Editor's Tales
The Spotted Dog
The editor of a prestigious company gets a peculiar letter from a fallen gentleman asking him for a job. Reluctantly, the editor responds to the letter and the meeting between him and Julius Mackenzie is arranged.
When Mr. Mackenzie arrives at the office the first impression of him is that life isn't going well for him at the moment but, Mr. Mackenzie has a gentlemanly aura that intimidates the editor. Before giving him the job of such an importance as is Doctor's life's manuscript to edit, the editor asks Mr. Mackenzie for some sort of reference. Mr. Mackenzie directs him to his current boss and their friends at The Spotted Dog.
Spotted Dog is a public house. Triggered by Mr. Mackenzie's intellect the editor makes a very out of his character journey to The Spotted Dog and talks to the owners. Mr. and Mrs. Grimes, owners of The Spotted Dog, are full of praising words in regards to Mr. Mackenzie. The editor is convinced and gives him the job to edit Doctor's life's work. Mrs. Grimes kindly gives him the space in her bedroom for his work, because Julius Mackenzie lives poorly and doesn't have the space to do it properly.
During his work, Julius Mackenzie's wife makes plenty of embarrassing stunts caused by her drunkenness. She drags Mr. Mackenzie into her habits and Mr. Grimes, upon witnessing an indecent scene from the two, kicks Mr. Mackenzie out of his room and The Spotted Dog. The editor comes to the place to check on the progress and Mrs. Grimes reveals to him the dreadful news and the fact that Mr. Mackenzie took the Doctor's manuscript with him.
Accompanied by Mr. Grimes, the editor makes a visit to Mr. Mackenzie's home. He finds his children and him lying on the bed intoxicated from drinking. The editor discovers something dreadful there as well-Doctor's manuscripts are burning at the fireplace. The children reveal to him that it was their mother's doing. The editor only manages to save about a third of the manuscript. The next day the editor is dreading the Doctor's visit. The Doctor takes the news with sadness but also dignity. Mrs. Grimes makes a sudden visit and reveals to them that Julius Mackenzie killed himself.
At the wake for the unfortunate man the editor feels it a shame that a gentleman like that has fallen so low. The Spotted Dog was soon closed down.
The Turkish Bath
On his way to the Turkish bath the editor notices, among the rest of his surroundings, a man with tattered gloves and a long coat. In the Turkish bath he gets approached by what appears to be a man of the world. The two philosophically converse about literature, politics and the world in general. They get to the theme of editors and the strange man expresses his contempt with the way the editors hardly give a chance to a common man. Feeling offended, the editor opposes the man in this statement. To this and to the editors unpleasant surprise the man addresses the editor by his name and asks him to give him a chance to publish his article. Dumbfounded and offended the editor leaves the place they shared up to that point.
The next day, the editor gets a visit by the same man and notices the tattered gloves and long coat. He comes to a realization that he was followed into the Turkish bath with the intention to be tricked. The man, as it turns out, is not a worldly man and his conversation skills hardly mimic those from their previous encounter. Being persuaded to be charitable the editor agrees to read the article the man brought to see if it is worth publishing. Expectedly, the article is an incoherent mess unworthy of publication and the editor unveils this on their next meeting.
The editor somehow gets persuaded again to visit the man and his unwell wife at their humble home. Upon visiting him the editor discovers that the man is living rather well and that his wife is a fortunately healthy woman. His wife finally unveils the truth-her husband isn't an ordinary person when it comes to his writing and even though prone to lies, he is a good man. The editor is not the first victim that fell for his acting.
Analysis
It's a collection of anecdotes told by an editor who worked for a prestigious company. The stories are not chronologically divided. The stories center on individuals whose stories, according to the editor, are worth sharing. The main theme in these stories is human nature and how people are finding their place in the world in their own individual way.
"The Spotted Dog" story centers on a man whose choices brought his life to ruin, it's a tragic story and there is no sugarcoating in it. The story "Turkish Bath" story is less grim and it centers on an individual persevering in his passion for literature despite it bringing forth no actual result.
As previously stated, these and all of the other short stories by Trollope are concerned with human nature in its raw and unvarnished truth.
The Christmas Stories
The Mistletoe Bough
Elizabeth Garrow argues with her mother whether or not to hang the mistletoe bough in her father's hall. Elizabeth is against it and convinces her mother despite her younger brothers' disagreement. They call her a Puritan and Elizabeth is upset because she spent an entire week preparing the house for the boys. The reason she doesn't want the mistletoe hung is because Godfrey Holmes is coming to visit this Christmas. Godfrey Holmes is the man Elizabeth is in love with and was in a relationship with but they ended the relationship because they seemed incompatible to Elizabeth.
On the Christmas Eve, Godfrey and Isabella arrive along with Coverdale sisters. Elizabeth is at unease but is determined to endure for everyone else's sake. Mrs. Garrow and Isabella are the only ones aware of her situation.
The next day Elizabeth's brothers and Godfrey go out hunting and Harry, the older brother, asks Elizabeth to come out later that day together with the girls to walk with them home. At around five o'clock Elizabeth, Isabella and the Coverdale sisters greet the boys and they start for the Garrow house.
The rest of the group, purposefully by Isabella, leaves Elizabeth and Godfrey behind. The ex couple talk about their time together and what ended their relationship. Godfrey is very much still in love with Elizabeth and she would be lying if she said the feeling is not mutual. Godfrey wants to reconcile and marry her but Elizabeth is reluctant.
The next day Mr. Garrow calls his daughter for a conversation and shares what he talked about with Godfrey. Godfrey told him everything that happened and before leaving left a message for Elizabeth. The message said that Godfrey will only return to Garrow home if Elizabeth is the one inviting him. Her invitation would mean that she accepts his proposal to marry him. After much thought Elizabeth answers Godfrey and invites him to Garrow home.
Some time passes and Elizabeth's older brother goes to greet his future brother in-law. The two men arrive to the Garrow home along with a mistletoe bough to be finally hung in the hall.
The Widow's Mite
Nora Fields is discussing with her aunt Mrs. Granger about being a widow with two mites. Mr. Granger is speculating how much money would be saved if everyone would give up their Christmas dinners for the cause of cotton fields in Liverpool and helping the poor.
Nora is about to marry and American named Frederic F. Frew. Fred is from Philadelphia and is a strong democrat. Nora feels the obligation to honestly contribute to the poor, to give from her own mouth, like the widow with two mites. A first she suggests to Fred that they postpone their marriage, but after he strongly argues against it, she comes to a conclusion that it would be best to give up her wedding dress and give her inherited money provided for it to the poor. Her uncle and fiancé reluctantly agree to this while her aunt and bridesmaids are strongly against.
The wedding day comes and everyone attending it is dressed humbly and comfortably. It turns out that this wasn't in the way of the day passing by happily; no one even noticed the lack of expensive and over the top wedding clothes. From this Nora concludes that it isn't easy to be a widow with a mite.
Analysis
A unique take on Christmas stories where the beauty of it is showcased in a humorous and rather simplistic way. The plots are concerned with realistic characters that face not very uncommon troubles.
Tales of All Countries
La Mère Bauche is an older woman who is a hotel owner in the Pyrenean valley. Madame Bauche had a lot of children, some of them died and some of them live far away from her. Her youngest son Adolphe is the only one who stayed by his mother's side. Madame Bauche also accepted under her motherly care an orphan girl named Marie Clavert.
Expectedly, as they grow up together, Adolphe and Marie fall in love and want to be together forever. This is unacceptable to Madame Bauche and she seeks advice from her long time friend, Theodore Campan Le Capitaine, for advice and they come to conclusion that it's best to send Adolphe to Paris to forget about this young foolish love.
While Adolphe is away, the two old friends come to a conclusion that Marie needs to marry during that period. Madame Bauche insists that Le Capitaine marries her and she will make Marie the mistress of the hotel having everything as though she was her birth-daughter. Marie refuses to marry until Adolphe comes back and tells her to her face that he no longer loves her.
Adolphe arrives to the hotel and, being pressured by his mother and Le Capitaine, goes to meet Marie at their old meeting place to tell her that she has to marry Le Capitaine. Marie tries to make him remember their promises to each other of eternal love and, reluctantly, Adolphe goes to talk to his mother again.
The same night Marie is called to Madame Bauche's office and the old woman attacks the poor girl and how an orphan like her is incompetent to marry her precious son. Adolphe cowardly agrees with his mother. Marie accepts to marry Le Capitaine and Madame Bauche is thrilled and wants to play a motherly figure to Marie again.
Theodore Campan and Marie Clavert marry but on the night of their wedding celebration the bride refuses to leave her room to greet the guests. As to much time passes, Madame Bauche, her son and Le Capitaine go to look for her but Marie is nowhere to be found. Adolphe arrives to the place where he often met with his young love and there they discover what's left of the poor girl who killed herself because she was pushed to unhappiness.
After this, Madame Bauche is left with a lifetime of regret because of what she's done to that poor girl and she never again carried herself with pride and vigor as before.
Analysis
It's a tragic story of what happens when one is not careful when trying to do what they think is best for people around them. Madame Bauche is by no means portrayed as an utterly cruel and emotionless character. She is after all, a mother who wants what she thinks is best for her son. It is her cowardly son who refused to stand up to his mother out of fear that she will no longer provide him with financial care. His well-being is more important to him than love. It could be argued that it's not a negative choice, rather a realistic one so he's not the one to entirely blame either. Marie is a purely romantic and emotion-driven character and that's what finally contributed to her tragic end.
It's a story that shows how each of these character's human nature worked against one another. It's essentially a story of regret because what's done can't be undone.
