The Bertrams
The Bertrams is an 1859 novel by Anthony Trollope, published in three volumes by Chapman & Hall. It follows George Bertram and his friend Arthur Wilkinson from youth to early disillusion, moving between London, the spa town of Littlebath, and the Levant. Religious doubt, professional ambition, and money are central concerns.
Composition and background
Trollope states in his autobiography that he finished Doctor Thorne while travelling to Egypt on postal business and began The Bertrams the next day. He wrote it at Alexandria, Malta, Gibraltar, Glasgow, at sea, and completed it in Jamaica; he sold the novel to Chapman & Hall for £400. He later judged its plot weak and the book a failure.Plot summary
George Bertram, son of the mercenary Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Lionel Bertram, is placed under the guardianship of his prosperous merchant uncle of the same name. Though gifted and educated at Winchester School and Oxford University, George remains directionless. He briefly considers entering the Church and travels to Jerusalem, where a decisive moment on the Mount of Olives convinces him to pursue a legal career. During this time he falls in love with his cousin, Caroline Waddington, but she insists she will only marry once he has established himself.After several years Caroline instead accepts the proposal of Sir Henry Harcourt, an ambitious barrister and rising politician. Harcourt’s eventual disgrace and suicide leave her widowed, and George finally marries her. Running parallel to their story are other thwarted relationships, most notably the entanglement between George’s close friend, the clergyman Arthur Wilkinson, and Adela Gauntlet.
Characters
George Bertram – an Oxford scholar turned barrister; intelligent, unsettled, and proud.Sir Lionel Bertram – George’s father, a feckless soldier serving abroad.George Bertram senior – a wealthy London merchant, George’s guardian.Caroline Waddington – George’s cousin once removed and the eventual Lady Harcourt.Sir Henry Harcourt – ambitious Tory barrister and MP, Caroline’s husband.Arthur Wilkinson – George’s conscientious clerical friend.Adela Gauntlet – involved in a subplot of frustrated courtship with Wilkinson.Themes and analysis
The novel is strongly concerned with failure, both personal and professional, in Victorian middle-class life. Trollope himself later described the book as “more than ordinarily bad”, though John Sutherland notes its close examination of the theme of disappointment.Other critics emphasise its sceptical tone. John Henry Newman noted the presence of doubt as unusual in Trollope’s early fiction. Hervé Picton links George Bertram’s loss of his Oxford fellowship to contemporary debates about biblical criticism and liberal theology.