The Golden Lion of Granpere

Set in a village in the Vosges mountains in north-eastern France, The Golden Lion of Granpere (1867) was written when Trollope was at the height of his popularity. The novel concerns the events in the lives of an innkeeper’s family; the relationship between George Voss, the landlord’s son, and his beloved Marie, the rivalry between Voss and another suitor for Marie’s hand in marriage, and the results of a betrothal based on mutual misunderstandings. A small-scale work, precise and detailed, it demonstrated a skill and level of social analysis peculiarly Trollope’s own. This is a romance devoid of political dimension, yet acutely attentive to what a contemporary critic called ‘the characteristic dress in which the small diplomacies of all kinds of social life clothe themselves’.