Dr. Thorne

Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope's Doctor Thorne weighs wealth against principle in a fictional English county. Frank Gresham, the heir to a family ruined by debt, has set his heart on Mary Thorne, though she is illegitimate and has no money. His mother and his proud aunt oppose the match and urge him to secure a rich marriage instead.

Mary's uncle, the country doctor Dr Thorne, is the one person who knows she stands to inherit a large fortune. Even so, he believes she deserves to be judged for who she is, not for her prospects or her birth.

This is the third novel in Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire, a series set in the imaginary county of Barsetshire.