The Three Clerks

It is a great story, complete immersion in a fascinating time period of the end of 19th century. Trollope uses this novel as a base from which to weigh in on the then recent adoption of competitive examinations for civil service employment. The author draws on his own youth for the character of Charley Tudor who was one of the three clerks of the title. Like Trollope, Charley begins his civil service in a desultory fashion, falls into the troubles with money lenders, and finds himself in danger of begin coerced into what would have been a ruinous marriage…