Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite is a wonderful novel. It’s also probably one of the easiest to read, so if you want to start your acquaintance with this author but are put off by long novels with a lot of dated political content, this can be a great entry into Trollope’s world.
Sir Harry is a primer on good, positive Victorian masculinity. I shouldn’t even use the word Victorian because this is masculinity for the ages. It’s also a filled with insights on parenting. Trollope feels so strongly on the subject of parenting that he does something unusual to him, briefly breaking the narrative flow and offering advice on how to deal with recalcitrant children. Sir Harry is a good man and a loving, wonderful father. But he loves his daughter Emily so much that he can’t tolerate her sulking. His incapacity to say a decisive no to Emily and his failure to keep his bumbling, overly emotional wife in check lead to disaster.
Sometimes you have to say no to your children, Trollope explains. Say it kindly but then move on. There’s no need to maintain a constant dialogue about it. If they sulk, let them. It’s not your duty to keep them constantly happy. Emily self-destructs because her father can’t find the strength to withstand her bickering. Situational kindness can turn out to be an existential cruelty. Sir Harry isn’t confident in his authority, he vacillates. This lack of a firm parental presence creates an opening into which a confident but evil man snakes to destroy Sir Harry’s family.
Aside from the plot of the novel and the excellent cast of characters, Trollope’s language is a delight. If you love the English language, you can’t fail to enjoy his writing. We are all fortunate in that this was an extremely prolific author. One could spend a lifetime reading him.
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