*Can You Forgive Her?* (1865) is the first novel in Anthony Trollope's Palliser series. The story centers on Alice Vavasor, a young Victorian woman who breaks off her engagement to the steady, honorable John Grey, only to become engaged to her charming but unscrupulous cousin, George Vavasor, who needs her fortune to advance his political ambitions. Interwoven are the parallel stories of her cousin Glencora, unhappily matched with the solemn politician Plantagenet Palliser, and her widowed aunt Greenow, courted by rival suitors. The novel explores women's autonomy, moral failure, and Victorian society's unforgiving judgment of independent-minded women who dare to choose for themselves.
