women’s choices seriously, rendering their dilemmas with genuine respect. He does not offer easy answers, but he does offer understanding.
How long is it?
Approximately 800 pages in standard editions. It is a substantial Victorian novel, demanding but rewarding.
Can I read it on my phone?
Yes, but pace yourself. Trollope rewards patient reading. His novels are not sprints; they are long walks through richly populated landscapes.