The Duke’s Children

Anthony Trollope

Simon Vance (Narrator)

07-01-12

19hrs 57min

Abridgement

Unabridged

Genre

Fiction/Classics

As low as $0.00
Play Audio Sample

07-01-12

19hrs 57min

Abridgement

Unabridged

Genre

Fiction/Classics

Description

The Duke’s Children remains a comedy, beginning with a death and ending with marriages. For all its sobriety, it is among the most optimistic of Trollope’s novels. The duke is thwarted, but he is also educated, and his story reflects Trollope’s faith that parents can and should learn from their inheritors.” Dinah Birch, professor of English literature, University of Liverpool

The brilliant conclusion to the Palliser novels, this touching story follows the elderly Duke of Omnium, the former prime minister of England, as he struggles to overcome his grief at the loss of his beloved wife, Lady Glencora. To complicate matters, he must also deal with the willfulness of his three adult children as he tries to guide and support them—his plans for them are quite different from their own.

While his two sons, sent down from university in disgrace, rack up gambling debts, the duke's only daughter yearns to marry the poor son of a country squire. Though the duke's noble plans for his children are ultimately thwarted, he comes to realize that parents can learn from their children as well.

This final Palliser novel is a tale of love, family relationships, loyalty, and principles, as well as a compelling exploration of wealth, pride, and the strength of love.

Praise

The Duke’s Children remains a comedy, beginning with a death and ending with marriages. For all its sobriety, it is among the most optimistic of Trollope’s novels. The duke is thwarted, but he is also educated, and his story reflects Trollope’s faith that parents can and should learn from their inheritors.” Dinah Birch, professor of English literature, University of Liverpool

“The only duke whom all of us know.” Westminster Review

“[This] dramatic essay, if we may so term it, upon the aristocratic principle, in its relation to politics, society, and morality, possesses an interest which few or none besides Mr. Trollope could have imparted to it.” Spectator (London), 1880

Details
More Information
Language English
Release Day Jun 30, 2012
Release Date July 1, 2012
Number in Series 6
Series Display String The Palliser Novels
Release Date Machine 1341100800
Imprint Blackstone Publishing
Provider Craig Black
Categories Literature & Fiction, Classics, Classics, Evergreen Classics, Evergreen Classics, Classics, Fiction - All, Fiction - Adult
Author Bio
Anthony Trollope

Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) grew up in London. He inherited his mother’s ambition to write and was famously disciplined in the development of his craft. His first novel was published in 1847 while he was working in Ireland as a surveyor for the General Post Office. He wrote a series of books set in the English countryside as well as those set in the political life, works that show great psychological penetration. One of his greatest strengths was his ability to re-create in his fiction his own vision of the social structures of Victorian England. The author of forty-seven novels, he was one of the most prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era.

Narrator Bio
Simon Vance

Simon Vance (a.k.a. Robert Whitfield) is an award-winning actor and narrator. He has earned more than fifty Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration thirteen times. He was named Booklist’s very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London. He is also an actor who has appeared on both stage and television.

Overview

The brilliant conclusion to the Palliser novels, this touching story follows the elderly Duke of Omnium, the former prime minister of England, as he struggles to overcome his grief at the loss of his beloved wife, Lady Glencora. To complicate matters, he must also deal with the willfulness of his three adult children as he tries to guide and support them—his plans for them are quite different from their own.

While his two sons, sent down from university in disgrace, rack up gambling debts, the duke's only daughter yearns to marry the poor son of a country squire. Though the duke's noble plans for his children are ultimately thwarted, he comes to realize that parents can learn from their children as well.

This final Palliser novel is a tale of love, family relationships, loyalty, and principles, as well as a compelling exploration of wealth, pride, and the strength of love.

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