This is a relatively late Trollope novel (1869) and so must have been written when he was already fully engaged on his Palliser cycle. He always throve on topical controversies and "problem" themes - in this case, marital jealousy among the upper orders. In fact, the plot is virtually a study in obsession, since Louis Trevelyan's unfounded belief in his beautiful wife's adultery with an older man ends by destroying his life and driving him into dying abroad in Italy.
According to the introduction, contemporary reviewers found the book too sombre and even depressing; modern criticism, however, ranks it high among Trollope's very large output, though at over 900 pages the novel is arguably too longdrawn as well as intermittently melodramatic.