Lady Anna (novel)
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''Lady Anna'' is a novel by
Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...
, written in 1871 and first published in book form in 1874. The protagonist is a young woman of noble birth who, through an extraordinary set of circumstances, has fallen in love with and become engaged to a tailor. The novel describes her attempts to resolve the conflict between her duty to her social class and her duty to the man she loves.


Plot summary

''Lady Anna'' is set during the 1830s, at about the time of the First Reform Act of 1832. The title character is the daughter of the late Earl Lovel. Her mother married him out of ambition rather than love, and despite his evil reputation. Soon after their marriage, he told her that he had a living wife, which made their union invalid and their unborn daughter
illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...
. He then sailed to Italy without her and did not return to England for twenty years. During those two decades, Lady Lovel struggled to prove the validity of her marriage, and consequently her right to her title and her daughter's legitimacy. She enjoyed neither the sympathy of the public nor the support of her family during this time; her only friend and supporter was Thomas Thwaite, a
Radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...
tailor of Keswick, who gave her and her daughter shelter and financed her legal battles. Early in the novel, Lord Lovel returns to England and dies
intestate Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without a legally valid will, resulting in the distribution of their estate under statutory intestacy laws rather than by their expressed wishes. Alternatively this may also apply ...
. His
earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...
dom, and a small estate in
Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...
, pass to a distant cousin, young Frederick Lovel. However, the bulk of his large fortune is
personal property Personal property is property that is movable. In common law systems, personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In civil law (legal system), civil law systems, personal property is often called movable property or movables—a ...
, and thus not attached to the title. If his marriage to Lady Lovel was valid, it will go to her and to their daughter; otherwise, it will go to the young earl. The new earl's lawyers, headed by the
Solicitor General A solicitor general is a government official who serves as the chief representative of the government in courtroom proceedings. In systems based on the English common law that have an attorney general or equivalent position, the solicitor general ...
, come to believe that their case against Lady Lovel is weak and their claim probably false. They accordingly propose a compromise: that the earl marry Lady Anna, thus reuniting the title and the assets held by her father. The plan is enthusiastically supported by Lady Lovel, as fulfilling all of her ambitions for herself and her daughter. The young earl is favourably impressed by Lady Anna's appearance and character. However, in her twenty years as an outcast, Lady Anna has come to love Thomas Thwaite's son Daniel, and the two have become secretly engaged. When the engagement is known, Lady Lovel and others strive to break it. Lady Anna will not yield to persuasion or to mistreatment; Daniel Thwaite rejects arguments and bribes to end the relationship. Lady Anna is approaching her twenty-first birthday, after which she will be free to marry without her mother's consent. In desperation, Lady Lovel secures a pistol and attempts to murder Thwaite. She wounds but does not kill him; Thwaite refuses to name her to the police; and the attempt puts an effective end to her attempts to keep the two apart. With Thwaite's consent, Lady Anna makes half of her fortune over to the young earl. She marries Thwaite with the public approval of the Lovel family, though Lady Lovel refuses to attend the ceremony. The two then emigrate to Australia, where they expect that his low birth and her title will no longer be a burden to them.


Development and publication history

In 1871, Anthony and Rose Trollope sailed from England to Australia to visit their son Fred, who had settled at a sheep station 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 conne ...
. ''Lady Anna'' was written entirely at sea,Trollope, Anthony (1883).
''An Autobiography'', chapter 19.
Retrieved 2010-07-10.
between 25 May and 19 July.Moody, Ellen.

Retrieved 2010-07-10.
The novel was serialized in the ''
Fortnightly Review ''The Fortnightly Review'' was one of the most prominent and influential magazines in nineteenth-century England. It was founded in 1865 by Anthony Trollope, Frederic Harrison, Edward Spencer Beesly, and six others with an investment of £9,000 ...
'' between April 1873 and April 1874. It was published in two volumes by
Chapman & Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 1840 ...
in 1874. Trollope received £1200 for ''Lady Anna''; his other 1874 novels, ''
Phineas Redux ''Phineas Redux'' is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published between 1873 and 1874 as a serial in '' The Graphic''. It is the fourth of the " Palliser" series of novels and is a sequel to the second book of the series, '' Phineas Finn''. ...
'' and '' Harry Heathcote of Gangoil'', earned him £2500 and £450 respectively. Beside the ''Fortnightly'', the novel was serialized in 1873–74 in the ''Australasian'', and in Russian translation in ''
Vestnik Evropy ''Vestnik Evropy'' () (''Herald of Europe'' or ''Messenger of Europe'') was the major liberal magazine of late-nineteenth-century Russia. It was published from 1866 to 1918. The magazine (named for an earlier publication edited by Nikolay Kara ...
''. In 1873, it was also published in book form by
Harper Harper may refer to: Names * Harper (name), a surname and given name and place names, for example: Harper Islands, Nunavut. Places ;in Canada * Harper Islands, Nunavut * Harper, Prince Edward Island ;In the United States *Harper, former name ...
of
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
, by Hunter Rose of
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, by
Tauchnitz Tauchnitz was the name of a family of German printers and publishers. They published English language literature for distribution on the European continent outside Great Britain, including initial serial publications of novels by Charles Dickens. ...
of
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, and in Russian as ''Lady Anna''.Tingay, Lance O (1985). ''The Trollope Collector''. London: The Silverbridge Press. p. 36. More recent editions have included one by Arno Press in 1981; editions by
Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
and by
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, the latter with an introduction and notes by
Stephen Orgel Stephen Orgel is Professor of English at Stanford University. Best known as a scholar of Shakespeare, Orgel writes primarily about the political and historical context of Renaissance literature. Orgel received his B.A. from Columbia University in ...
, in 1984; and one by the Trollope Society in 1990.


Adaptation

A play by Craig Baxter, ''Lady Anna: All at Sea'', combining the plot of the novel and the story of Trollope's writing it while voyaging to Australia, was commissioned by the Trollope Society as part of the 2015 Trollope Bicentennial Celebrations. It was presented at London's Park Theatre in 2015.Norman, Neil.
"Review: Lady Anna: All At Sea at the Park Theatre".''Express''.
2015-08-28. Retrieved 2016-04-02.


References


External links



—easy-to-read HTML version a
University of Adelaide Library

''Lady Anna''
a
Project Gutenberg
* {{Anthony Trollope 1874 British novels Novels by Anthony Trollope Works originally published in The Fortnightly Review Novels first published in serial form Novels set in the 1830s Novels set in Cumbria Chapman & Hall books