An Old Man's Love

Trollope's late novel, published in 1884, is set at Croker's Hall, where the bachelor William Whittlestaff, past fifty, takes in Mary Lawrie, the orphaned daughter of a friend. He proposes marriage; she accepts from gratitude while still attached to John Gordon, who left years earlier to make his fortune. Gordon returns from the South African diamond fields on the day of the engagement. The household, including the housekeeper Mrs Baggett, debates duty and inclination. The book is a short domestic novel about a promise of marriage and whether an older protector should hold a younger woman to it.

Quarter-bound in dark red buckram blocked with a black and gilt design, pale blue paper covers. Dark red slipcase.