| First Written | 1866 |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Origin | UK |
| Publisher | Penguin Classics |
| My Copy | penguin paperback |
| First Read | April 28, 2026 |
Armadale
Notes
OK, on book four? five? of this, and man, what a complicated plot. And SO much exposition, there are long chapters of people just explaining backstory here. And really plot-relevant backstory, stuff that changes a lot of what's happening. Seems like it should be more integrated. But I guess Collins is an originator in this field and should be given some leeway.
Noted on May 19, 2026
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.
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.
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
Quotes
The presentation of the naked truth is one of those exhibitions from which the native delicacy of the female mind seems instinctively to revolt.Quoted on April 28, 2026
Thrown off its balance by the events of the day, his mind was full of that sourly-savage resistance to the inevitable self-assertion of wealth, so amiably deplored by the prosperous and the rich; so bitterly familiar to the unfortunate and the poor. 'The heather-bell costs nothing!' he thought, looking contemptuously at the masses of rare and beautiful flowers that surrounded him; 'and the buttercups and daisies are as bright as the best of you!' He followed the artfully-contrived ovals and squares of the Italian garden, with a vagabond indifference to the symmetry of their construction and the ingenuity of their design. 'How many pounds a foot did you cost?' he said, looking back with scornful eyes at the last path as he left it.Quoted on April 28, 2026
This woman’s hair, superbly luxuriant in its growth, was of the one unpardonably remarkable shade of color which the prejudice of the Northern nations never entirely forgives—it was red!Quoted on April 29, 2026
Buildings have their physiognomy—especially buildings in great cities—and the face of this house was essentially furtive in its expression.Quoted on May 8, 2026
“No” is the strongest word in the English language, in the mouth of any man who has the courage to repeat it often enough.Quoted on May 8, 2026
"We will get it over as soon as possible, sir," said Pedgift Senior, still persisting, as only lawyers and women can persist, in forcing his way little by little nearer and nearer to his own object.Quoted on May 8, 2026
But, when the lower orders of the English people believe they have discovered an intoxicated man, their sympathy with him is boundless.Quoted on May 14, 2026
In the miserable monotony of the lives led by a large section of the middle classes of England, anything is welcome to the women which offers them any sort of harmless refuge from the established tyranny of the principle that all human happiness begins and ends at home.Quoted on May 23, 2026