A TROLLOPE CHRONOLOGY Macmillan Author Chronologies
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A TROLLOPE CHRONOLOGY Macmillan Author Chronologies General Editor: Norman Page, Professor of Modem English Literature, University of Nottingham Reginald Berry A POPE CHRONOLOGY Edward Bishop A VIRGINIA WOOLF CHRONOLOGY Timothy Hands A GEORGE ELIOT CHRONOLOGY Norman Page A BYRON CHRONOLOGY A DICKENS CHRONOLOGY F. B. Pinion A WORDSWORTH CHRONOLOGY R. C. Terry A TROLLOPE CHRONOLOGY Further titles in preparation Series Standing Order If you would like to receive future titles in this series as they are published, you can make use of our standing order facility. To place a standing order please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address and the name of the series. Please state with which title you wish to begin your standing order. (If you live outside the UK we may not have the rights for your area, in which case we will forward your order to the publisher concerned.) Standing Order Service, Macmillan Distribution Ud, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG212XS, England. r '('111: WAT Tll .o\T \'tiHV r11tT \\'IIITt:R, ~IN , 'rfiOL I.OI't'!, ll.ll.l. t:•Tt:n TUl: l'ti•UI )I .\TIO' TII .\T .,_______ _:_ • : ~AIU . r : l) IU)J 1'tl tllr\~11 llPt4 fllkl ... "'"' Ow.. t'lltL.., ''II H.-..114, ... , 'The Good St Anthony' from Melbourne Punch, 17 April1873 (by courtesy of the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia). A Trollope Chronology R. C. TERRY Professor of English University of Victoria, British Columbia M MACMILLAN PRESS © R. C. Terry 1989 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989 978-0-333-39914-9 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33--4 Alfred Place, London WClE 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be·liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1989 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters (Division of The Eastern Press Ltd) Frome, Somerset British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Terry, R. C. A Trollope chronology.-(Macmillan author chronologies). 1. Trollope, Anthony-Biography 2. Novelists, English-19th century Biography I. Title 823'.8 PR5686 ISBN 978-1-349-08291-9 ISBN 978-1-349-08289-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-08289-6 For Leslie and Laura 'I listen, but am silent' (motto of Sir John Trollope and family) Contents Anthony Trollope frontispiece General Editor's Preface ix Introduction xi List of Abbreviations and Short Titles xxxiii A TROLLOPE CHRONOLOGY 1 Appendix A: Trollope's Lectures and Speeches, 1861-79 141 Appendix B: Trollope and the Post Office Library 148 Appendix C: Some Contemporary Reviews of Trollope' s Fiction and 'Autobiography', and Selected General Appreciations 157 Index of Names 159 Index of Places 166 vii General Editor's Preface Most biographies are ill adapted to serve as works of reference - not surprisingly so, since the biographer is likely to regard his function as the devising of a continuous and readable narrative, with excursions into interpretation and speculation, rather than a bald recital of facts. There are times, however, when anyone reading for business or pleasure needs to check a point quickly or to obtain a rapid overview of part of an author's life or career; and at such moments turning over the pages of a biography can be a time-consuming and frustrating occupation. The present series of volumes aims at providing a means whereby the chronological facts of an author's life and career, rather than needing to be prised out of the narrative in which they are (if they appear at all) securely embedded, can be seen at a glance. Moreover, whereas biographies are often, and quite understandably, vague over matters of fact (since it makes for tediousness to be forever enumerating details of dates and places), a chronology can be precise whenever it is possible to be precise. Thanks to the survival, sometimes in very large quantities, of letters, diaries, notebooks and other documents, as well as to thoroughly researched biographies and bibliographies, this material now exists in abundance for many major authors. In the case of, for example, Dickens, we can often ascertain what he was doing in each month and week, and almost on each day, of his prodigiously active working life; and the student of, say, David Copperfield is likely to find it fascinating as well as useful to know just when Dickens was at work on each part of that novel, what other literary enterprises he was engaged in at the same time, whom he was meeting, what places he was visiting, and what were the relevant circumstances of his personal and professional life. Such a chron ology is not, of course, a substitute for a biography; but its arrangement, in combination with its index, makes it a much more convenient tool for this kind of purpose; and it may be acceptable as a form of 'alternative' biography, with its own distinctive advantages as well as its obvious limitations. Since information relating to an author's early years is usually scanty and chronologically imprecise, the opening section of some volumes in this series groups together the years of childhood and ix X A Trollope Chronology adolescence. Thereafter each year, and usually each month, is dealt with separately. Information not readily assignable to a specific month or day is given as a general note under the relevant year or month. The first entry for each month carries an indication of the day of the week, so that when necessary this can be readily calculated for other dates. Each volume also contains a bibliography of the principal sources of information. In the chronology itself, the sources of many of the more specific items, including quota tions, are identified, in order that the reader who wishes to do so may consult the original contexts. NoRMAN PAGE Introduction That distinguished Trollopian Bradford Booth once referred to Anthony Trollope as the busiest man of Victorian letters.1 Commen tators have always marvelled at the phenomenal energy- let alone organising ability - which enabled Trollope to pursue two careers simultaneously, first as servant of the Post Office for over 33 years, and second as highly successful man of letters, eventually producing 47 novels, five volumes of short stories, four substantial travel books, and other non-fiction, including biographical sketches of Lord Palmerston and Thackeray, studies of Caesar's Commentaries and a Life of Cicero, plus a vast amount of periodical journalism as yet not entirely accounted for. In addition he maintained a full round of social and business engagements, rode with manic ferocity to hounds all season, made almost daily visits to his clubs - he had membership of three at least - and led a satisfying home life, reading, relaxing and entertaining professional colleagues and friends. He also made extensive journeys, thereby surely earning him the right to be called most travelled man of Victorian letters as well as the busiest. Particularly in his case, then, a chronology needs no justification. It provides a vivid insight into a peculiarly driven individual, impelled from his earliest years to escape from poverty and isolation, and, triumphing as a man, to become the epitome of the Victorian work ethic and belief in self-help. Trollope was a man who could not keep still. Thus the daily records, presented in the abbreviated form of this series, make an intensely dramatic study which, it is hoped, will increase the reader's understanding of the man and enjoyment of his work. Trollope's hyperactive nature and appetite for work were well known to his contemporaries - a matter of envy, admiration and amusement. Few of his circle were unaware of his machine-like productivity, so often condemned by reviewers, and he boasted openly of starting a new novel as soon as its predecessor was laid aside. His praise of Sir Walter Scott living at '20 horse power of vivacity' (L, 11, 660) might well have applied to himself, and he took pride in living 'at a perpetual gallop' (L, 1, 30) to the end of his life, when, troubled by angina and asthma, he would still leap from a railway carriage before the train had come to a stop (I & R, p. 232). 2 He was good for 16 hours xi xii A Trollope Chronology a day, said his friend Cuthbert Bede, who proved the point when they were together at a country-house weekend party. Up at the crack of dawn- Trollope had a five-o' dock-in-the-morning genius he fell at once to his writing, completing his quota before breakfast time. He could then, he said, take his pleasure (in this case hunting and cards) with a clear conscience. Bede explains, When I left the house after dinner it was nearly eleven o'clock and Mr Trollope was then playing whist. I had promised to rejoin them at breakfast at half-past nine; and I found Mr Trollope already downstairs and busied with the morning's postal delivery. He was in hunting costume, and I complimented him on his freshness and industry, after his late hours of the preceding night, when he cheerily replied that he had never felt better in his life, and that he had got up at five o'clock.