Julius Mackenzie

Mackenzie writes to a man he has never met, confessing his impecuniosity, his infidel opinions, and his association with the Spotted Dog in Liquorpond Street, yet his letter carries such keen intelligence that his correspondent cannot dismiss it. With the help of a generous doctor, he secures scholarly work at the British Museum and begins to prosper—but his wife, who has been behaving worse than ever, keeps appearing at the Spotted Dog demanding money, and the hostess Mrs. Grimes fears the arrangement will collapse. Mackenzie's struggle between intellectual ambition and domestic chaos makes him one of Trollope's most painfully sympathetic portraits of a man undone by circumstance.