Anthony Trollope

An Eye for an Eye (1879) is classed among Trollope’s Irish novels, and the dramatic beauty of Co. Clare forms a suitable background to the wild passion that drives the plot. English cavalry office Fred Neville seduces a local Catholic girl, Kate O’Hara, leaving her pregnant. Although madly in love with her, the sudden unexpected inheritance of an earldom prompts Fred to rethink his plan to marry her: “She was a plaything for an idle hour, not a woman to be taken out into the world with the high name of Countess of Scroope.” Kate’s mother suspects that he is poised to abandon her and threatens: “if you injure my child I will have the very blood from your heart.” As the title suggests, this is no idle threat. ...

Doctor Thorne (1858) is the third in the Barsetshire Chronicles and became Trollope’s most successful novel. It must surely have been a source of annoyance to him, therefore, that the sensational plot was the brainchild of his brother, Tom. Whereas the two previous chronicles (The Warden and Barchester Towers) focus on characterisation and are mainly episodic, Dr Thorne features a strong narrative arc, employing many of the techniques of the sensation novel, which was poised to become the dominant literary genre of the following decade. ...

Although readers often struggle with The Warden, their efforts are amply rewarded by Barchester Towers (1857), the next novel in the Barsetshire Chronicles. The story begins with the death of the Bishop, followed by a great deal of manoeuvering amongst those who seek to fill the much-coveted position. The triumphant candidate is Thomas Proudie, although it is his wife who wears the cassock in their household. Mrs Proudie – the “Medea of Barchester” – is perhaps Trollope’s most famous character and one of his finest comic creations. The plot mainly concerns her battles with the ambitious and oleaginous Obadiah Slope, who is determined to bend the Bishop to his will. The confrontations between Mrs Proudie and Slope are brilliantly drawn and sublimely funny. Bishop Proudie himself is a study in inertia and simply defers to whichever of the two rivals happens to be in the ascendant. ...

The Warden (1855) is the first chronicle of Barset, and Trollope’s fourth novel. Septimus Harding is the eponymous warden with responsibility for Hiram’s Hospital, an almshouse containing a dozen bedesmen, who have clearly exceeded their fixed period. The post of warden is essentially a sinecure, as Harding is required to do virtually nothing in return for his comfortable home and salary of £800. His quiet and predictable existence is disturbed, however, when he unexpectedly becomes the centre of a public controversy. ...

An Old Man’s Love (1884) was Anthony Trollope’s last completed novel, written in the year of his death and published posthumously. The eponymous “old man” is 50-year-old William Whittlestaff, who becomes guardian to Mary Lawrie, the daughter of a friend, and half his age. Against his better judgement, he falls in love with her, actively encouraged by his stickybeak housekeeper, Mrs Baggett. Mary already has a lover, however. ...

The futuristic utopia depicted in The Fixed Period (1882) is a radical and unexpected departure for Anthony Trollope. Imagine Thomas Pynchon writing a chick lit novel, or Maeve Binchy turning her hand to slash fiction. It’s a radical departure for me, too, as essentially I’ve been tricked into reading science fiction. The story is set in 1980 in the fictional republic of Britannula, created when a group of ex-pats occupy the South Island of New Zealand and claim independence from Great Britain. The 25,000-strong community is led by President John Neverbend, who almost bursts with his own self-importance and civic pride. ...

Ayala’s Angel (1881) is a rather incongruous title for a Trollope novel. However, the story deals very much with his familiar territory of marriage, inheritance, and the position of women. After the death of their imprudent artist father, penniless sisters Ayala and Lucy Dormer are separated and sent to live with different branches of the family. Lucy is taken in by her well-meaning Uncle Reginald, an Admirality clerk struggling to manage on a limited income; Ayala, meanwhile, embarks upon a more comfortable lifestyle with her wealthy aunt, Lady Tringle. Unfortunately, her two unattractive female cousins become jealous of Ayala’s beauty, and their brother Tom falls hopelessly in love with her, and refuses to take no for an answer. ...

Phineas Redux (1874) is possibly the darkest of the Palliser novels. In Phineas Finn (number two in the series), we saw the eponymous hero begin his ascent of the greasy pole, and he looked to have a bright future in British politics. In this sequel, the untimely death of his wife releases him from a disadvantageous marriage and exile in Ireland, and he once again bursts onto the London scene. Lacking wealth, however, he is placed in the position of a Trollope heroine: he must marry for money and resign himself to dependency. His choice of wife, therefore, must be entirely pragmatic. ...

Henry James wrote that Trollope’s “political novels are distinctly dull,” and confessed that he had been unable to read them. Although the Palliser novels, of which The Prime Minister (1876) is the penultimate, do contain a running political theme, I can happily report that these elements can be skimmed with no ill effects. Having said that, the collapse of a precarious Coalition government and talk of Tories in Liberal clothing have a certain resonance for current British readers. ...

I’m wondering whether it took me as long to read He Knew He Was Right (1869) as it did for Trollope to write it. At almost 1,000 pages long, it’s the size of a business directory, and was instrumental in my decision to buy a Kindle rather than continue grappling with similarly unwieldy tomes. Trollope had recently resigned from his Post Office position when he began writing this novel, and his unsuccessful bid to enter Parliament presumably left him with an unexpectedly large amount of time on his hands. No doubt Mrs Trollope encouraged him to take on a major project so he didn’t get under her feet or start bothering the cook. ...