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"He Knew He Was Right (1869) is a novel rife with plot and subplots--about marriage, engagements (both kept and broken) and people with and without fortunes. Its main story concerns Louis Trevelyan, a wealthy young gentleman, whose marriage to Emily Rowley falls apart because of his wild jealousy, and his stubborn wife's refusal to submit."
"The central theme of the novel is the sexual jealousy of Louis Trevelyan who unjustly accuses his wife Emily of a liaison with a friend of her father's. As his suspicion deepens into madness, Trollope gives us a profound psychological study in which Louis' obsessive delirium is comparable to the tormented figure of Othello, tragically flawed by self-deception. Against the disintegration of the Trevelyans' marriage, a lively cast of characters explore the ideas of female emancipation and how to distinguish between obedience and subjection. Although himself no supporter of women's ri."@en
"This work offers the first volume of Trollope's 1869 novel about a disintegrating marriage."@en
"Louis Trevelyan on a visit to the Mandarin Islands fell in love with Emily Rowley, daughter of the Governor. After their marriage they returned to England, taking with them Nora Rowley, a young sister of the bride. As master in his own house, Trevelyan forbade Emily to receive her father's old friend Colonel Osborne, who had a reputation in London as a philanderer. The Colonel persisted in his attentions, and the young husband became madly jealous. Emily indignantly resented her husband's continued outbursts of distrust and finally, taking their small son, left him. Knowing that he was right, he decided that Emily was unworthy to care for their child and, after making careful plans, succeeded in abducting him. He fled to Italy where, brooding on his misfortunes, he went completely mad. Emily followed him and he was eventually induced to return to England where he soon died."
""The central theme of the novel is the sexual jealousy of Louis Trevelyan who unjustly accuses his wife Emily of a liaison with a friend of her father's. As his suspicion deepens into madness, Trollope gives us a profound psychological study in which Louis' obsessive delirium is comparable to the tormented figure of Othello, tragically flawed by self-deception. Against the disintegration of the Trevelyans' marriage, a lively cast of characters explore the ideas of female emancipation and how to distinguish between obedience and subjection. Although himself no supporter of women's rights, in this novel some of Trollope's most spirited characters are single women. Published in 1869, the same year as John Stuart Mills' The Subjection of Women and while the Divorce Act was a relative novelty, He Knew He Was Right was a timely novel, drawing a fine line between the obedience of women within marriage and their total possession by men. "--Amazon."
"Louis Trevelyan seems the most fortunate of mid-Victorian gentlemen: young, rich, well-educated, handsome, and with a beautiful wife. But his life is ruined by ungrounded jealousy. In the later mad scenes, in which the unlucky hero has been utterly consumed by an obsession with his wife's imaginary infidelity, Trollope's writing reaches a Shakespearian pitch unmatched anywhere else in his vast fictional output. In the sub-plot dealing with the marriages of his English and American heroines, Trollope engages head-on the issue of women's rights. And in the person of Miss Jemima Stanbury, the virtuous dragon of Exeter Cathedral Close, Trollope creates one of his most notable comic characters."@en