Orley Farm (novel)
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Orley Farm is a novel written in the realist mode by Anthony Trollope (1815-82), and illustrated by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais (1829-96). It was first published in monthly shilling parts by the London publisher Chapman and Hall, from March 1861 to October 1862. Each part comprised two illustrations that were situated at the front, and two to three chapters that followed. The first volume, also published by Chapman and Hall, appeared in October 1861, before the novel's serialization was completed. Upon completion in 1862, the second volume was produced. To produce some of these volumes Chapman and Hall used the unsold parts, making the double volume set valuable for present-day collectors. While the cost for the shilling parts was low, that for the double volume set was high, at eleven shillings per volume. Although this novel appeared to have undersold (possibly because the shilling part was being overshadowed by magazines, such as The Cornhill, that offered a variety of stories and poems in each issue), Orley Farm became Trollope's personal favourite, because of the illustrations by Millais.
[edit] Synopsis
When Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire died, he left his estate to his family. A codicil to his will however left Orley Farm (near London) to his much younger second wife and infant son. The will and the codicil were in her handwriting, and there were three witnesses, one of whom was no longer alive. A bitterly fought court case confirmed the codicil.
Twenty years pass. Lady Mason lives at Orley farm with her adult son Lucius. Samuel Dockwrath, a tenant, is asked to leave by Lucius, who wants to try new intensive farming methods. Aggrieved, and knowing of the original case (John Kenneby, one of the codicil witnesses, had been a unsuccessful suitor of his wife Miriam Usbech), Dockwrath investigates and finds a second deed signed by the same witnesses on the same date, though they can remember signing only one. He travels to Groby Park in Yorkshire, where Joseph Mason the younger lives with his comically parsimonious wife, and persuades Mason to have Lady Mason prosecuted for forgery.
There are various subplots. The main one deals with a slowly unfolding romance between a young and relatively poor barrister without family, Felix Graham and Madeline Staveley, daughter of Judge Stavely of Noningsby. Felix Graham has a long standing engagement to the penniless Mary Snow, whom he supports and educates while she is being “moulded” to be his wife.
Between the Staveleys at Alston and Orley Farm at Hamworth lies the Cleve, where Sir Peregrine Orme lives with his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Orme and grandson Peregrine. Sir Peregrine falls in love with Lady Mason and is briefly engaged to her, but she calls off the match when she realises the seriousness of the court case.
Meanwhile Mr Furnival, another barrister, befriends Lady Mason, arousing the jealousy of his wife. His daughter Sophia has a brief relationship with Augustus Stavely and a brief engagement to Lucius Mason. Eventually Furnival and his wife are reconciled and Sophia's engagement is dropped. Sophia is portrayed as an intelligent woman who writes comically skillful letters.
There is a whiff of anti-semitism in the portrayal of two lawyers, Solomon Aram and the eminent Mr. Chaffanbrass, called to help with Lady Mason's defence. Aram is a solicitor and Jewish; Chaffanbrass, an eminent defence barrister is not, but is said to have more stereotypical Jewish characteristics. They are portrayed as more concerned with twisting the truth to their advantage, than discovering it.
But it is the adversarial court system which is Trollope's real target of criticism. The inadequacies of the legal system form the basic theme of the novel: "A great and mysterious crime had been committed, which had baffled two courts of law, and had at last thrust itself forth into the open daylight through the workings of the criminal’s conscience."
