{{Short description|1881 novel by Anthony Trollope}} {{italic title}} {{Use British English|date=November 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2015}} [[File:Dr Wortle.jpg|thumb|right|180px|First edition title page.]] '''''Doctor Wortle's School''''', alternatively ''Dr. Wortle's School'' or ''Dr Wortle's School'', published in 1881, is a novel by [[Anthony Trollope]], his fortieth book.
==Plot summary== The novel takes place in the respectable fictional parish of Bowick, [[Victorian England]], with the main plot concerning itself with the renowned Dr. Wortle's [[seminary|Christian seminary academy]]. The community's [[morality|morals]] are outraged and the school's credibility wounded upon the discovery that Mr. and Mrs. Peacocke, a respectable English scholar and an American woman, hired to the academy by Wortle, are improperly married. Their wedlock was rendered asunder by their chance meeting, some years prior, of Mrs. Peacocke's first husband, an abusive drunkard named [[Colonel]] Ferdinand Lefroy. Hearing that a [[Colonel]] Lefroy was killed during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the two believed it was Ferdinand, because Ferdinand's brother told them so, and they married. Their persistence in living as husband and wife, even after the shocking revelation that Ferdinand is actually alive, creates a scandal. Wortle, though [[piety|religious]], sympathises with the Peacockes and is understanding of their love for each other and hatred for [[Colonel]] Lefroy.
The book contains multiple stories: that of Wortle's attempt to rebuild his reputation, provide rebuttal for malicious [[slander]] and all the while insist he was right in hiring the Peacockes; Mr. Peacocke's journey to America in search of Ferdinand's true status; the [[Human sexual behavior|sexual]] concerns of the Wortles' daughter Mary and the insights of the community members who see the intentional [[bigamy]] as a [[sin]].
==External links== * {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/anthony-trollope/dr-wortles-school}} * {{gutenberg |no=21847 |title=Dr. Wortle's School}} * {{librivox book | title=Doctor Wortle's School | author=Anthony Trollope}} * [https://books.google.com/books?id=O2AVAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22Doctor+Wortle%27s+School%22+news&pg=PA284 "The Westminster review, Volume 116" – Google Books] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=5qJeWHxh_PUC&dq=%22Doctor+Wortle%27s+School%22+news&pg=PA219 "A life of John Calvin: a study in the shaping of Western culture" – Google Books]
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[[Category:1881 British novels]] [[Category:Novels by Anthony Trollope]] [[Category:Novels set in schools]]
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