Dr. Wortle's School

Anthony Trollope achieved great success as a novelist in the Victorian Era, producing myriad works on political, social and gender issues of his day. This story is set in the fictional parish of Bowick, England, where a respectable American couple by the name of Peacocke have been hired as a house-mother and teacher at Dr. Wortle's Christian seminary academy. Scandal arises when the brother of Mrs. Peacocke's allegedly dead first husband appears. The legitimacy of the Peacockes' marriage is under scrutiny, and Dr. Wortle becomes victim to public censure when his sympathy for the young couple is unshared by the rest of the community. One of Trollope's more popular novels, this psychologically perceptive work explores Victorian England's attitudes on love, propriety, sin, and scandal in a story of crises that can only be overcome in true Trollope fashion—through compassion and common sense.