Cousin Henry

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Cousin Henry is a novel by Anthony Trollope in 1879. Of all his shorter novels, this one has been called one of his most experimental. [1] It takes place in Carmarthen, a place in Wales. The characters of the story are Henry Jones; his uncle, Indefer Jones; Isabel Brodrick, Henry's cousin and Indefer Jones' niece; Mr. Apjohn, the family lawyer; Mr. and Mrs. Brodrick, Isabel's father and stepmother; Mr. Griffith, a tenant on the Indefer Jones' manor; John Cantor and his two sons, tenants on the manor at Carmarthenshire. Other minor characters include the hired help at the manor at Carmarthenshire, and the people who work at the London office where Henry Jones has recently been employed as a clerk.

[edit] Plot

The focus of the story is a will written by Indefer Jones, the squire of a large manor in Carmarthenshire. His failing health makes it necessary to select an heir to his property. Because of his great love for his niece, Isabel Brodrick, who has lived with him for years on the property, it would seem appropriate to bequeath the estate to her. However, according to his traditional beliefs, it is necessary to appoint a male descendant, with the same last name, as his replacement as the Squire of the manor. His closest living male relative happens to be Henry Jones, who is a London clerk. Henry Jones is a rather unassertive individual who is described as 'pathetic and shallow.' [2] Despite lacking character, Henry does have one ambition: it is to become Uncle Indefer's main successor, and thus acquire exclusive ownership of a large estate. However, Uncle Indefer detests him and so does his cousin Isabel. The reason for their intense dislike of Henry is his lack of character. Uncle Indefer dies, but not before changing his will one final time, in order to write Henry out of it entirely. In other words, he has decided to bequeath his estate to Isabel, in spite of her being a female. Unfortunately, no one, including the witnesses who were present during the making out of the final will, is able to find this document. Cousin Henry, as he is referred to, has knowledge of the document's whereabouts, but he refrains from telling anyone. At times, he hesitates to tell everyone about the will's location because he doesn't want to give up up the sizeable estate and go back to his poorly paid job as a clerk in London. At other times, Cousin Henry becomes obsessed with the possibility that he will be blamed for withholding information once the will is found. He knows that destroying the will by burning it and getting rid of the ashes is probably the best way to remove all evidence against him. He hesitates to take this action, knowing that such an act is considered a felony, punishable by a long jail sentence. However, just knowing where the document is and not telling anyone, he reasons with himself, can't be a crime, since he hasn't done anything. Henry goes on in this state of hesitation, and in the meanwhile, he endures abuse from everyone on the estate; even his own in-house staff treat him with disrespect. Eventually, everyone in town begins to notice that Henry hasn't been appearing in public lately. They know that he spends hours in the library. Incidentally, this is where the will is hidden, in a book of sermons. The local newspaper begins to publish libelous accounts of Henry. The paper accuses him of destroying the will and usurping the position of squire from Isabel, whom everybody had hoped would take charge after her uncle. The old Squire's lawyer, Mr. Apjohn, approaches Henry about these libelous articles and all but forces him to take legal action against the editor. This Henry does, in a hope to escape being discovered. He finds that this has made things worse. Now he has to face cross examination in the witness box. Henry knows that he'd rather die than face that. He realies that Mr. Apjohn has set a trap for him: eventually, the truth will be dragged out of him, unless he voluntarily gives up the information about the will. Mr. Apjohn, using a series of clever questions, gets a good idea about where the will is hidden, and plans to conduct a thorough search of the library. Henry takes these latest developments as a sure sign that he must destroy the will for once and for all. However, once again, he is unable to take action due to his lack of courage. Mr. Apjohn and Mr, Brodrick, Isabel's father, having paid Henry a visit at home, manage to seize the will. Henry is permitted to return to his post without any legal action against him, and in addition, it is officially stated that he had no knowledge of the will's location or existence. Thus his reputation is cleared of damage.

[edit] References

• "Cousin Henry, An Introduction" by Gilbert Phelps, published with the permission of "The Trollope Society" retrieved August 14, 2006