The Warden (1855)
First Barsetshire novel: the gentle Rev. Septimus Harding and the controversy over Hiram's Hospital
Literature · Novelists
Anthony Trollope
1815–1882 · English
Victorian realist novel
Anthony Trollope was one of the most prolific and popular Victorian novelists, writing 47 novels alongside a full career as a Post Office official. He is best known for two linked series: the Chronicles of Barsetshire, set among the clergy of a fictional cathedral town, and the political Palliser novels. His posthumous Autobiography, with its frank account of his businesslike writing routine, dented his reputation for a generation.
How to spot them
- ▸Barsetshire and its cathedral city of Barchester; Mrs Proudie and Obadiah Slope
- ▸The Palliser novels: Plantagenet Palliser, Lady Glencora and Phineas Finn
- ▸A Post Office surveyor credited with introducing the pillar box to Britain
- ▸The Way We Live Now and the swindling financier Augustus Melmotte
- ▸Son of the travel writer Frances Trollope (Domestic Manners of the Americans)
Key works
Barchester Towers (1857)
Church politics in Barchester: Bishop Proudie, his domineering wife and the oily chaplain Obadiah Slope
Doctor Thorne (1858)
Barsetshire novel of money and marriage centred on Mary Thorne and Frank Gresham
The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867)
Final Barsetshire novel: the proud, poor Rev. Josiah Crawley accused of stealing a cheque; Mrs Proudie dies
Can You Forgive Her? (1864–1865)
First Palliser novel, introducing Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Lady Glencora
Phineas Finn (1869)
Palliser novel following an ambitious young Irish MP at Westminster
The Way We Live Now (1875)
Satire of greed and speculation built around the fraudulent financier Augustus Melmotte
An Autobiography (1883)
Posthumous memoir revealing his methodical daily word-count routine
Key ideas
- Six Chronicles of Barsetshire: The Warden, Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington, The Last Chronicle of Barset
- Six Palliser (parliamentary) novels: Can You Forgive Her?, Phineas Finn, The Eustace Diamonds, Phineas Redux, The Prime Minister, The Duke's Children
- His Autobiography's picture of writing as a trade, done to a timetable before breakfast, harmed his standing with late-Victorian readers
Quick-fire facts
- •Worked for the Post Office for over 30 years, including many years in Ireland, and is credited with introducing roadside pillar boxes, first trialled in the Channel Islands in the early 1850s
- •Wrote 47 novels, typically rising early to write a set number of words before going to work
- •Stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal parliamentary candidate for Beverley in 1868
- •His mother Frances Trollope was a successful author, best known for Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832)
- •A keen fox-hunter; hunting scenes appear throughout his novels
- •The Eustace Diamonds (1873) centres on the scheming Lizzie Eustace and a disputed diamond necklace
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Sources
- Anthony Trollope — An Autobiography
- Victoria Glendinning — Trollope