THE LANDLEAGUERS.

THE LANDLEAGUERS. (2)

THE LANDLEAGUERS. (3)

Title: The Landleaguers

Author: Anthony Trollope

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

E-text prepared by
Delphine Lettau and Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.

Transcriber's note:

In 1834, at age 19, Anthony Trollope became a junior clerk in the British postal service. He did not get on well with his superiors, and his career looked like a dead end. In 1841 he accepted an assignment in Ireland as an inspector, remaining there for ten years. It was there that his civil service career began to flourish. It was there, also, that he began writing novels.

Several of Trollope's early novels were set in Ireland, including The Macdermots of Ballycloran, his first published novel, and Castle Richmond. Readers of those early Irish novels can easily perceive Trollope's great affection for and sympathy with the Irish people, especially the poor.

In 1882 Ireland was in the midst of great troubles, including boycotts and the near breakdown of law and order. In May of that year Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly-appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Burke, a prominent civil servant, were assassinated in Dublin. The news stirred Trollope, despite his poor health, to travel to Ireland to see for himself the state of things. Upon his return to England he began writing The Landleaguers. He made a second journey to Ireland in August, 1882, to seek more material for his book. He returned to England exhausted, but he continued writing. He had almost completed the book when he suffered a stroke on November 3, 1882. He never recovered, and he died on December 6.

Trollope's second son, Henry, arranged for publication of the almost finished novel. The reader should note Henry Trollope's preface to Volume I and Postscript at the end of the book.

Readers familiar with Trollope's early Irish novels will be struck, as they read The Landleaguers, by his bitterness at what was happening in Ireland in 1881 and 1882.

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