Rachel Ray

"Rachel Ray" is the story of a young brewer, Luke Rowan, who travels to Baslehurst in an effort to protect his interests in the Bengall and Tappitt brewery. There he meets and falls in love with a young woman named Rachel Ray, to the dismay of many who intended otherwise for the young man. This short novel offers an entertaining account of life in a small English town in the mid-nineteenth century, but more importantly illustrates Trollope's animosity towards the newly industrialized England and the demise of such Victorian values as nobility and service.