He Knew He Was Right
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He Knew He Was Right is a 1869 novel written by Anthony Trollope which desribes the failure of a marriage caused by the unreasonable jealousy of a husband exacerbated by the stubbornness of a willful wife. As is common with Trollope's works, there are also several substantial subplots.
[edit] Plot summary
Sir Marmaduke Rowley is the governor of the fictional Mandarin Islands, a distant British possession. He has a substantial salary, but with a wife and eight daughters, has not managed to save any money. Thus, it is a stroke of fortune when an eminently suitable, wealthy young gentleman touring the world, Louis Trevelyan, is smitten with his eldest daughter, Emily. The Rowleys accompany Trevelyan to London, where he marries Emily with no dowry. When the family returns to the Mandarins, Emily's sister Nora remains behind, under Trevelyan's protection.
For nearly two years, the marriage is a happy one. The couple is blessed with a baby boy. Then a seemingly-minor matter undermines their happiness. Colonel Osborne, an old friend and contemporary of Sir Marmaduke's, pays visits to Emily, much too frequently for her husband's taste. Trevelyan overreacts and orders his wife to avoid Osborne in future. Emily resents his lack of trust, and makes no attempt to hide it. Their relationship deteriorates, until finally they separate.
Meanwhile, Nora attracts not one, but two admirers. By far the wealthier is Charles Glascock, the eldest son and heir of Lord Peterborough. The other is Hugh Stanbury, a close friend of Trevelyan's from their days at Oxford University. Stanbury is a barrister, but ekes out a precarious living writing articles for a newspaper. Glascock proposes to Nora, but despite the fact that Stanbury has given no indication of his feelings for her, she rejects the future nobleman, not without some struggle and much to the dismay of her friends.
Anothr subplot involves Jemima Stanbury, the formidable spinster aunt of Hugh and a woman of high social standing in the city of Exeter. In her youth, she had been engaged to a Brooke Burgess, the eldest son of a leading banker. They had had a falling out and parted company, but upon his later demise, she had become his sole heir, making her a wealthy woman. Aware of the poverty of Hugh's branch of the family, she had generously paid for his education and underwritten his start in life. However, upon learning of his occupation, working for what she considered to be a radical publication, the staunch Tory withdrew her support.
She then writes to Hugh's mother, offering to accept one of her two daughters as a companion. After some debate, timid, unassertive Dorothy Stanbury is sent. Meanwhile, Hugh reaches an arrangement with Trevelyan wherein Emily and Nora are to live with Mrs Stanbury and her other daughter, Priscilla.
