Background
Anthony Trollope was born on April 24, 1810 in London, United Kingdom. Thomas Anthony Trollope, Anthony's father, was a barrister.
1864
Portrait of Anthony Trollope by Samuel Laurence
1873
Trollope by Spy in Vanity Fair
Grandon, Monken Hadley. Home to Anthony and his mother 1836-1838.
Grave in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
(The first of Trollope’s popular Barsetshire novels, set i...)
The first of Trollope’s popular Barsetshire novels, set in the fictional cathedral town of Barchester, The Warden centers on the honorable cleric Septimus Harding, one of Trollope’s most memorable characters. When Harding is accused of mismanaging church funds, his predicament lays bare the complexities of the Victorian world and of nineteenth-century provincial life.
https://www.amazon.com/Warden-Penguin-Classics-Anthony-Trollope/dp/0140432140/?tag=2022091-20
1855
(Barchester Towers concerns the leading clergy of the cath...)
Barchester Towers concerns the leading clergy of the cathedral city of Barchester. The much loved bishop having died, all expectations are that his son, Archdeacon Grantly, will succeed him. Owing to the passage of the power of patronage to a new Prime Minister, a newcomer, the far more Evangelical Bishop Proudie, gains the see. His wife, Mrs Proudie, exercises an undue influence over the new bishop, making herself as well as the bishop unpopular with most of the clergy of the diocese. Her interference to veto the reappointment of the universally popular Mr Septimus Harding (protagonist of Trollope's earlier novel, The Warden) as warden of Hiram's Hospital is not well received, even though she gives the position to a needy clergyman, Mr Quiverful, with 14 children to support.
https://www.amazon.com/Barchester-Towers-Anthony-Trollope-ebook/dp/B008478E2C/?tag=2022091-20
1857
(When Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire, died, he left...)
When Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire, died, he left his estate to his family. A codicil to his will, however, left Orley Farm (near London) to his much younger second wife and infant son. The will and the codicil were in her handwriting, and there were three witnesses, one of whom was no longer alive. A bitterly fought court case confirmed the codicil.
https://www.amazon.com/Orley-Farm-Anthony-Trollope-ebook/dp/B0082YWGX0/?tag=2022091-20
1862
(Alice Vavasor, a young woman of twenty-four, is engaged t...)
Alice Vavasor, a young woman of twenty-four, is engaged to the wealthy, respectable, dependable if unambitious and bland, John Grey. She had previously been engaged to her cousin George, but she broke it off after he went through a wild period. John, trusting in his love, makes only the slightest protest of Alice’s planned tour of Switzerland with her cousin Kate, George's sister, even when he learns George is to go with them as their male protector. Influenced by the romance of Switzerland, Kate's contriving to restore George to Alice's favour, and her own misgivings with John's shortcomings, Alice jilts her second fiancé.
https://www.amazon.com/Can-You-Forgive-Her/dp/B003A7U8Z2/?tag=2022091-20
1865
(The Last Chronicle of Barset concerns an indigent but lea...)
The Last Chronicle of Barset concerns an indigent but learned clergyman, the Reverend Josiah Crawley, the perpetual curate of Hogglestock, who stands accused of stealing a cheque.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140437525/?tag=2022091-20
1867
(A wealthy young English gentleman, Louis Trevelyan, visit...)
A wealthy young English gentleman, Louis Trevelyan, visits the fictional Mandarin Islands, a distant British possession, and becomes smitten with Emily Rowley, the eldest daughter of the governor, Sir Marmaduke Rowley. The Rowleys accompany Trevelyan to London, where he marries Emily. When the rest of the family goes home, Emily's sister Nora remains behind, under Trevelyan's protection. The marriage is initially a happy one and the couple have a baby boy. Then a seemingly minor matter undermines their marriage. Colonel Osborne, an old friend of Sir Marmaduke's, visits Emily much too frequently for her husband's taste. Though nothing improper occurs, Trevelyan orders his wife to avoid the man in future. Emily resents his lack of trust and makes no attempt to hide it. Their relationship deteriorates to the point that they separate.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140433910/?tag=2022091-20
1869
(In the fourth of the "Palliser" stories, Trollope follows...)
In the fourth of the "Palliser" stories, Trollope follows Phineas Finn's return to the dangerous world of Westminster politics. When his political rival is murdered, Phineas is thrown under suspicion and eventually finds himself standing trial at the Old Bailey. The situation is complicated by the presence of two women in his life: his old flame Lady Laura, whose estranged husband is determined to destroy Phineas's reputation, and the wealthy and enimgatic widow, Madame Max.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140437622/?tag=2022091-20
1873
(Augustus Melmotte is a financier with a mysterious past. ...)
Augustus Melmotte is a financier with a mysterious past. He is rumoured to have Jewish origins, and to be connected to some failed businesses in Vienna. When he moves his business and his family to London, the city's upper crust begins buzzing with rumours about him - and a host of people ultimately find their lives changed because of him.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1853262552/?tag=2022091-20
1875
(The novel is largely set in and near the town of Dillsbor...)
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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1978207697/?tag=2022091-20
1877
(Lady Glencora, the wife of Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke...)
Lady Glencora, the wife of Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium, dies unexpectedly, leaving the Duke to deal with their grownup children, with whom he has a somewhat distant relationship. As the government in which he is Prime Minister has also fallen, the Duke is left bereft of both his beloved wife and his political position.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1101907819/?tag=2022091-20
1880
Anthony Trollope was born on April 24, 1810 in London, United Kingdom. Thomas Anthony Trollope, Anthony's father, was a barrister.
Anthony Trollope 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. 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 most élite schools in England, but Anthony Trollope had no money and no friends, and was bullied a great deal. At the age of twelve, he fantasised about suicide. However, he also daydreamed, constructing elaborate imaginary worlds.
The years 1834–1841 Anthony Trollope spent miserably as a junior clerk in the General Post Office, but he was then transferred as a postal surveyor to Ireland, where he began to enjoy a social life. He then embarked upon a literary career. The Warden (1855) was his first novel of distinction, a penetrating study of the warden of an old people’s home who is attacked for making too much profit from a charitable sinecure. During the next 12 years Anthony Trollope produced five other books set, like The Warden, in Barsetshire: Barchester Towers (1857), Doctor Thorne (1858), Framley Parsonage (1861), The Small House at Allington (1864), and The Last Chronicle of Barset (serially 1866-1867; 1867).
In 1859 Anthony Trollope moved back to London, resigning from the civil service in 1867 and unsuccessfully standing as a Liberal parliamentary candidate in 1868. Before then, however, he had produced some 18 novels. He wrote mainly before breakfast at a fixed rate of 1, 000 words an hour. Outstanding among works of that period were Orley Farm (serially, 1861-1862; 1862), Can You Forgive Her? (serially, 1864-1865; 1865), and The Duke’s Children (serially, 1879-1880; 1880). In the political novels Anthony Trollope is less concerned with political ideas than with the practical working of the system - with the mechanics of power.
In about 1869 Trollope’s last period as a writer began. Traces of his new style are to be found in the slow-moving He Knew He Was Right (serially, 1868-1869; 1869), a subtle account of a rich man’s jealous obsession with his innocent wife. Purely psychological studies include Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite (serially, 1870; 1871) and Kept in the Dark (1882). Some of the later works, however, were sharply satirical: The Eustace Diamonds, a study of the influence of money on sexual relationships; The Way We Live Now (serially, 1874-1875; 1875), remarkable for its villain-hero, the financier Melmotte; and Mr. Scarborough’s Family (posthumously, 1883), which shows what can happen when the rights of property are wielded by a man of nihilistic temperament intent upon his legal rights.
Trollope’s final years were spent in the seclusion of a small Sussex village, where he worked on in the face of gradually diminishing popularity, failing health, and increasing melancholy. He was in London when he died, having been stricken there with paralysis. Anthony Trollope died in Marylebone, London in 1882 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, near the grave of his contemporary, Wilkie Collins.
(A wealthy young English gentleman, Louis Trevelyan, visit...)
1869(The first of Trollope’s popular Barsetshire novels, set i...)
1855(Lady Glencora, the wife of Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke...)
1880(The Last Chronicle of Barset concerns an indigent but lea...)
1867(Alice Vavasor, a young woman of twenty-four, is engaged t...)
1865(In the fourth of the "Palliser" stories, Trollope follows...)
1873(The novel is largely set in and near the town of Dillsbor...)
1877(When Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire, died, he left...)
1862(Barchester Towers concerns the leading clergy of the cath...)
1857(Augustus Melmotte is a financier with a mysterious past. ...)
1875Quotes from others about the person
Julian Hawthorne, 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 ...[deserving] to be numbered among the darlings of mankind...he has done great harm to English fictitious literature by his novels".
Henry James thoroughly appreciated Trollope's attention to realistic detail, as he wrote in an essay shortly after the novelist's death: "His [Trollope's] great, his inestimable merit was a complete appreciation of the usual. ... [H]e 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."
W. H. Auden wrote of Trollope as follows: "Of all novelists in any country, Trollope best understands the role of money. Compared with him, even Balzac is too romantic."
Lord David Cecil noted in 1934 that: "Trollope is still very much alive... and among fastidious readers. Trollope was conspicuously free from the most characteristic Victorian faults".
In 1844 Anthony Trollope married Rose Heseltine, an Englishwoman. Their first son, Henry Merivale, was born in 1846, and the second, Frederick James Anthony, in 1847.