The Golden Lion of Granpere — Anthony Trollope

When Anthony Trollope wrote The Golden Lion of Granpere in the second half of the nineteenth century, he was already one of the renowned English writers and novelists of the Victorian Era. The title of this novella refers to the name of a small town in the Alsace-Lorraine region where the events take place. It is basically a romance which tells the story of a young man named George who falls in love with Marie Bromar. Marie, who has just lost her mother, works in an inn belonging to George's family and run by his father Michel Voss. The latter does not seem to be very favorable to the nascent relationship. When George later leaves the town for a professional career, Marie is enticed into accepting the proposal of a well-off Swiss businessman. George is outraged to hear this and decides to return to town to talk to Marie. After series of disputes and misunderstandings, the relationship between the two lovers eventually starts to recover. Trollope's work generally offers a look on the Victorian institution of marriage and the place of women in a society governed by appearances and plain materialism.