Anthony Trollope
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Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English
novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...
and civil servant of the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...
. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves around the imaginary county of Barsetshire. He also wrote novels on political, social, and gender issues, and other topical matters. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he had regained the esteem of critics by the mid-20th century.


Biography

Anthony Trollope was the son of barrister Thomas Anthony Trollope and the novelist and travel writer Frances Milton Trollope. Though a clever and well-educated man and a Fellow of New College, Oxford, Thomas Trollope failed at the Bar due to his bad temper. Ventures into farming proved unprofitable, and he did not receive an expected inheritance when an elderly childless uncle remarried and had children. Thomas Trollope was the son of Rev. (Thomas) Anthony Trollope, rector of Cottered, Hertfordshire, himself the sixth son of
Sir Thomas Trollope, 4th Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
. The baronetcy later came to descendants of Anthony Trollope's second son, Frederic. As a son of landed gentry, Thomas Trollope wanted his sons to be raised as gentlemen and to attend
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
or
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. Anthony Trollope suffered much misery in his boyhood owing to the disparity between the privileged background of his parents and their comparatively small means. Born in London, Anthony attended Harrow School as a free
day pupil A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
for three years from the age of seven because his father's farm, acquired for that reason, lay in that neighbourhood. After a spell at a private school at Sunbury, he followed his father and two older brothers to Winchester College, where he remained for three years. He returned to Harrow as a day-boy to reduce the cost of his education. Trollope had some very miserable experiences at these two public schools. They ranked as two of the élite schools in England, but Trollope had no money and no friends, and was bullied a great deal. At the age of 12 he fantasised about suicide. He also daydreamed, constructing elaborate imaginary worlds. In 1827, his mother Frances Trollope moved to America with Trollope's three younger siblings, to Nashoba Commune. After that failed, she opened a bazaar in
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...
, which proved unsuccessful. Thomas Trollope joined them for a short time before returning to the farm at Harrow, but Anthony stayed in England throughout. His mother returned in 1831 and rapidly made a name for herself as a writer, soon earning a good income. His father's affairs, however, went from bad to worse. He gave up his legal practice entirely and failed to make enough income from farming to pay rents to his landlord, Lord Northwick. In 1834, he fled to Belgium to avoid arrest for debt. The whole family moved to a house near
Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
, where they lived entirely on Frances's earnings. In Belgium, Anthony was offered a commission in an Austrian cavalry regiment. To accept it, he needed to learn French and German; he had a year in which to acquire these languages. To learn them without expense to himself and his family, he took a position as an usher (assistant master) in a school in Brussels, which position made him the tutor of 30 boys. After six weeks of this, however, he received an offer of a clerkship in the General Post Office, obtained through a family friend. He returned to London in the autumn of 1834 to take up this post.Trollope, Anthony (1883).
''An Autobiography''.
Retrieved 2 July 2010.
Thomas Trollope died the following year.
Retrieved 2 July 2010.
According to Trollope, "the first seven years of my official life were neither creditable to myself nor useful to the public service."Trollope (1883)

Retrieved 2 July 2010.
At the Post Office, he acquired a reputation for unpunctuality and insubordination. A debt of £12 to a tailor fell into the hands of a moneylender and grew to over £200; the lender regularly visited Trollope at his work to demand payments. Trollope hated his work, but saw no alternative and lived in constant fear of dismissal.


Move to Ireland

In 1841, an opportunity to escape offered itself. A postal surveyor's clerk in central Ireland was reported as being incompetent and in need of replacement. The position was not regarded as a desirable one at all; but Trollope, in debt and in trouble at his office, volunteered for it; and his supervisor, William Maberly, eager to be rid of him, appointed him to the position. Trollope based himself in
Banagher Banagher ( or ''Beannchar na Sionna'') is a town in Ireland, located in the midlands, on the western edge of County Offaly in the province of Leinster, on the banks of the River Shannon. It had a population of 3,000 at the height of its econ ...
, King's County, with his work consisting largely of inspection tours in Connaught. Although he had arrived with a bad
reference Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a '' name'' ...
from London, his new supervisor resolved to judge him on his merits; by Trollope's account, within a year he had the reputation of a valuable public servant.Trollope (1883)
Chapter 4.
Retrieved 2 July 2010.
His salary and travel allowance went much further in Ireland than they had in London, and he found himself enjoying a measure of prosperity. He took up fox hunting, which he pursued enthusiastically for the next three decades. His professional role as a post-office surveyor brought him into contact with Irish people, and he found them pleasant company: "The Irish people did not murder me, nor did they even break my head. I soon found them to be good-humoured, clever—the working classes very much more intelligent than those of England—economical and hospitable." At the watering place of Dún Laoghaire, Trollope met Rose Heseltine (1821–1917), the daughter of a Rotherham bank manager. They became engaged when he had been in Ireland for a year; because of Trollope's debts and her lack of a fortune, they were unable to marry until 1844. Their first son, Henry Merivale, was born in 1846, and the second, Frederick James Anthony, in 1847. Soon after their marriage, Trollope was transferred to another postal district in the south of Ireland, and the family moved to Clonmel.


Early works

Though Trollope had decided to become a novelist, he had accomplished very little writing during his first three years in Ireland. At the time of his marriage, he had only written the first of three volumes of his first novel, ''
The Macdermots of Ballycloran ''The Macdermots of Ballycloran'' is a novel by Anthony Trollope. It was Trollope's first published novel, which he began in September 1843 and completed by June 1845. However, it was not published until 1847. The novel was "an abysmal failure ...
''. Within a year of his marriage, he finished that work. Trollope began writing on the numerous long train trips around Ireland he had to take to carry out his postal duties. Setting very firm goals about how much he would write each day, he eventually became one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote his earliest novels while working as a Post Office inspector, occasionally dipping into the " lost-letter" box for ideas. Significantly, many of his earliest novels have Ireland as their setting—natural enough given that he wrote them or thought them up while he was living and working in Ireland, but unlikely to enjoy warm critical reception, given the contemporary English attitude towards Ireland.Edwards, Owen Dudley. "Anthony Trollope, the Irish Writer. ''Nineteenth-Century Fiction'', Vol. 38, No. 1 (June 1983), p. 1 Critics have pointed out that Trollope's view of Ireland separates him from many of the other Victorian novelists. Other critics claimed that Ireland did not influence Trollope as much as his experience in England, and that the society in Ireland harmed him as a writer, especially since Ireland was experiencing the Great Famine during his time there. However, these critics have been accused of bigoted opinions against Ireland who fail or refuse to acknowledge both Trollope's true attachment to the country and the country's capacity as a rich literary field. Trollope published four novels about Ireland. Two were written during the Great Famine, while the third deals with the famine as a theme (''
The Macdermots of Ballycloran ''The Macdermots of Ballycloran'' is a novel by Anthony Trollope. It was Trollope's first published novel, which he began in September 1843 and completed by June 1845. However, it was not published until 1847. The novel was "an abysmal failure ...
'', '' The Kellys and the O'Kellys'', and '' Castle Richmond'', respectively). ''The Macdermots of Ballycloran'' was written while he was staying in the village of
Drumsna Drumsna ( which translates as ''the ridge of the swimming place'') is a village in County Leitrim, Ireland. It is situated 6 km east of Carrick-on-Shannon on the River Shannon and is located off the N4 National primary route which lin ...
, County Leitrim. '' The Kellys and the O'Kellys'' (1848) is a humorous comparison of the romantic pursuits of the landed gentry (Francis O'Kelly, Lord Ballindine) and his Catholic tenant (Martin Kelly). Two short stories deal with Ireland ("The O'Conors of Castle Conor, County Mayo" and "Father Giles of Ballymoy"). Some critics argue that these works seek to unify an Irish and British identity, instead of viewing the two as distinct.Edwards p.3 Even as an Englishman in Ireland, Trollope was still able to attain what he saw as essential to being an "Irish writer": possessed, obsessed, and "mauled" by Ireland. The reception of the Irish works left much to be desired. Henry Colburn wrote to Trollope, "It is evident that readers do not like novels on Irish subjects as well as on others." In particular, magazines such as '' The New Monthly Magazine'', which included reviews that attacked the Irish for their actions during the famine, were representative of the dismissal by English readers of any work written about the Irish.


Success as an author

In 1851, Trollope was sent to England, charged with investigating and reorganising rural mail delivery in south-western England and south
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. The two-year mission took him over much of Great Britain, often on horseback. Trollope describes this time as "two of the happiest years of my life".Trollope (1883).
Chapter 5.
Retrieved 2 July 2010.
In the course of it, he visited Salisbury Cathedral; and there, according to his autobiography, he conceived the plot of ''
The Warden ''The Warden'' is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope published by Longman in 1855. It is the first book in the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' series, followed by ''Barchester Towers''. Synopsis ''The Warden'' concerns Mr Septimus Hardi ...
'', which became the first of the six Barsetshire novels. His postal work delayed the beginning of writing for a year; the novel was published in 1855, in an edition of 1,000 copies, with Trollope receiving half of the profits: £9 8s. 8d. in 1855, and £10 15s. 1d. in 1856. Although the profits were not large, the book received notices in the press, and brought Trollope to the attention of the novel-reading public. He immediately began work on ''
Barchester Towers ''Barchester Towers'' is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope published by Longmans in 1857. It is the second book in the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' series, preceded by '' The Warden'' and followed by '' Doctor Thorne''. Among other thi ...
'', the second Barsetshire novel;Trollope (1883).
Chapter 6.
Retrieved 2 July 2010.
upon its publication in 1857,Trollope (1883).

Retrieved 2 July 2010.
he received an advance payment of £100 (about £ in consumer pounds) against his share of the profits. Like ''The Warden'', ''Barchester Towers'' did not obtain large sales, but it helped to establish Trollope's reputation. In his autobiography, Trollope writes, "It achieved no great reputation, but it was one of the novels which novel readers were called upon to read." For the following novel, ''
The Three Clerks ''The Three Clerks'' (1857) is a novel by Anthony Trollope, set in the lower reaches of the Civil Service. It draws on Trollope's own experiences as a junior clerk in the General Post Office, and has been called the most autobiographical of Troll ...
'', he was able to sell the copyright for a lump sum of £250; he preferred this to waiting for a share of future profits.


Return to England

Although Trollope had been happy and comfortable in Ireland, he felt that as an author, he should live within easy reach of London. In 1859, he sought and obtained a position in the Post Office as Surveyor to the Eastern District, comprising
Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...
, Suffolk,
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...
, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and most of Hertfordshire.Trollope (1883).
Chapter 8.
Retrieved 2 July 2010.
Later in that year he moved to Waltham Cross, about from London in Hertfordshire, where he lived until 1871. In late 1859, Trollope learned of preparations for the release of the '' Cornhill Magazine'', to be published by
George Murray Smith George Murray Smith (19 March 1824 – 6 April 1901) was a British publisher. He was the son of George Smith (1789–1846), who, with Alexander Elder (1790–1876), started the Victorian publishing firm of Smith, Elder & Co. in 1816. His br ...
and edited by William Makepeace Thackeray. He wrote to the latter, offering to provide short stories for the new magazine. Thackeray and Smith both responded: the former urging Trollope to contribute, the latter offering £1,000 for a novel, provided that a substantial part of it could be available to the printer within six weeks. Trollope offered Smith '' Castle Richmond'', which he was then writing; but Smith declined to accept an Irish story, and suggested a novel dealing with English clerical life as had ''Barchester Towers''. Trollope then devised the plot of ''
Framley Parsonage ''Framley Parsonage'' is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope. It was first published in serial form in the ''Cornhill Magazine'' in 1860, then in book form in April 1861. It is the fourth book in the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' series, p ...
'', setting it near Barchester so that he could make use of characters from the Barsetshire novels.Sadleir, Michael (1927). ''Trollope: A Commentary''. Farrar, Straus and Company. ''Framley Parsonage'' proved enormously popular, establishing Trollope's reputation with the novel-reading public and amply justifying the high price that Smith had paid for it. The early connection to ''Cornhill'' also brought Trollope into the London circle of artists, writers, and intellectuals, not least among whom were Smith and Thackeray. By the mid-1860s, Trollope had reached a fairly senior position within the Post Office hierarchy, despite ongoing differences with
Rowland Hill Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his solut ...
, who was at that time Chief Secretary to the Postmaster General. Postal history credits Trollope with introducing the pillar box (the ubiquitous mail-box) in the United Kingdom. He was earning a substantial income from his novels. He had overcome the awkwardness of his youth, made good friends in literary circles, and hunted enthusiastically. In 1865, Trollope was among the founders of the liberal Fortnightly Review. When Hill left the Post Office in 1864, Trollope's brother-in-law, John Tilley, who was then Under-Secretary to the Postmaster General, was appointed to the vacant position. Trollope applied for Tilley's old post, but was passed over in favour of a subordinate, Frank Ives Scudamore. In the autumn of 1867, Trollope resigned his position at the Post Office, having by that time saved enough to generate an income equal to the pension he would lose by leaving before the age of 60.Trollope (1883)
Chapter 15.
Retrieved 2 July 2010.


Beverley campaign

Trollope had long dreamt of taking a seat in the House of Commons.Trollope (1883)
chapter 16.
Retrieved 21 May 2010.
As a civil servant, however, he was ineligible for such a position. His resignation from the Post Office removed this disability, and he almost immediately began seeking a seat for which he might stand.Super, R. H. (1988).
''The Chronicler of Barsetshire''.
University of Michigan Press.
pp. 251–5.
Retrieved 19 May 2010.
In 1868, he agreed to stand as a Liberal candidate in the
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...
of
Beverley Beverley is a market and minster town and a civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre and north-west of City of Hull. The town is known fo ...
, in the
East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire t ...
. Party leaders apparently took advantage of Trollope's eagerness to stand, and of his willingness to spend money on a campaign. Beverley had a long history of vote-buying and of intimidation by employers and others. Every election since 1857 had been followed by a petition alleging corruption, and it was estimated that 300 of the 1,100 voters in 1868 would sell their votes.Modern Beverley: Political and Social History, 1835–1918.British History Online.
Retrieved 20 May 2010.
The task of a Liberal candidate was not to win the election, but to give the Conservative candidates an opportunity to display overt corruption, which could then be used to disqualify them. Trollope described his period of campaigning in Beverley as "the most wretched fortnight of my manhood". He spent a total of £400 on his campaign. The election was held on 17 November 1868; the novelist finished last of four candidates, with the victory going to the two Conservatives. A petition was filed, and a Royal Commission investigated the circumstances of the election; its findings of extensive and widespread corruption drew nationwide attention, and led to the disfranchisement of the borough in 1870. The fictional Percycross election in ''
Ralph the Heir ''Ralph the Heir'' is a novel by Anthony Trollope, originally published in 1871. Although Trollope described it as "one of the worst novels I have written",Trollope, Anthony (1883).''An Autobiography'', chapter 19. Retrieved 2010-05-19. it was we ...
'' and Tankerville election in Phineas Redux is closely based on the Beverley campaign.


Later years

After the defeat at Beverley, Trollope concentrated entirely on his literary career. While continuing to produce novels rapidly, he also edited the ''St Paul's Magazine'', which published several of his novels in serial form. "Between 1859 and 1875, Trollope visited the United States five times. Among American literary men he developed a wide acquaintance, which included Lowell, Holmes, Emerson,
Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
, Hawthorne,
Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
,
Bret Harte Bret Harte (; born Francis Brett Hart; August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a caree ...
,
Artemus Ward Charles Farrar Browne (April 26, 1834 – March 6, 1867) was an American humor writer, better known under his ''nom de plume'', Artemus Ward, which as a character, an illiterate rube with "Yankee common sense", Browne also played in public perfor ...
, Joaquin Miller, Mark Twain,
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
, William Dean Howells,
James T. Fields James Thomas Fields (December 31, 1817 – April 24, 1881) was an American publisher, editor, and poet. His business, Ticknor and Fields, was a notable publishing house in 19th century Boston. Biography Early life and family He was born in ...
, Charles Norton, John Lothrop Motley, and
Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast''. ...
" Trollope wrote a travel book focusing on his experiences in the US during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
titled ''North America'' (1862). Aware that his mother had published a harshly anti-American travel book about the U.S. (titled the '' Domestic Manners of the Americans'') and feeling markedly more sympathetic to the United States, Trollope resolved to write a work which would "add to the good feeling which should exist between two nations which ought to love each other." During his time in America, Trollope remained a steadfast supporter of the Union, being a committed abolitionist who was opposed to the system of
slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
as it existed in the South. In 1871, Trollope made his first trip to
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, arriving in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
on 28 July 1871 on the SS ''Great Britain'', with his wife and their cook. The trip was made to visit their younger son, Frederick, who was a sheep farmer near
Grenfell, New South Wales Grenfell is a town in Weddin Shire in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of Sydney. It is close to Forbes, Cowra and Young. At the 2011 census, Grenfell had a population of 1,996. The town is served daily by co ...
.Starck, Nigel (2008) "Anthony Trollope's travels and travails in 1871 Australia", ''National Library of Australia News'', XIX (1), p. 19 He wrote his novel '' Lady Anna'' during the voyage. In Australia, he spent a year and two days "descending mines, mixing with shearers and rouseabouts, riding his horse into the loneliness of the bush, touring lunatic asylums, and exploring coast and plain by steamer and stagecoach".Starck, p. 20 He visited the penal colony of Port Arthur and its cemetery, Isle of the Dead. Despite this, the Australian press was uneasy, fearing he would misrepresent Australia in his writings. This fear was based on rather negative writings about America by his mother, Fanny, and by
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
. On his return, Trollope published a book, ''Australia and New Zealand'' (1873). It contained both positive and negative comments. On the positive side, it found a comparative absence of class consciousness, and praised aspects of
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, Melbourne, Hobart and
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...
. However, he was negative about Adelaide's river, the towns of Bendigo and Ballarat, and the Aboriginal population. What most angered the Australian papers, though, were his comments "accusing Australians of being braggarts". Trollope returned to Australia in 1875 to help his son close down his failed farming business. He found that the resentment created by his accusations of bragging remained. Even when he died in 1882, Australian papers still "smouldered", referring yet again to these accusations, and refusing to fully praise or recognize his achievements.Starck, p. 21 In the late 1870's, Trollope furthered his travel writing career by visiting southern Africa, including the
Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with ...
and the Boer Republics of the
Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...
and the Transvaal. Admitting that he initially assumed that the
Afrikaners Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Cas ...
had "retrograded from civilization, and had become savage, barbarous, and unkindly", Trollope wrote at length on Boer cultural habits, claiming that the "roughness...
Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referr ...
n simplicity and the dirtiness of the Boer’s way of life erelyresulted from his preference for living in rural isolation, far from any town." In the completed work, which Trollope simply titled ''South Africa'' (1877), he described the mining town of Kimberly as being "one of the most interesting places on the face of the earth." In 1880, Trollope moved to the village of South Harting in West Sussex. He spent some time in Ireland in the early 1880s researching his last, unfinished, novel, ''The Landleaguers''. It is said that he was extremely distressed by the violence of the Land War.


Death

Trollope died in
Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it ...
, London, in 1882 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, near the grave of his contemporary, Wilkie Collins.


Works and reputation

Trollope's first major success came with ''
The Warden ''The Warden'' is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope published by Longman in 1855. It is the first book in the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' series, followed by ''Barchester Towers''. Synopsis ''The Warden'' concerns Mr Septimus Hardi ...
'' (1855)—the first of six novels set in the fictional county of "Barsetshire" (often collectively referred to as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire''), dealing primarily with the clergy and landed gentry. ''
Barchester Towers ''Barchester Towers'' is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope published by Longmans in 1857. It is the second book in the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' series, preceded by '' The Warden'' and followed by '' Doctor Thorne''. Among other thi ...
'' (1857) has probably become the best-known of these. Trollope's other major series, the
Palliser novels The Palliser novels are novels written in series by Anthony Trollope. They were more commonly known as the Parliamentary novels prior to their 1974 television dramatisation by the BBC broadcast as '' The Pallisers''. Marketed as "polite litera ...
, which overlap with the Barsetshire novels, concerned itself with politics, with the wealthy, industrious
Plantagenet Palliser The Palliser novels are novels written in series by Anthony Trollope. They were more commonly known as the Parliamentary novels prior to their 1974 television dramatisation by the BBC broadcast as ''The Pallisers''. Marketed as "polite literatu ...
(later Duke of Omnium) and his delightfully spontaneous, even richer wife Lady Glencora featured prominently, though, as with the Barsetshire series, many other well-developed characters populated each novel and in one, ''
The Eustace Diamonds ''The Eustace Diamonds'' is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published in 1871 as a serial in the ''Fortnightly Review''. It is the third of the " Palliser" series of novels. Plot summary In this novel, the characters of Plantagenet Palliser, ...
'', the Pallisers play only a small role. Trollope's popularity and critical success diminished in his later years, but he continued to write prolifically, and some of his later novels have acquired a good reputation. In particular, critics who concur that the book was not popular when published, generally acknowledge the sweeping satire '' The Way We Live Now'' (1875) as his masterpiece. In all, Trollope wrote 47 novels, 42 short stories, and five travel books, as well as nonfiction books titled '' Thackeray'' (1879) and '' Lord Palmerston'' (1882). After his death, Trollope's ''An Autobiography'' appeared and was a bestseller in London. Trollope's downfall in the eyes of the critics stemmed largely from this volume. Even during his writing career, reviewers tended increasingly to shake their heads over his prodigious output, but when Trollope revealed that he strictly adhered to a daily writing quota, and admitted that he wrote for money, he confirmed his critics' worst fears. Writers were expected to wait for inspiration, not to follow a schedule.
Julian Hawthorne Julian Hawthorne (June 22, 1846 – July 14, 1934) was an American writer and journalist, the son of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Hawthorne, Sophia Peabody. He wrote numerous poems, novels, short stories, mysteries and detective f ...
, an American writer, critic and friend of Trollope, while praising him as a man, calling him "a credit to England and to human nature, and ... eservingto be numbered among the darlings of mankind", also said that "he has done great harm to English fictitious literature by his novels".
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
also expressed mixed opinions of Trollope. The young James wrote some scathing reviews of Trollope's novels (''The Belton Estate'', for instance, he called "a stupid book, without a single thought or idea in it ... a sort of mental pabulum"). He also made it clear that he disliked Trollope's narrative method; Trollope's cheerful interpolations into his novels about how his storylines could take any twist their author wanted did not appeal to James's sense of artistic integrity. However, James thoroughly appreciated Trollope's attention to realistic detail, as he wrote in an essay shortly after the novelist's death:
His rollope'sgreat, his inestimable merit was a complete appreciation of the usual. ... ''felt'' all daily and immediate things as well as saw them; felt them in a simple, direct, salubrious way, with their sadness, their gladness, their charm, their comicality, all their obvious and measurable meanings. ... Trollope will remain one of the most trustworthy, though not one of the most eloquent, of the writers who have helped the heart of man to know itself. ... A race is fortunate when it has a good deal of the sort of imagination—of imaginative feeling—that had fallen to the share of Anthony Trollope; and in this possession our English race is not poor.
Writers such as William Thackeray, George Eliot and Wilkie Collins admired and befriended Trollope, and Eliot noted that she could not have embarked on so ambitious a project as '' Middlemarch'' without the precedent set by Trollope in his own novels of the fictional—yet thoroughly alive—county of Barsetshire. Other contemporaries of Trollope praised his understanding of the quotidian world of institutions, official life, and daily business; he is one of the few novelists who find the office a creative environment. W. H. Auden wrote of Trollope: "Of all novelists in any country, Trollope best understands the role of money. Compared with him, even Balzac is too romantic." As trends in the world of the novel moved increasingly towards subjectivity and artistic experimentation, Trollope's standing with critics suffered. But Lord David Cecil noted in 1934 that "Trollope is still very much alive ... and among fastidious readers." He noted that Trollope was "conspicuously free from the most characteristic Victorian faults". In the 1940s, Trollopians made further attempts to resurrect his reputation; he enjoyed a critical renaissance in the 1960s, and again in the 1990s. Some critics today have a particular interest in Trollope's portrayal of women—he caused remark even in his own day for his deep insight and sensitivity to the inner conflicts caused by the position of women in Victorian society. Recently, interest in Trollope has increased. A Trollope Society flourishes in the United Kingdom, as does its sister society in the United States. In 2011, the University of Kansas's Department of English, in collaboration with the Hall Center for the Humanities and in partnership with '' The Fortnightly Review'', began awarding an annual Trollope Prize. The Prize was established to focus attention on Trollope's work and career. Notable fans have included Alec Guinness, who never travelled without a Trollope novel; the former British prime ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major; the first Canadian prime minister, John A. Macdonald; the economist John Kenneth Galbraith; the merchant banker
Siegmund Warburg Sir Siegmund George Warburg (30 September 1902 – 18 October 1982) was a German-born English banker. He was a member of the prominent Warburg family. He played a prominent role in the development of merchant banking.Lord Denning Alfred Thompson "Tom" Denning, Baron Denning (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was an English lawyer and judge. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1923 and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 whe ...
; the American novelists Sue Grafton, Dominick Dunne, and Timothy Hallinan; the poet Edward Fitzgerald; the artist
Edward Gorey Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other writers. Hi ...
, who kept a complete set of his books; the American author
Robert Caro Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson. After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote '' The Power ...
; the playwright David Mamet; the soap opera writer
Harding Lemay Harding Lemay (March 16, 1922 – May 26, 2018), also known as Pete Lemay, was an American screenwriter and playwright. He was best known for his stint as head writer of the soap opera '' Another World''. Career Lemay was head writer of the soap ...
; the screenwriter and novelist Julian Fellowes; liberal political philosopher
Anthony de Jasay Anthony de Jasay (15 October 1925 – 23 January 2019) was a Hungarian writer, economist, and right-libertarian philosopher. He studied in Székesfehérvár and Budapest, and obtained a degree in agriculture. He then worked as a freelance journ ...
; and theologian Stanley Hauerwas.


Bibliography

* Anthony Trollope bibliography


Notes


References


Further reading

* Olmsted, Charles and Jeffrey Welch (1978). ''The Reputation of Trollope: An annotated Bibliography'', Garland Publishing. * Sadleir, Michael (1928). ''Trollope: A Bibliography'', Wm. Dawson & Sons. Literary allusions in Trollope's novels have been identified and traced by Professor James A. Means, in two articles that appeared in ''The Victorian Newsletter'' (vols. 78 and 82) in 1990 and 1992 respectively. * *
Briggs, Asa Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs (7 May 1921 – 15 March 2016) was an English historian. He was a leading specialist on the Victorian era, and the foremost historian of broadcasting in Britain. Briggs achieved international recognition during his lon ...
, "Trollope, Bagehot, and the English Constitution," in Briggs, ''Victorian People'' (1955) pp. 87–115
online
* Cockshut, O. J. (1955). ''Anthony Trollope: A Critical Study'', London: Collins. * Escott, T. H. S. (1913)
''Anthony Trollope, his Work, Associates and Literary Originals''
John Lane: The Bodley Head. * Gerould, Winifred and James (1948). ''A Guide to Trollope'', Princeton University Press. * Glendinning, Victoria (1992). ''Anthony Trollope'', Alfred A. Knopf. * * Hall, N. John (1991). ''Trollope: A Biography'', Clarendon Press. * Kincaid, James R. (1977). ''The Novels of Anthony Trollope'', Oxford: Clarendon Press. * MacDonald, Susan (1987). ''Anthony Trollope'', Twayne Publishers. * Mullen, Richard (1990). ''Anthony Trollope: A Victorian in his World'', Savannah: Frederic C. Beil. * Polhemus, Robert M. (1966). ''The Changing World of Anthony Trollope'', University of California Press. * Pollard, Arthur (1978). ''Anthony Trollope'', Routledge & Kegan Paul, Limited. * Pope-Hennessy, James (1971). ''Anthony Trollope'', Jonathan Cape. * * Terry, R.C., ed. (1999). ''Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope'', Oxford University Press. * Smalley, Donald (1969). ''Anthony Trollope: The Critical Heritage'', Routledge. * Walpole, Hugh (1928)
''Anthony Trollope''
New York: The Macmillan Company.


External links

;Digital collections * * * * *
Anthony Trollope
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
;Physical collections
Anthony Trollope
at the British Library * Anthony Trollope Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Collection of portraits of Trollope at the National Portrait Gallery, London
;Other links
Trollope Society website

Classical references
in the Barsetshire series of novels, researched by students from Hendrix College.
Vanity Fair – Mrs. Trollope's America

The Trollope Prize
at the University of Kansas.
The Fortnightly Review Prospectus
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