Somersetshire, where she accepts the hospitality of the Askertons. Will Belton has never ceased to show his love for Clara, and she realises that he is worthy of her love. However, she believes that it would be wrong to transfer her affection from one man to another. Only after Mrs. Askerton and Will's sister Mary Belton persuade her that it would be unjust to withhold her affection from Will can she bring herself to put aside her scruples and accept him. Marital bliss ensues. Major themes The Belton Estate was written shortly after Can You Forgive Her?, and the two novels have a principal theme in common: a woman trying to decide between two suitors, neither ineligible but differing greatly in their desirable and undesirable qualities. A theme in this novel, not uncommon among other Victorian authors but unusual in Trollope's work, is what John Halperin calls "mediated desire": the desirability of a thing increasing with the difficulty of obtaining it. When Captain Aylmer proposes to Clara, she responds with an enthusiastic affirmative; and this leads him to question the value of his acquisition: What is there that any man desires,—any man or any woman,—that does not lose half its value when it is found to be easy of access and easy of possession? Wine is valued by its price, not its flavour. Open your doors freely to Jones and Smith, and Jones and Smith will not care to enter them. Shut your doors obdurately against the same gentlemen, and they will use all their little diplomacy to effect an entrance. Captain Aylmer, when he heard the hearty tone of the girl’s answer, already began almost to doubt whether it was wise on his part to devote the innermost bin of his cellar to wine that was so cheap. Publication history In 1865, Trollope, George Henry Lewes, and others founded the Fortnightly Review. Somewhat against Trollope's judgement, it was decided that the new magazine was always to contain a novel. Trollope, called upon to produce the first novel, wrote The Belton Estate between 30 January and 4 September 1865; it was serialised in the Fortnightly beginning with its first issue on 15 May 1865, and running through 1 January 1866. The novel was published in book form by Chapman & Hall in December 1865, with a date of 1866 on the title page. Against Trollope's wishes, it was released in