The Duke's Children

Lady Glencora, the wife of Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium, dies unexpectedly, leaving the devastated Duke to deal with their grownup children, with whom he has had a somewhat distant relationship. As the government in which he is Prime Minister has also fallen, the Duke is left bereft of both his beloved wife and his political position.

Before her death, Lady Glencora had given her private blessing to her daughter Mary's courtship by a gentleman of modest means, Frank Tregear, who is a friend of Mary's older brother, Lord Silverbridge. Mrs Finn, Lady Glencora's dearest confidante, somewhat uneasily remains after the funeral at the Duke's request as a companion and unofficial chaperone for Lady Mary. Once she becomes aware of the seriousness of the relationship between Mary and Frank, Mrs Finn insists that the Duke be informed; he is strongly opposed to the match.

Managing the Duke's two sons also proves troublesome. Lord Silverbridge intends to follow the wishes of his father by entering Parliament but as a Conservative Party candidate rather than standing for the seat on behalf of the Liberal Party. He proposes to Lady Mabel Grex, whom he has known all his life, and of whom the Duke approves. However, she turns Silverbridge down, due to his immaturity, albeit with a hint of a more welcoming answer another time. However, Silverbridge becomes enamoured of American heiress Isabel Boncassen. She agrees to marry him only if the Duke is willing to welcome her into the family. At first, the Duke disapproves. To add to his troubles, Gerald, his younger son, gets sent down from Cambridge after attending the Derby without permission.

However, by the end of the book, the Duke grows closer to all three of his children; he assents to the engagements of his oldest son and daughter, and he is invited once more to take a part in the government.

Marriages of rich American young women to British aristocrats had just begun to take place when Trollope wrote this book. One of the first such marriages had been that of Lord Randolph Churchill to Jennie Jerome, five years before the book was written—a love match, as is that of Silverbridge and Isabel Boncassen. One difference is that, in the novel, Silverbridge will be very rich in his own right; whereas many Anglo-American marriages transpired in order to import much-needed American money into financially stressed British aristocratic families.

A 2017 book review by Kirkus Reviews summarised the book as "A thoroughly satisfying classic for those who love long, slow Victorian family dramas."^[5] Reviewing the extended and restored version of the book in 2015 for The New York Times, Charles McGrath wrote, "The new version will most likely not change anyone’s view of “The Duke’s Children,” and yet all those tiny excisions do add up. The restored version is a fuller, richer book."^[6]

• The Duke's Children at Standard Ebooks
  • A collection of the Palliser novels as eBooks at Standard Ebooks

• The Duke's Children at Project Gutenberg
•   The Duke's Children public domain audiobook at LibriVox