The Golden Lion of Granpere

Anthony Trollope was a prolific Victorian writer. Trollope's best-loved works were known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, which center on the imaginary county of Basetshire. He wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts. When Trollope returned to England after eighteen months in the colonies, he was horrified by the rampant immorality he found. Golden Lion of Granpere was written in 1872. "Marie Bromar is the much-loved niece of Michel Voss, the innkeeper of The Golden Lion. She has loved Michel's son George since they were both small and she first came to live with the family. It is only because Michel Voss regards this love as an inconvenience (because he dislikes change and is used to having his own way), that he quarrels with his son; but he expresses his opposition to the idea of their union strongly enough to drive George away to Colmar, a few miles over the mountains, to live at a nearby inn and run it for the female proprietor. It is George's inability openly to express his true feelings for Marie that further leads his father into folly. Unaware of the unofficial engagement between Marie and his son, Michel encourages the oily, slick Adrian Urmand, a prosperous linen merchant from Basle, to ask for Marie's hand. And it is Marie's reluctance to accept that spurs the well-intentioned but overbearing Michel to go further than he should and insist on having his own way. Far from vacillating between two lovers as any ordinary Trollope heroine might do, Marie Bromar finds herself in a different but equally impossible situation: in love with her guardian's son, a relationship which he frowns upon, yet reluctant to disobey his wishes, although all her instincts bridle against what he wants." By Anthony Juckes. The Victorian Web.