This book is long and lovely. Trollope is good at his characterization and it's development. I like how he gives ridiculous names to some of the"peerage," ie Lord Boardotrade. One is certainly kept guessing about the identity of "Ayala's Angel" until nearly the end of the book. ( )

Ayala is in search of her ideal man, her angel, and at least two men vie for the honor. After much back-and-forth and persistent proposals, she finally realizes that one of them really is her angel. A common love story in Trollope; but it's all about the writing with him, isn't it?
One favorite passage: "Tom is too good for you," exclaimed Aunt Emmaline, who could not bear to have her son depreciated even by the girl whom she did not wish to marry him.
And another: It was all very well to say that Augusta was intruding - but there were people who intruded much worse than Augusta, without half so much right. ( )

Very late, and really rather funny. A variety of good characters to enjoy. The thing does kind of get diffuse as it progresses (why do we spend so much time on Frank Houston?), but thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless. ( )

The story of two young women, Ayala and Lucy, whose parents die leaving no money and who are therefore taken in by relatives. Apart from the romances of these two sisters and their cousins, there is no other plot to speak of. Ayala, the younger, livelier sister, receives no fewer than three proposals, but rejects them all because she dreams of an ideal lover she thinks of as "an angel of light". I have to say that this theme is not as overdone as I feared it might be and Ayala does in the end come to view one of her suitors as such an angel. Lucy has a quieter romance with a poor sculptor she has known previously and is absent for such large stretches of the novel that I forgot all about her at times.

There were problems for me in the management of the various strands of the story; Trollope would tell us what Lucy was up to for a couple of chapter and then backtrack a month to pick up another character's story - this happened all the time and was confusing. There was a lot of unnecessary hunting, far too much of the rejected Tom taking it badly and whining to everyone and anyone off and on for the rest of the novel. Augusta and Traffick were dreadful in a good way. I wasn't sure what to make of Houston (and Trollope didn't seem too sure either). Captain Batsby had no discernible personality and seemed all over the place in his intentions towards Gertrude. Mr and Mrs Dosett grew on you. Finally I loved Jonathan, who seemed to have wandered in from a far more modern novel, and the scene with him, Ayala and the old couple in the railway carriage was probably the funniest I have encountered in Trollope.

Lots of reflections on the merits of marrying with a sufficient income/for money/for love/with an occupation. ( )

I enjoyed this immensely. I know both Ayala and Lucy were a bit silly but I liked them both anyway and the other characters were wonderfully drawn. The snobbish were wonderfully snobby and the stupid wonderfully stupid and the petty jealousies and squabbles all perfectly done. I think this might make me bump up some more Trollope in my reading lists.

I listened to a very delightful audiobook but I enjoyed it enough that I might go find a physical copy to read again sometime.