Dr. Thorne holds a secret that could solve everything. His niece Mary loves Frank Gresham, heir to Greshamsbury Hall, but Frank's family opposes the match, Mary appears penniless and illegitimate. What no one knows: Mary is entitled to a substantial fortune from her late father, a fact Dr. Thorne has kept hidden. The doctor believes his niece should be loved for herself, not her money. As the Gresham estate slides deeper into debt and Frank's ambitious mother pushes him toward a wealthy heiress, Dr. Thorne's principled silence becomes both a test of love and a quiet indictment of a society that measures worth in pounds. Set in the village of Greshamsbury, this third novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire offers Trollope at his finest, observational, compassionate, and deceptively sharp about the hypocrisies beneath Victorian England's genteel surface. The result is a novel that understands how much easier it is to love someone when their bank account is known.
