The Small House at Allington
Free public-domain edition — preview in your browser, no account required for the first chapter.
Preview free · sign up to save progress, download to your shelf, and sync with the apps
Already have an account? Sign in
This novel offers a masterful blend of romance, social critique, and psychological depth, making it a quintessential Victorian exploration of love, honor, and the quiet heroism of ordinary life.
Edition details
Book Summary
In Anthony Trollope's novel, the lives of the Dale family at the Small House in Allington are disrupted when Lily Dale's engagement to the charming but shallow Adolphus Crosbie ends in betrayal. The story explores love, social class, and moral integrity as characters navigate heartbreak, economic pressures, and family obligations.
The novel centers on the Dale family—widow Mrs. Dale and her daughters Lily and Bell—living at the Small House in Allington under the patronage of their uncle, Squire Christopher Dale. Lily becomes engaged to Adolphus Crosbie, a London civil servant, but Crosbie, driven by social ambition and financial concerns, jilts her to marry Lady Alexandrina De Courcy. Heartbroken, Lily remains resilient, rejecting a later proposal from her devoted childhood friend John Eames. Meanwhile, Bell refuses a marriage proposal from her cousin Bernard Dale but eventually accepts the humble Dr. Crofts. The squire, initially cold and controlling, softens, providing financial gifts and allowing the family to stay at the Small House. Crosbie's marriage to Alexandrina proves miserable, and he is left isolated. The novel concludes with Lily finding contentment in independence, Bell happily married, and the Dale family reconciled, while Eames matures into a man of substance.
Reading guide
Go deeper in The Small House at Allington
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
Lilian Dale
Lily moves between the Small House and her uncle's great house at Allington, teasing her sister about whether Mr. Crosbie is anything more than a clerk while quietly falling in love with him. Her Dale constancy — obstinate, a little proud, incapable of half-measures — makes her devotion absolute and her position perilous. She is the emotional center of the early novel: the reader watches her happiness build letter by letter, knowing the world may not honor it.
Adolphus Crosbie
Crosbie holds a comfortable post in the General Committee Office and moves through country society with the ease of a man who knows his own polish. He has resolved not to marry without money and not to marry for money — a neat formula that leaves him dangerously free to be flattered by rank. His courtship of Lily sets the novel's central machinery in motion, and his taste for grander company is the fault line beneath it.
John Eames
Johnny Eames earns eighty pounds a year in the Income-tax Office and is dismissed by Lily as a mere clerk — a judgment he feels keenly. He arrives at Allington in spurs and fine gloves, only to find Lily already spoken for, and he must also dodge the alarming Amelia Roper. His awkward, loyal persistence makes him the novel's slow study in growing up.
Mrs. Dale
Mrs. Dale lives on her own modest fortune beside her brother-in-law's estate, dependent on the squire's countenance for her girls but never on his charity for herself. Her marriage was disliked by the squire and the two have never become friends, yet she keeps the peace for her daughters' sake. Her delicate balancing of pride and maternal duty shapes the household in which Lily's romance unfolds.
Isabella Dale
Bell is the sister who can be a little angry with Lily, who weighs Mr. Crosbie's merits soberly while Lily teases, and who carries the Dale constancy without the Dale romance. She is courted by her cousin Bernard, an arrangement of property and family as much as affection. Her clear-eyed presence gives the Small House its ballast and gives the reader a second, cooler angle on the men who come courting.
Captain Bernard Dale
Bernard is the son of Colonel Dale and Lady Fanny of Torquay, and the nearest thing the childless squire has to an heir. He moves between the great house and the Small House with the confidence of a man who assumes his prospects, and his suit for Bell carries the quiet weight of family property behind it. His presence makes the Dale inheritance a live question in the sisters' lives.
Social Class and Status
The book explores the rigid social hierarchies of Victorian England, contrasting the landed gentry (the Dales of Allington) with the urban middle class (clerks like Crosbie and Eames), and examining how social standing dictates relationships, marriage prospects, and personal identity.
Love and Marriage
Marriage is portrayed as both a romantic ideal and a practical transaction, with characters navigating love (Lily and Crosbie), economic necessity (Bernard and Bell), and social ambition (Crosbie and Lady Alexandrina), often leading to heartbreak and moral compromise.
Honor and Moral Integrity
The narrative repeatedly tests characters' adherence to personal honor and moral principles, as seen in Crosbie's betrayal of Lily, the squire's rigid sense of duty, and John Eames's struggle to act rightly despite his fears and desires.
Family and Obligation
Family ties impose heavy obligations, with the squire's expectations of his nieces, Mrs. Dale's sacrifices for her daughters, and the Dale family's 'religion' of preserving the estate, creating tensions between individual happiness and familial duty.
Reading tools
BetterReads is more than a book page—e-reader, AI beside the text, audiobooks, and native apps in one system.