[Nina Balatka by Anthony Trollope]@TWC D-Link book
Nina Balatka

INTRODUCTION
9/23

Jews appear in some of his books and are referred to in others, often as disreputable characters or money-lenders.

They are seldom mentioned by his Christian characters with respect, probably realistically reflecting the sentiments of the classes he wrote about.
Some of his greatest villains in his later novels--Melmotte in _The Way We Live Now_ (1875) and Lopez in _The Prime Minister_ (1876)--are rumored to be Jewish, but Trollope never unequivocally identifies them as Jewish.
Perhaps his Christian characters expect them to be Jewish because they are foreigners and villains.
However, if one ignores the dialogue of his characters, even the descriptive and editorial comments by Trollope himself at first seem anti-semitic.

He consistently uses "Jew" as a pejorative adjective instead of "Jewish." His descriptions of the appearance of Jewish characters are usually unflattering and stereotypical.

Even Anton Trendellsohn, the hero of _Nina Balatka_, is described as follows: To those who know the outward types of his race there could be no doubt that Anton Trendellsohn was a very Jew among Jews.

He was certainly a handsome man, not now very young, having reached some year certainly in advance of thirty, and his face was full of intellect.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books