ABSTRACT

La Vendee was Trollope's only excursion into the field of historical romance. It tells the story of the rising in La Vendee against the revolutionary usurpers immediately after they had executed Louis XVI in 1793. The historical setting derives from the series of events beginning with the resistance to conscription and the raising of the flag of rebellion at St Florent, proceeding through the capture of Saumur, the despatch of Republican forces against the rebels and their ultimate defeat. The story ends with the marriage of Henri Larochejaquelin and Marie Lescure. Larochejaquelin and Lescure are very orthodox heroic members of the nobility and Marie is the proper equivalent in feminine character and attributes. Too often the novel reads as passages of dialogue with an account of history. Sometimes the obtrusiveness of the history is more obvious than at others.