Anthony Trollope’s Ayala’s Angel ✨ 🌼 a lovely Victorian classic! [spoiler-free]

Añadido: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Hello everyone, and welcome back to a new video. In today's video, we are going to be talking about a Victorian classic that I recently read and had such a great time reading. And in my recent reads video, I did mention this book and that I had a lot that I wanted to talk about, I guess, and that I just felt it would be too much to try to squeeze all my thoughts into that wrap-up. So, I thought I would film a separate video just so I can talk about these characters and just share more than I would in a recent reads video where I have to talk about several books. So, this video is dedicated to Ayala's Angel by Anthony Trollope. It was such a wonderful read and I'm so excited to talk about it.

[00:00:50]This book was just wonderful. It centers on two sisters, which I love. I love when books explore sisterhood. Although, I wouldn't say sisterhood is the main theme of this book. It's much more kind of in the background. But, it's the comparison between the sisters and that kind of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood feel that I felt reading this book. The two sisters feel very much like those two in Sense and Sensibility. So, that was really fun. I'm not going to hold this book forever though. It is very heavy. But, this book what it's about really is the two sisters, like I said, but more so about the younger sister Ayala Dormer. So, we have Lucy and Ayala at the start of the book. Their father dies and they are left penniless, orphaned. They have absolutely no prospects. And so, they're taken in by family members. One sister is sent to live with one set of relatives and the other sister with another set. One of those sets of relatives is much wealthier. So, Ayala ends up at first with the wealthier relatives and gets to experience London society and travel and all the things that come with being upper class and part of the gentility and all of that. Ayala fits right into that lifestyle though being the charming girl that she is, the charming young woman. Trollope describes her as having a taste for the romance and that she has the loveliest locks in London and sings as though nature had intended her to be a songbird. She speaks her mind as does her sister Lucy although Lucy, the older sister, is a bit more reserved and introverted. Ayala's definitely the extrovert, Lucy is more of the introvert. She is described as having a loveliness about her even though she is less attractive than Ayala. Although their sister relationship isn't at the heart of the story, there were a few moments throughout where you could really see their love for each other and their loyalty to each other and it was very beautiful to read. I just love sisterhood in books. I love it so much.

[00:02:40]There is a little bit of that exploration of grief as obviously their parents had died and that's also more through Lucy's perspective that we get to experience that but Ayala really is the star of the show and her romantic entanglements. She has this ideal, this angel of light that she expects for herself. If she is ever to fall in love and marry, he must be this angel of light, celestial, ethereal, wings tinged with azure is how she describes him.

[00:03:08]She's very fanciful and has all these castles in the air, very much like Maryann Dashwood so I found a lot of similarities between those two. We have such great characters in this book. We have Uncle Reginald and Aunt Docit and Aunt Docit, she starts off very harsh but throughout the story my heart really softened towards her and she was just such a great character.

[00:03:26]But the other aunt and uncle that one of the sisters get sent to, they were just so fun to follow. We have Emmeline or Lady Tringle and Sir Thomas Tringle. Sir Thomas is a baronet and is very very wealthy and his wife is quite silly and vain and focused on all the wrong things in life so he is trying to make sure that his children make good decisions in life. And do they do that? Not really.

[00:03:50]His son Tom flirts mercilessly with Ayala and sets his sights on her and won't take no for an answer. And he reminded me so much of a younger and much more immature Mr. Collins. He was just painfully cringey, but so fun to follow. I really love Sir Thomas and I really felt for him. He reminded me a little bit of Mrs. Bennett, but with a really good head on his shoulders. I really really like how Trollope explored parenthood through his character. He was a very good parent and had to watch as his children made it horrible choices.

[00:04:22]One of his daughters marrying a complete buffoon, Sir Septimus Traffic. His other daughter making horrible choices with her love life. And then his son, Tom, just so so silly. And Sir Thomas has to deal with all of this. And there were several moments where he just explodes and it's so entertaining, but you really feel for him. He's basically the only older adult in this book with real sense and a realistic outlook on life. And I really really liked him. And poor Ayala, she's not only pursued but she has two other men, Colonel Stubbs and Captain Batsby, that are vying for her hand. And that is really what the story is. Ayala spends most of her time attending parties, living a life of leisure, and waiting for her knight in shining armor, who isn't appearing. I mentioned Colonel Stubbs, or Jonathan Stubbs, as one of the pursuers of Ayala's hand. He was probably my favorite character in this book. He was just so great, so funny, endearing, and just such a great character. Probably in my top five of all of Trollope's characters. Such a great guy. He's a character that Ayala actually really grows to like as a friend, and they do become good friends.

[00:05:27]But her first impression of him just shows how superficial she is and focused less on character and that kind of thing as opposed to outward appearance. That's what really matters to her. She describes him very unkindly when she first meets him. So she meets Colonel Stubbs, a colonel in the British Army.

[00:05:44]He's done all all wonderful things and says, "She knew that he was very brave, but why was he so very ugly? His hair was ruby red and very short and he had a thick red beard, not silky, but bristly with each bristle almost a dagger and his mouth was enormous. His eyes were very bright and there was a smile about him, partly of fun, partly of good humor, but his mouth and then that bristling beard, Ayala was half inclined to like him because he was so completely master of himself, so unlike the unhappy ancient gentleman who was still hovering at a distance. But why was he so ugly and why was he called Jonathan Stubbs?

[00:06:18]But they meet and get to know each other and their verbal sparring is so great and then they start discussing the uniqueness of her name, Ayala and she brings up his name, which is Jonathan and this is how that conversation went.

[00:06:30]There's a prejudice about Jonathan as there is about Jacob and Jonah. I could never tell why. I was going to marry a girl once with 100,000 pounds and she wouldn't have me at last because she couldn't bring her lips to say Jonathan.

[00:06:41]Do you think she was right?

[00:06:43]Did she love you? said Ayala looking up into his face. Awfully, but she couldn't bear the name. So within three months, she gave herself and all her money to Mr. Montgomery Talbot de Montpellier. He got drunk and threw her out of the window before a month was over. That's what comes of going in for sweet names.

[00:06:59]Ayala's not the only character that experiences romance in this book. We also have Lucy, of course, and her romance is beautiful and the reason that I didn't give this book a five stars is because I wanted more. Lucy and her love interest is Adore Hamel. We meet him right at the beginning of the book. They are wonderful. Their relationship is beautiful and he is just so sweet.

[00:07:21]Isadore is a young sculptor. He's not very well off financially and that's one challenge when it comes to pursuing Lucy and something that her family, you know, has some hesitations about, but he's also illegitimate which poses another challenge and so they have to overcome that and it's just wonderful to follow that plot line. He's just so full of self-respect and respect for Lucy and he's a man of honor. But, we just needed more of that on page. I mentioned the Tringles and two of their children, Tom and Augusta, and there's a third daughter, Gertrude, who wow, her storyline was very fun to follow. Such an entertaining subplot and she ends up falling into an attachment, we shall say, with a man named Frank Houston. He only wants Gertrude for her money, though. And their relationship is complicated by someone from his past and that may not have been tied up with a neat bow, so there's some complications there. Frank Houston was one of the most infuriating, but entertaining characters and complex, as well. He was very complex, had some really interesting things to say throughout the book that were very thought-provoking. I think he's one of Trollope's most fascinating characters, for sure. Just to put his personality into perspective, this is a letter that he wrote to one of the characters.

[00:08:37]I hate lunch because it makes me red in the face and nobody will give me my breakfast before 11:00 at the earliest, but I'll come in about 3:00 as often as you like to have me. I think I perhaps shall run over to the Tyrol after Glenbogie. A man must go somewhere when he has been turned out in that fashion.

[00:08:53]There are so many babies at Buncombe Hall. Buncombe Hall is the family seat of the Houstons and I don't like to see my own fate typified before the time.

[00:09:00]Can I do anything for you except riding or eating lunch, which are simply feminine exercises? And he also says, "What a stupid world it is when the people who like each other best cannot get together because of proprieties and marriages and such balderdashery we call love. I do not in the least want to be in love with you, but I do want to sit near you and listen to you and look at you and to know that the whole air around is impregnated by the mysterious odor of your presence." Oh, there's just so much to love about this book and about Anthony Trollope. He just gets human nature. Trollope was such a master at realism and telling a story as it very well could have happened, not overdramatizing things for the most part. I mean, in what I've read by him, I haven't read very much. I always love when books explore the I guess themes of duty and desire or, you know, do I follow the status quo? Do I do what's expected of me? Or do I follow I guess my inclinations, my heart? Or do I kind of do a mix of the two? Because it's not often that black and white, and I like kind of that struggle that characters often face. And it's just really interesting to read, and it was very, very much apparent in this book as well.

[00:10:04]Trollope explored money, of course, with the aunts and uncles in the story, some being wealthier than the others, and how that affected the girls' prospects in life, as well as the upbringing that they had and the lack of money. It was very much a bohemian upbringing and much more democratic, as Trollope actually describes in this book. He describes their home as like a democracy. And then moving out of that into the kinds of households that the girls move into, it's just very interesting to see how they deal with that. Of course, there is a lot of unrequited love in this book, which is also fun, and of course, marriage. And we're going to go back to Frank Houston, and there's something he says about marriage that I found very interesting. He's explaining why he's pursuing Gertrude, and he's writing a letter to his cousin here. "Following a girl for her money is, you will say, mercenary. So, as far as I can see, is every transaction in the world by which men live. The judges, the bishops, the poets, the royal academics, and the prime ministers are all mercenary. How shall a man live without being mercenary unless he be born to fortune? Are not girls always mercenary? Will she marry me knowing that I have nothing? Will you not marry someone whom you will probably like much less simply because he will have something for you to eat and drink?

[00:11:15]Of course, I am mercenary, and I don't even pretend to old Tringle that I'm not." And he goes on about that. He has very interesting ways of expressing his views on marriage and what a man's main object in life is. He also says, "You shall not find a man whose main object is not that of security securing an income. The clergyman who preaches against gold licks the ground beneath the minister's feet in order that he may become a bishop. The barrister cares not with what case he may foul his hands so long as he may become rich. The man in trade is so aware of his own daily dishonesty that he makes two separate existences for himself and endeavors to atone for his rascality in the city by his performance of all duties at the West End. I regard myself to be so infinitely cleaner in my conscience than other men that I could not bring myself to be a bishop, an attorney general or a great merchant. And then with regards to his pursuit of Gertrude, of all the ways open to me, this seems to be the least sordid. I give her the only two things which she desires, myself and a position. He's not a good man, but he is self-aware and he's honest and I will give him that. And then we have Isadore and Colonel Stubbs talking about what makes a wife a good wife and they're just so entertaining as well. I don't think a girl is much improved by knowing how many shillings there are in a pound, said Isadore. It is useful sometimes, that was Colonel Stubbs. So it might be to kill a sheep and skin it or to milk a cow and make cheese. But here as in other things, one acquirements will drive out others. A woman, if she cannot be beautiful, should at any rate be graceful. And if she cannot soar to poetry, should at least be soft and unworldly. That's all very well in its way, but I go in for roasting, baking and boiling. That's Colonel Stubbs, of course. I can bake, I can brew, I can make an Irish stew, wash a shirt and iron it, too. That's the sort of girl I mean to go in for if ever I marry. And when you've got six children and a small income, it's apt to turn out better than grace and poetry. A little of both, perhaps, said Isadore. Well, yes, I don't mind a little Byron now and again, so there's no nonsense. That's also one of many just humor-filled moments and there are several with young Tom Tringle going after Ayala, trying to fight a duel. He is just so so infuriating, but so funny. One of my favorite passages Trollope has written, "It It hard to rescue a man from the slough of luxury and idleness combined. If anything can do it, it is a cradle filled annually.

[00:13:32]It may be that he will yet learn that a broad back with a heavy weight upon it gives the best chance of happiness here below. My favorite quote of the entire book. It's very short, but I just love how it's written. I must strive to soar till I can approach your dreams. Another thing that's just wonderful about this book is how light and summery it feels.

[00:13:50]It almost has a fairy tale quality to it. At some point Ayala is referred to as Cinderella. The two sisters, Augusta and Gertrude, they remind me so much of Anastasia and Drizella as well. There are mentions of knights rescuing damsels. Of course, Ayala's angel of light. It just gives off this fairy tale feel, as well as this passage. "Tom was not romantic or poetic, but the romance and poetry of Ayala had been divine to him. It is not always like to like in love. Titania loved the weaver bottom with the ass's head. Bluebeard, though a bad husband, is supposed to have been fond of his last wife. The beauty has always been beloved by the beast." "To Ayala, the thing was monstrous, but it was natural." We spend most of the time in London, but also in Scotland. And some of the characters also travel to Rome and the Austrian Alps, and it's just beautiful. And I love that there was some travel in this book. But I love this passage describing the home of the Tringles in Scotland. "This was Auchnafree Bogie in Inverness-shire on the southeastern side of Loch Ness, where Sir Thomas Tringle possessed a beautiful mansion with a deer forest and a waterfall of his own, and any amount of moors with which the minds of sportsmen could conceive." It describes pine trees enveloping the place. It also says from that passage which seemed to totter suspended over the rocks, whence the tumbling rushing waters could always be heard like music close at hand. The view down over the little twisting river was such as filled the mind with a conviction of realized poetry. I love spending time with the characters in Scotland. I love how summery this book feels. It's like sunshine. I love that so much. Ayala does experience some really good character growth, more so towards the end, but it is fun to follow her journey. It was so close to being that perfect five-star book. I just needed more of Lucy. That's really the only thing. But, I really would recommend this book if you do love Victorian classics. It was just such a delight to read. So many moments where I laughed out loud, so many moments that I underlined and tabbed, and I just had such a great time with it. Anthony Trollope has a no-nonsense writing style, I would say. It's very to the point, but also beautiful and descriptive at times. But, he's very much steeped in realism and very, very different from writers like the Brontës, writers like Gaskell. Elizabeth Gaskell is my favorite Victorian writer.

[00:16:03]Trollope is very close up there. He is in my top writers, for sure, but just has a very, very unique style. And he's easy to get into. He's accessible. I would highly recommend Ayala's Angel. It was just such a wonderful book. I wasn't expecting it to be so fun. That's what I will say. But, I'm very, very glad that I read this, especially in the early months of spring. It was the perfect time of year to read it. But, that is what I wanted to share about this book.

[00:16:26]I had such a wonderful time with it. If you've read Ayala's Angel, please let me know in the comments. I would love to discuss more. I'm looking forward to more Anthony Trollope. There are so many more I need to read. If I'm remembering correctly, I've now read the six Barsetshire novels, as well as Ayala's Angel, and I've also read The Claverings, Ralph the Heir, and Castle Richmond. And I believe that's it for his stand-alones. So, this is the fourth stand-alone that I've read. So, that's 10 Trollope novels, and I think more than 30 to go. So, a lot more to go, but so many wonderful books ahead of me that I'm excited to read. But, friends, thank you so, so much for watching this video.

[00:17:01]If you made it to the end, I appreciate you so much. Thank you all for being here, and I will see you in my next video. Bye.

[00:17:09]>> [music] >> Mhm.