Louis Trevelyan, rich, remarkably handsome and intelligent, marries Emily Rowley, the beautiful and spirited daughter of the Governor of the Mandarin Islands. Apparently perfectly matched, the Trevelyans seem to be the epitome of comfortable upper middle-class Victorian values. But into their Eden comes ‘the odious destroyer of the peace of families,’ the mischievous Colonel Osborne. Accusations are made and denied, sides are taken, and the at first somewhat comical suspicion of his wife’s infidelity grows into an obsession with Trevelyan. Both humorous and tragic in turn, Trollope addresses the very topical issue of women’s rights not only by focusing on the battle of the sexes, but also by giving a sympathetic portrait of the plight of the unmarried woman.He Knew He Was Right was first published in novel form in 1869 and is widely regarded as one of Trollope’s finest studies of character.