Dr. Wortle's School (Complete)

Mr Peacocke a Classical scholar has come to Broughtonshire with his beautiful American wife to live as a schoolmaster. But when the blackmailing brother of her first husband - a reprobate from Louisiana - appears at the school gates a dreadful secret is revealed and the county is scandalized. Ostracised by the community the pair seem trapped in a hopeless situation - until the combative but warm-hearted headmaster of the school Dr Wortle offers his support and Mr Peacocke embarks upon a journey to America that he hopes will lay to rest the accusations once and for all. A perceptive exploration of Victorian morality Dr Wortle''s School (1881) also contains echoes of Trollope''s own life and his personal affection for the vivacious Bostonian Kate Field.