Armadale

Midway through the book, this starts to also look like a cautionary tale of what happens when you run out of Nice Young Man Energy. When he’s the dashing young man, devil may care and flighty - but importantly young and promising - he charms everyone around him. But when he moves to inherit a large estate in a place he has never been, he has to be the Lord of the Manor and the locals are not having it. He’s run out of his NYME.

I have a whole theory about this (based 100% on my lived experience) that I should draw up sometime.

Noted on April 28, 2026

The story of two men named Allen Armadale, whose fathers were also both called Allen Armadale. Allen Armadale killed Allen Armadale, but not before their respective sons (Allen Armadale and Allen Armadale) were born. Allen Armadale left a deathbed instruction to his son Allen Armadale to never cross paths with Allen Armadale, at any cost, lest sins of the father be visited on this next generation. But this instruction didn’t make it to Allen Armadale, because he was abandoned as a young child, and grew up not even knowing his own name. As a young man he befriends Allen Armadale.

I found this pretty confusing at the beginning of the book, and had to mentally redraw my lines of who was who several times. I’m still not sure I have it 100% correct, 300 pages in. But at least by this point we have an assumed name for one Allen, and their two personalities are very distinct. The plot gets complicated later, and I am midway through in a chapter literally called 'The Plot Thickens.'

I just read Trollope’s Ralph the Heir last year, and he also deals with two opposing characters with the same name. But in that case, Trollope distinguishes them by the fact that they don’t meet often - we set up a scene or a chapter with one or the other and then it’s clear who’s who. But also, charmingly, he refers to them as Ralph the Heir and Ralph who was not The Heir.

Noted on April 28, 2026