The third in his sequence of Palliser novels, The Eustace Diamonds represents one of Anthony Trollope’s darkest tales. He departs from his gently ironic presentations of everyday human relationships with their small but important emotional battles.

This novel focuses on the unscrupulous newly widowed Lizzie Eustace, who insists on retaining family diamonds she claims her husband gave her before his death. Aspects of the story resemble Wilkie Collins’s popular 1868 work, The Moonstone, in which stolen jewels seduce several characters with their near-mystical charm.

The novel appeared as a serial in The Fortnightly Review between July 1871 and February 1873, and was published in three volumes later in 1873.

After the death of Sir Florian Eustace, the beautiful Lizzie is left a wealthy widow following only a few months of marriage. The narrator suggests Lizzie might have “hurried him to the grave” due to “a positive falsehood” in her character. She lied to Florian about purchases she had made, although she had no reason to do so, foreshadowing future lies that will indict her when the truth is known.

Florian’s family claims the Eustace diamonds, which had been in the family for ages, their claim supported by the family lawyer, Mr. Camperdown. Trollope suggests that traditional values of family are superior to contemporary values that are purely material. Lizzie’s delivery of a son within months of Florian’s death complicates matters, as the family worries what might happen to the Eustace heir. The child also stresses the difference between Lizzie, who views this new member of her family as a means for manipulation of others, and the older generation, who view the child as an extension of themselves.

Always on the outlook for a champion, Lizzie appeals to Lord Fawn, an aptly named falsely attentive and dull politician who covets her fortune. They become engaged, as Lizzie loves the idea of being in love, even though she finds actually loving another impossible. The narrator clarifies this by describing her as a “hard-fisted little woman who could not bring herself to abandon the plunder on which she had laid her hand.” For Lizzie, human relationships are important only for the material goods they might yield. Even Lord Fawn, despite his need for funds, values family more than Lizzie, insisting she give up the diamonds. A prolonged recurring argument over the point infuriates Lizzie, who decides to look elsewhere for support.

Unbeknownst to Fawn, she abandons him for her poor cousin, Frank Greystock, who also holds political ambitions. Her uncle Eustace had asked Frank, a friend of Florian, to propose to Lizzie earlier, but Frank had declined, declaring Fawn would be a better husband for her. As a teenager, Lizzie had ignored Frank’s family, as she “had higher ideas for herself” than spending time with her female cousins at the deanery in their native Bobsborough. The irony of that thought is not lost on the reader.

Now in need of an ally, she pursues Frank, who gives in to her charms while visiting at her Scottish castle. Tension rises, as Frank is supposedly engaged to Lucy Morris, described as “a treasure though no heroine.” Trollope uses a materialistic term to describe Lucy, marking her as a foil to Lizzie. Lucy serves the Fawn family as governess, complicating Lizzie’s plans to abandon Fawn.

As Lizzie travels south from her castle, her hotel room at Carlisle is robbed. Seeing her chance to secret the diamonds away, she claims they were stolen. When they actually are stolen a short time later from her London home, she must confess the truth to the police. Finally caught in her own trap, Lizzie can do little to defend her actions.

Finding those actions abhorrent, Fawn officially breaks their engagement, while a horrified Frank returns to Lucy, following the counsel of an aunt who refers to Lizzie as “that little limb of the devil.” The diamonds are traced to Hamburg, then Vienna, and finally to an “enormously rich Russian princess” where they will apparently remain.

Lizzie so infuriates the court officers who hope to bring her to trial that one thinks “she ought to be dragged up to London by cart ropes.” Rejected by all, Lizzie marries her match in the larcenous Mr. Emilius, a Jew who has converted and become a popular preacher. Lizzie convinces herself she had been ill-treated by the other men in her life, and that Mr. Emilius intends to treat her in the way she deserves, which ironically proves true; she will receive her just desserts.

The narrator assures readers that the new husband will have his way and “be no whit afraid” of his new wife “when she is about to die in an agony of tears before his eyes.” That sparkling tears rather than diamonds should grace Lizzie’s form provides a satisfactory conclusion to her self-serving actions.

Analysis of Anthony Trollope’s Novels

Bibliography
Glendinning, Victoria. Anthony Trollope. New York: Knopf, 1993.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

Tags: 19th century fiction, Anthony Trollope, Anthony Trollope biography, Anthony Trollope’s The Eustace Diamonds, British Literature, character study, class and family dynamics, English fiction classics., English Literature, English Novelists, family diamonds, family values in literature, historical novels, literary analysis, Literary Criticism, literary manipulation, literary themes, Lizzie Eustace, Lizzie Eustace character analysis, marriage and social expectations, materialism in literature, Palliser novel, political intrigue in fiction, social commentary in fiction, The Eustace Diamonds, The Fortnightly Review, The Moonstone, Trollope novels, Victorian Literature, Victorian society, Victorian women in literature, Wilkie Collins