Image of Anthony Trollope

Timeline

Lifetime: 1815 - 1882 Passed: ≈ 141 years ago

Title

Novelist, Civil Servant

Country/Nationality

England
Wikipedia

Anthony Trollope

Anthony Trollope was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. 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.

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.

Born in London, Anthony attended Harrow School as a free day pupil for three years from the age of seven because his father's farm, acquired for that reason, lay in that neighbourhood.

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, 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.

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 thirty 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. Thomas Trollope died the following year.

According to Trollope, "the first seven years of my official life were neither creditable to myself nor useful to the public service." 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.

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. 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.

Trollope published four novels about Ireland. Two were written during the Great Famine, while the third deals with the famine as a theme.

Trollope died in Marylebone, London in 1882 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, near the grave of his contemporary, Wilkie Collins.

Books by Anthony Trollope

Barchester Towers Cover image

Barchester Towers

Fiction Novel
Marriage Politics Religious tradition

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 things it satirises the an...

The Warden Cover image

The Warden

Fiction Novel
Social Injustice

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.

The Way We Live Now Cover image

The Way We Live Now

Satire Novel
Social Commentary

The Way We Live Now is a satirical novel by Anthony Trollope, published in London in 1875 after first appearing in serialised form. It is one of the last significant Victorian novels to have been published in monthly parts. The novel is Trollope's l...

Can You Forgive Her? Cover image

Can You Forgive Her?

Fiction Novel
Marriage Murder Love Romance Engagement Courtship Parliament Historical Ambition Fantasy Proposal Election Campaign Rich

It was first published in serial form in 1864 and 1865. It is the first of six novels in the Palliser series, also known as the Parliamentary Novels. The novel follows three parallel stories of courtship and marriage and the decisions of three women...

The Duke's Children Cover image

The Duke's Children

Fiction Novel
Family Life

The Duke's Children is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published in 1879 as a serial in All the Year Round. It is the sixth and final novel of the Palliser series. In 2020, the uncut version of The Duke's Children was published for the first time.

Cousin Henry Cover image

Cousin Henry

Fiction Novel
Detective novel Prejudice

Cousin Henry is a novel by Anthony Trollope first published in 1879. The story deals with the trouble arising from the indecision of a squire in choosing an heir to his estate. Of Trollope's shorter novels, it has been called one of his most experim...

John Caldigate Cover image

John Caldigate

Fiction
Marriage Voyage Life

After a rather dissolute youth and having been disowned by his father, John Caldigate sets sail for Australia with his friend Dick Shand hoping to make his fortune in the goldfields in New South Wales. On the voyage, he meets Euphemia Smith and they...

Orley Farm Cover image

Orley Farm

Fiction Novel
Love Judgement Laws

Orley Farm is a novel written in the realist mode by Anthony Trollope (1815–82), and illustrated by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais (1829–96). It was first published in monthly shilling parts by the London publisher Chapman and Hall. A...

He Knew He Was Right Cover image

He Knew He Was Right

Fiction Novel
Jealousy Sexuality Extra-Marital Affairs

He Knew He Was Right is an 1869 novel written by Anthony Trollope which describes the failure of a marriage caused by the unreasonable jealousy of a husband exacerbated by the stubbornness of a wilful wife. As is common with Trollope's works, there a...

The Life of Cicero, Vol. I Cover image

The Life of Cicero, Vol. I

Non-Fiction Biography
Court Cicero Consulship

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) was an orator, statesman, philosopher and prolific correspondent, who rose as a ‘new man’ in Rome in the turbulent last years of its republican government. Anthony Trollope, best known as a novelist, admired Cicero gr...

The Life of Cicero, Vol. II Cover image

The Life of Cicero, Vol. II

Non-Fiction Biography
Court Cicero Consulship

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) was an orator, statesman, philosopher and prolific correspondent, who rose as a ‘new man’ in Rome in the turbulent last years of its republican government. Anthony Trollope, best known as a novelist, admired Cicero gr...

Doctor Thorne Cover image

Doctor Thorne

Fiction Novel
Love Social Class Family Life

Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope is the third novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, between Barchester Towers and Framley Parsonage. The idea of the plot was suggested to Trollope by his brother Thomas. Though set in Barsetshire, Barchester...

The Two Heroines of Plumpington Cover image

The Two Heroines of Plumpington

Fiction
Love Society

In the small English Town of Plumplington the daughter of a brewer and that of a banker each has selected her future husband contrary to the wishes of her father. Both young men are regarded as not 'good enough', though each is, in fact, much like th...

Framley Parsonage Cover image

Framley Parsonage

Fiction Novel
Historical Fiction

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 1861. It is the fourth book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, preceded by Doctor Thor...

Mr Scarborough's Family Cover image

Mr Scarborough's Family

Fiction
Inheritance Family Life Domestic

MR SCARBOROUGH, wealthy owner of Tretton Park in Staffordshire, is dying. His eldest son and heir Mountjoy has gambled away his inheritance to avaricious money-lenders who hold post-obits to the entire value of the estate.Then Mr. Scarborough declare...

Lady Anna Cover image

Lady Anna

Fiction Novel
Social Inheritance Life

Lady Anna is a novel by Anthony Trollope, 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 ta...

The Three Clerks Cover image

The Three Clerks

Fiction Novel
Civil Semi-autobiographical novel

The Three Clerks 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 Trollope's novels. I...

The Life of Cicero, Volume 2  Cover image

The Life of Cicero, Volume 2

Biography
History Autobiography Rome Life America United States Politicians

This second volume of two covers his last years, BC 57-43 and the personal and political upheavals that surrounded them: the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, the death of his daughter Tullia, Caesar's dictatorship and assassination, Cicero's anta...

The American Senator  Cover image

The American Senator

Novel
Social Sympathy America Courtship United States Rural Life General Fiction

The novel is largely set in and near the town of Dillsborough, in the fictional county of Rufford. The two principal subplots centre on the courtship behaviour of two young women.

The Golden Lion of Granpere  Cover image

The Golden Lion of Granpere

Romance Novel
Family Marriage Love Tradition

The Golden Lion of Granpere is an inn in the Alsace region. It is run by Michel Voss and Madame Voss, his wife. They have a son, George and Michel’s niece Marie also lives with them having lost all her family. George and Marie begin to fall in love a...

Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices and Other Stories  Cover image

Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices and Other Stories

Novel
Short Story 19th century Love Fantastique Life Wealth

"Why Frau Frohmann Raised Here Prices," a charming little microeconomic fable, and some other stories, none of which are particularly memorable. Trollope was hardly capable of writing a bad sentence, but the lesser tales show that intricate plotting...

Phineas Redux  Cover image

Phineas Redux

Romance History
Love Thriller Historical Fiction Suspense Espionage political

His beloved wife having died during pregnancy, Phineas Finn finds Irish society and his modest government position in Ireland dull and unsatisfying after the excitement of his former career as a Member of Parliament. Back in England, the Liberals are...

The Small House at Allington  Cover image

The Small House at Allington

Satire Romance
Family Marriage Romantic Widow Life Aristocracy London

Fifth novel in the Barsetshire series, The Small House at Allington is largely focused on the Small House's inhabitants, Mrs. Dale and her two marriageable daughters, Lily and Bell. The two girls, of course, have suitors: their cousin, Bernard Dale,...

Autobiography of Anthony Trollope  Cover image

Autobiography of Anthony Trollope

Non-Fiction Biography
Twentieth Century Autobiography Inheritance Reputation political Criticism

Anthony Trollope was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. 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...

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