Doctor Thorne: Anthony Trollope

Son of a bankrupt landowner, Frank Gresham is intent on marrying his beloved Mary Thorne, despite her illegitimacy and apparent poverty. Frank`s ambitious mother and haughty aunt are set against the match, however, and push him to save the family`s mortgaged estate by making a good marriage to a wealthy heiress. Only Mary`s loving uncle, Dr Thorne, knows the secret of her birth and the fortune she is to inherit that will make her socially acceptable in the eyes of Frank`s family - but the high-principled doctor believes she should be accepted on her own terms. A telling examination of the relationship between society, money and morality, Dr Thorne (1858) is enduringly popular for Trollope`s affectionate depiction of rural English life and his deceptively simple portrayal of human nature.