This is Thirkell's 1951 book, the 20th in her Barsetshire series. She has set herself the task of disposing at last of Lady Cora Palliser, daughter of the current Duke of Omnium, who is pushing thirty and still single as a result of losing her young man in the war. While she's about it, Thirkell also remembers a few other young women left unattached by the disruptions of war, and dredges through her long list of characters for single men to hook them up with.

In the cases of Emmy, the Young Farmer, and Clarissa, who has been studying engineering at Cambridge, the reader might feel that they would have been more interesting if the author had let them get on with their careers instead of suddenly going all broody and wanting to get married. But there are conventions in romantic comedy that you can only defy up to a certain point, it seems.

Very enjoyable for all the usual Thirkell reasons, and very irritating for the other usual Thirkell reasons... ( )

Angela Thirkell wrote a series of Barsetshire novels that pick up several years after Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire. She is true to Trollope's form while demonstrating her own style. The Duke's Daughter is one of the later novels in the series, and I've only read one other, which took place much earlier. Each book theoretically stands on its own; however, reading The Duke's Daughter I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd missed a lot of the characters' history. And, since many of them shared surnames with Trollope characters, I became distracted trying to piece together the genealogy. Still, it was a fun read concerning several different young people who you know will ultimately pair off in a 3-wedding happy ending, but along the way there are mishaps and plenty of opportunities to make sport of the gentry. I'll definitely read more of Thirkell's novels, but I'll start nearer the beginning next time. ( )

One of a series set in amodern version of Trollope's Barsetshire; my father liked them. I inherited them but have not read them, though I like Trollope's Barset novels.