A “tally-ho” story—Anthony Trollope’s ancestry, historical and apocryphal—Among the Hampshire novelists—Frances Milton’s girlhood—Acquaintance with Thomas Anthony Trollope—Marriage and settlement in Keppel Street—Bright prospects soon clouded—Deep in the mire of misfortune—The American experiment and its consequence—Sold up—Mrs. Trollope becomes a popular authoress—Anthony at school—A battle-royal and its sequel—Rough customs at Harrow—“Leg-bail”—A family flight to Bruges—The future novelist as usher and prospective soldier—Friendly influences at the Post Office—Autobiographical touches in famous novels
CHAPTER II THE NOVELIST AND THE OFFICIAL IN THE MAKING
Activity at the Post Office during the thirties—The romance of letter-carrying—One of the State’s bad bargains—Trollope’s unhappy life, in the office and out of it—The novelist in the making—London at the beginning of the Victorian era—Lost opportunities—Mrs. Trollope’s influence on her son’s works—Her religious opinions as portrayed in The Vicar of Wrexhill—Anthony’s first leanings to authorship—Literary labours of others of his name—With his mother among famous contemporaries at home and abroad—The trials of a youthful London clerk—Trollope’s remarkable friends of school and social life
A fresh start—Off to Ireland—The dawn of better things—Ireland in the forties and after—The Whigs and Tories in turn make vain efforts to remove the nation’s chief grievances—The most deep-seated evils social rather than political—Trollope’s bond of union with the “distressful country”—Sowing the seed of authorship on Bianconi’s cars and in the hunting-field—“It’s dogged as does it”—Ireland’s hearty welcome to the Post Office official—Trollope and his contemporaries on the Irishman in his true light—The future novelist at Sir William Gregory’s home—The legislation of 1849—The history and race characteristics of the Irish and the Jews compared—Irish novelists of Trollope’s day—Marriage with Miss Heseltine in 1844—His social standing and hunting reputation in Ireland—Interesting notabilities at Coole Park—Triumphant success of Trollope’s Post Office plot—Scoring off the advocate
Trollope’s first novel, The Macdermots of Ballycloran—“The best Irish story that has appeared for half a century”—Clever effects of light and shade—The story’s principal characters and their allegorical significance—Typical sketches of Irish life and institutions—The working of the spy system in detection of crime—Some specimens of Trollopian humour—The Kellys and the O’Kellys—Trollope’s second literary venture—Links with its predecessor—Its plot and some of the more interesting figures—The squire, the doctor, and the parson
CHAPTER V COSMOPOLITAN CULTURE AND ITS LITERARY FRUITS
Trollope’s Examiner articles—Opposing religious experiences of boyhood and early manhood—Moulding influences of his Irish life—The cosmopolitan in the making—Interest in France and the French—La VendÉe—Trollope’s relation to other English writers on the French Revolution—The moving spirits of the Vendean insurrection—Peasant royalist enthusiasm—Opening of the campaign—The Chouans of fact and fiction—A republican portrait-gallery—BarÈre—Santerre—Westerman—Robespierre—Eleanor Duplay
Maternal influence in the Barchester novels—Trollope’s first literary success with The Warden—The Barchester cycle begun—Origin of the Barchester Towers plot—The cleric in English fiction—Conservatism of Trollope’s novels—Typical scenes from The Warden—Hiram’s Hospital—Archdeacon Grantly’s soliloquy—Crushing the rebels—Position of the Barchester series in the national literature—Collecting the raw material of later novels—The author’s first meeting with Trollope—The novelist helped by the official—Defence of Mrs. Proudie as a realistic study—The Trollopian method of railway travelling—A daily programme of work and play
Chafing in harness—“Agin the Government”—The Three Clerks—A visit to Mrs. Trollope—Florentine visitors of note in letters and art—A widened circle of famous friends—Diamond cut diamond—Trollope’s new sphere of activity—In Egypt as G.P.O. ambassador—Success of his mission—Doctor Thorne—Homeward bound—Post and pen work by the way—North and South—The West Indies and the Spanish Main—Carlyle’s praise of it—Castle Richmond and some contemporary novels—An early instance of Thackeray’s influence over Trollope’s writings—Famous editors and publishers—The flowing tide of fortune
Resettlement in England—Bright prospects for the future—Importance of The Cornhill connection—Framley Parsonage and other novels of clerical life—Some novelists and their illustrators—Trollope’s debt to Millais—The social services of leading lights help him in his historical pictures of the day—Election to the Garrick and AthenÆ
