*S LITERARY REPUTATION;

ITS DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDITY

by

ELLA KATHLEEN GRANT

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for. the Degree of

Master of Arts

in the Department

of

English

The University of British Columbia,

October, 1950. This essay attempts to trace the course of Anthony Trollope's literary reputation; to suggest some explan• ations for the various spurts and sudden declines of his popularity among readers and esteem among critics; and to prove that his mid-twentieth century position is not a just one.

Drawing largely on Trollope's Autobiography, contemp• orary reviews and essays on his work, and references to it in letters and memoirs, the first chapter describes Trollope's writing career, showing him rising to popu• larity in the late fifties and early sixties as a favour• ite among readers tired of sensational fiction, becoming a byword for commonplace mediocrity in the seventies, and finally, two years before his death, regaining much of his former eminence among older readers and conservative critics. Throughout the chapter a distinction is drawn between the two worlds with which Trollope deals, Barset- shire and materialist society, and the peculiarly dual nature of his work is emphasized. Chapter II is largely concerned with the vicissitudes that Trollope's reputation has encountered since the post• humous publication of his autobiography. During the de• cade following his death he is shown as an object of comp• lete contempt to the Art for Art's Sake school, finally rescued around the turn of the century by critics reacting against the ideals of his detractors. There follows a description of his unsteady rise to popularity and es• teem through the next forty years, and of his extraordi• nary popularity during the Second World War. Two esti• mates of Trollope emerge from the controversy: the one which praises him as the supreme escapist creator of Bar- setshire; and the one which exalts the courage and hone• sty of the Autobiography. It is suggested that neither of these can provide a just evaluation of Trollope's importance as a novelist, since the first ignores the greater part of his work and the second concentrates on the man rather than upon his novels. The final portion of this chapter is devoted to a brief discussion of certain of Trollope's major novels, and argues that the evidence derived is sufficient to prove both these gradually developed views of Anthony Trollope invalid as estimates of his worth as a novelist. ANTHONY TROLLOPE* S LITERARY REFUTATION

I.Anthony Trollope In his own Time.

In 1847 appeared! the first novel from the pen of

Anthony Trollope, who nearly thirty years later could claim a record of literary performance "more in amount than the works of any other living English author."1 As a beginning p for such a lengthy career The Macdermotts of Ballycloran was not auspicious. Published by Newby at the urging of

Fanny Trollope, still a popular novelist herself, the book was promptly ignored by readers and critics alike. Trollope recalls that he never heard another word about it from his publisher^, while the one critical notice which appeared reflects the reception that any Irish novel not of the; rollicking variety was likely to get from an

England weary of gloomy news of the famine of r47: ...an Irish novel has become to us something like the haunted chest in the corner of Merchant Abudak1s apartment, which even when closed he knew to contain a shape of Terror and a voice of Woe...

fThe Macdermotts of Ballycloran: is)a tale of ruin, crime and sorrow... fttol d with power and pathos enough to darken the sun• shine of the most cheerful reader....Twenty years ago "The Macdermotts" would have made a reputation for its author^....4

Trollope, Anthony, An Autobiography, Oxford, Oxford University- Press,1946,"World*s Classics" Series,p.331. All subsequent references are to this; edition. 2"Trollope, Anthony; The Macdermotts of Ballycloran,, 3; vols, London, Newby, 1847. 3 Trollope,, Auto., p.68. 4 Athenaeum. May 15.1847.p.517. - 2 -

\

Such a reception might have proved chilling to most

young ,, but Trollope was no ordinary budding author.

The Trollopes were, as the Stebbinses have recently called them, 5

"a writing family." In the forties Anthony*s mother, brother

and sister were all more or less successful authors, and with

this family background he had from the very beginning a firmly matter-of-fact approach to the writing of novels, and a real•

istic attitude towards his probable success at first. Persever•

ing as a matter of course, he next produced The Kellys and the

7

O'Kellys, which was published by Colburn, long Fanny Trollope's published, in 1848, with much the same result as had met The

Macdermotts. "The book was not only not read, but was never

heard of, - at any rate in Ireland."8 In England the situation was only slightly different: the book was not much read,(Colburn reported the same of 140 copies); while anyone who happened to

be reading the lesser notices In and the Athenaeum in

the summer of 1848 would have met with accounts of it which would have fairly warned him against rushing out to purchase

one of the remaining 235 copies of that first edition. The

Times Trollope recalls as comparing the novel to a leg of 9 mutton "...substantial, but a little coarse", while the Athen•

aeum made much of the "unpleasantness" of the subject matter,

a brotherrs cruelty to his sister, though noting with approval 5 Stebbins, Lucy Poate, and Stebbins, Richard Poate, The Trollopes: The Chronicle of a Writing Family,New. York, Columbia University Press,- 1945. 6 Trollope, Auto., pp. 48,62-63, 68-69. 7 Trollope, Anthony, The Kellys and the O'Kellys: or Landlords and Tenants, 3 vols., London, Colburn, 1848. 8 Trollope, Auto., p.69. 9 Trollope, Auto., p.71. - 3 -

that "Humour pervades its scenes, - and it is the true '

"emerald" humour;.. .""^

The failure of this second Irish novel resulted In

a letter from Colburn stating that "...It is Impossible...

to give any encouragement to you to proceed in novel-writing...."

and yet paradoxically requesting " a sight of" the novel f IB

La Vendee which he had heard was nearly finished. This

historical novel is the first of Trollope's attempts to give

the public what he thought it wanted. Colburm too seems to

have had higher hopes of this production, since he paid t 20

down and agreed to pay a further E30 when 350 copies had been 13

sold, and £50 should sales within six months reach 450. How•

ever, even the lure of an historical subject did not save La

Vendee from the fate of its Irish predecessors. Sales did not

• mount, and even the faithful Athenaeum considered the book

rather an unnecessary venture, in view of the excellent eye- 14

witness accounts extant of the subject.

At this point Trollope began to consider not whether

he should stop writing, but whether he should strike out in

some new direction. His casting about produced a series of

letters defending the Government's Irish policy in the Examiner;

a play, The Noble Jilt, which was submitted for criticism to an

old friend, George Bart ley, the actor, and condemned without

mercy; and a fragment of a handbook to Ireland. All of. these 1QAthenaeum. July 15, 1848, p.701. •^Trollope, Auto..p.72. 2 l Trollope % Anthony, LaVendee« An Historical Roman ce. 3 vols., London, Colburn, 1850. 13Trollope, Auto., p.72. 14 Athenaeum. July 6, 1850, p. 708. are of no importance in the general scheme of Trollope* s; development, except that they illustrate an aspect of his personality which becomes quite apparent later in his career, his readiness to attempt something different, either to demon strate versatility, or to catch the attention of the public.

The years from 1850-1852 were In truth too fully taken up with Post Office work to allow Trollope mucin time for furthering his second career. These were the years of the postal survey of his section of Ireland and then of

"Devonshire, Cornwall, Somersetshire, the greater part of

Dorsetshire, the Channel Islands, part of Oxfordshire, Wilt• shire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Mon- 15 mouthshire, and the six southern Welsh counties"-: During these travels he had occasion to visit Salisbury, and there conceived the idea for a new novel which was to mark the real 16 beginning of his literary career. This work. . was begun in 1852, finished in 1853, and published In 1855.

Comparatively speaking The Warden was at once a success, critically if not popularly. Like the Irish novels, it was a book with a purpose: I had been struck by two opposite evils,- or what seemed to me to be evils,-and with an absence of all art - judgment in such matters, I thought I might; be able to expose them, or rather to describe them, both in one and the same tale. The first evil was the possession by the Church of certain funds and endowments which had been intended for charitable purposes, but which had been allowed to become; income for idle church dignitaries... .The second evil was its very apposite. Though I had been much struck by the injustice above described, I had also often ^ been angered by the undeserved severity of the Trollope, Auto., pp.80 - 81. Trollope, Anthony, The Warden. 1 vol.,London,Longman,1855 - 5 -

newspapers towards the recipients of such incomes, who could hardly be considered to be the chief sinners in the matter.17

Nevertheless, the problem with which The Warden dealt was one much In the minds of the English public at the time. While the

Irish question might be felt by the novel-reading public to be a gloomy political bore, scandal in the high places of the church was quite another matter.

Once again the Athenaeum was faithful, and produced a generally enthusiastic review of some length; the chief fault in the tale was felt to be that the showed "too much 18 indifference as to the rights of the case." The objection is valid enough, for though. Trollope may have intended to discuss the proper management of charitable funds, he succeeded instead in presenting a portrait of a good and gentle man attempting to decide what he should do, and them, standing- by his decision In spite of argument from his friends and associates.

The Warden brought Trollope the first money he had ever earned by literary work, since characteristically he points L r 19 out that the £20 from Lawendee was an outright gift. By the end of 1856 he had received £20, 3s.9d. from Longman,, but sales could hardly have been termed brisk:. Ten years later Trollope could write to Monckton Milnes; "I send you a copy of *The War• den.*", which Wm. Longman- assures me is the last of the First

Edit. There were, I think, only.750 printed, and they have 20 been over ten years in hand...."

17Trollope, Auto.,p.86. 18Athenaeum, Jan.27,1855, p.107,

^Trollops, Auto., p.9Q- 20Re 11 6 -

Nevertheless, The; Warden established Trollope as an author. His published was complimentary, and in contrast to the dull silence which had greeted his earlier efforts Trollope found that those around him knew that he had written a book.

He felt too that he had discovered from it "...wherein lay whatever strength I did possess...I had realised to myself a series of portraits, and had: been able so to put them on the canvas that my readers should see that which I meant them to 21 see." After three failures abounding in serious purpose

Trollope emerges as a creator of portraits, a whole gallery of the society of Barsetshire.

Feeling confident of his ability to continue in this direction, Trollope turned, at once to the writing' of a new 22 book:,, Bar Chester Towers , which must surely be the first Eng• lish novel to; be written almost entirely in a railway carriage'.

By 1857 the three volume novel was in the hands of William

Longman, who offered to print it on the half-profit system, with an advance of £100, provided that Trollope make certain changes in the work:, most of them small, but In chief, a reduction of the story to two-volume length. This Trollope refused' to do, but Longman withdrew his request and published BarChester

Towers in three volumes.

The mild ripple of interest which. The Warden had stirred was useful to the new novel. As the Athenaeum writer put It ". .;Hr. Trollope has not to contend, against the diffi• culty of Interesting us, at the outset, in his personages

21 Trollope,, Aufet., pp.90 - 91. 22 Trollope, Anthony, Bar Chester Towers, 5 vols., London, Longman, 1857. - 7 -

or In his narrative; we are by no means strangers In 23

Barchester... •** Most reviewers dealt with the two works together, and the general feeling was that a new novelist, of real promise and Importance had appeared. The Times broke silence In August with a complimentary notice a column 24 long; and October found the high-minded Westminster- Review being truly enthusiastic; "...we can hardly (at this late date) expect to assist in extending its circulation in its present form, when we state our opinion of it as decidedly the cleverest novel of the season, and one of the most mascu• line delineations of modern life in a special class of society 25 that we have seen for many a day."

A more personal reaction, and one which suggests the main reason for the novel's success, is found in a letter of

Edward Fitzgerald, who became a devoted Trollope reader: "I have been very glad to find I could take to a novel again, in

Trollope*s , etc.: not perfect, like Miss Austftn, but then so much wider scope: and perfect enough to make me feel I know the people though caricatured or carelessly drawn'.'

Fitzgerald then, impatient of the sensation fiction of the day, was glad to find the slim ranks of the domestic authors^ Joined by a writer whose work was agreeably restrained, yet not bounded

entirely by the drawing room or country ball-room. 27 In his next novel, Trollope turned 23Athenaeum, May 3.0,1857,p.689. 24=StebbInse.s, op.cit., p.149. 25Westmlnster Review., October, 1857,p.594.

26 Wright,t William A., ed., Letters of Edward Fitzgerald. London» Macmillan and Co.,Limited, 1901, vol.2, p. 14. 27Trollope, Anthony, The Three Clerks: A Novel, 3 vols.,, London, Bentley, 1858. his bade on Barchester and used: material largely autobiog• raphical. He refused to sell it to Longman on the half-profit

system, feeling that thie success of Barchester Towers warran-

ted more immediate cash reward for his new work, and' the man"-"

^script, was finally bought by Bentley; for £250. Critically,

the new work: was not nearly so well received. In October of

2B5& the National. Review ran a long article on "Mr. Trollope*s 28

Novels," with praise for The Tfarden and, Barchester Towers,

but a decided coolness towards The Three Clerks. In discuss•

ing It the writer sounded the first note of a chorus which

was to grow in volume and monotony until TrollopeTs death,

"...a writer so prolific as Mr. Trollope must write in a

hurry,,."29

But if tlaose who had delighted In Barchester Towers

found The Three Clerks disappointing, they were more than re•

paid by the Barsetshire novel which followed close after It 30

in the same year, Doctor- Thorne. In his own life-time this

was by far the most popular of all Trollopers novels, running

to fifteen editions by 1875. A chle;f reason for its great

success was probably expressed by a reviewer in the Athenaeum.

"Mr. Trollope has a real sense of fun..•*We can promise a

hearty laugh to all who undertake "", a laugh.*.

not cynical and cruel, but hearty and sympathetic:, and there 31 are so few books nowadays that make us laugh."' The National 28Natlonal Review. October. 1858, pp. 416-435. 29ibid, p.427. ^Trollope,, Anthony, Doctor Thome: A Novel., 3 vols.,London, 6hapman and Hall, 1858.. 51Athenaeum, June 5,1858, p.719. - 9 -

Review, however, In the article referred to above, maintained sternly that since Trollope was writing too fast, Doctor

Thorne>"...though It will perhaps be a great a favourite with most ordinary novel readers,...is far inferior to Its pre- decessors as a work of art." .

Doctor Thome was finished in Egypt, where Trollope was engaged in negotiating a postal treaty, and immediately 33 afterwards he began to write The Bertrams. It was sold to

Chapman and Hall for the same amount as Doctor Thorne,£400 > and while the publishers undoubtedly did not lose any money on the venture after the extraordinary success of Doctor

Thome, The Bertrams was a definite failure with the public; 34

Not even TrollopeTs friends spoke well of It,, though the reviewers were enthusiastic, even in the National Review, which felt that "In its leading characters this novel shows greater breadth and depth of imaginative power than any other 35 of Mr. Trollope's works...."

Much the same can be said of , which followed in 1860. The reviewers liked this new Irish novel, but popularly Trollope maintains that "Castle Richmond, certainly 37 was not a success."

The Bertrams had been written while Trollope was on his travels, and reflects this fact. The Athenaeum review com• plained that "...it is fatiguing to be obliged to travel when 32National Review, loc. cit.,p.431. 33Trollope, Anthony, The Bertrams: A Novel. 3 vols., London, Chapman and Hall, 1859. 34Trollope, Auto., p.115. 35Nationai Review. April,1859, p.565. 36 Trollope, Anthony, Castle Richmond: A^ Novel, 3 vols#,London, Chapman and Hall,1860. 37Trollope, Auto..p.142. - 10 - one wants to remain at home, .. .to be taken, to the East twice in one novel, passes permission with the most patient reader^

Castle Richmond's Irish, settings did not please either, for

Barsetshire had already cast the spell which tyrannizes over

Trollope's non-Bar set works even now.

On. the whole, however, Doctor Thorne managed to carry along these comparative failures on the wave of its own success, since all three appeared within two years. The credit side was bolstered,too,by the first of Trollope's travel, books, the still delightful The West Indies and the, 59 Spanish Main,, which was published In 1859 and highly praised 40 41 42 in The Athenaeum , the Atlantic Monthly , Blackwood's 43 A A the National Review , and the Westminster Review." Trollope was to make a habit of turning his post office travels to account in this manner, especially when the countries visited were particularly interesting to the British public at the time.

By 1859 Trollope was in truth an. established ani successful author as well as a valuable civil servant. He was assured of a public for his work, and was well thought of by the critics, though they were already beginning to distrust the quality of such a prolific writer's work. But In October of

1859 two letters reached Trollope, one from Smith and Elder, the publishers of the new Cornhill Magazine, and the other from its editor, Thackeray. Smith and Elder offered £1000 (MOO more

58Athenaeum,March 26,1859,p.420. 39Trollope,Anthony, The West Indies and the Spanish Main, 1 vol«, London, Chapman and Hal1,1859. 4:0At henaeum, November 5,1859, p.1t«f. 41 Atlantic Monthly, March 1860.,pp..375-378. 4:2 Blackwood's, Sept ember ,1862., pp. 37 2-39 0. 45National Review, January,1860,p.527. -^Westminster"Review, January, 1860, pp.289 - 290. - 11 -

than Castle Richmond had brought) for the copyright of a new three-volume novel to come out serially in their new magazine; and Thackeray's, letter was a warm personal urging

that Trollope accept the offer. The only drawback' was- that the publishers must have the first part by December 12. Trollope had never yet published any part of a work, before he had completed the whole, but in this case be broke his rule. In view of the greatness of the occasion. The publisher wanted "...an-English tale, on English life, with a clerical 45 flavour,," and to this order Trollope produced Framley Par- 46 sonage. The serial was a great success: "...the work from the first to the last was popular, - and was received as it went on with still increasing favour by both editor and pro#- prietor of the magazine." Part of its success was bound up in the popularity of the new periodical Itself, and Mrs. Browning's exclamation, "How good this * Cornhill Magazine* Is! 48 Anthony Trollope is really superb .»." probably would have ex• pressed the general feeling of readers towards the Cornhill and its first serial. The success of this novel, and the association with "kne Cornhill was rewarding both financially and socially. Trollope became a part of the London literary world, being made a member of the Carrick Club in 1861 and of the Athenaeum three years later. The years from 1860. to 1867 were a time of security and ever-growing success as an author.

'^Trollope ,Aufco.s f>.130. ^Trollope, Anthony, , 3 vols., ill.MillaiS1/?,. London, Smith, Elder,1861 (published first in , January 1860 - April 1861.) ^Trollope, Auto., p.131. 48Kenyon, E.G.,ed., The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, .New York., The Macmillan Tfbmp'ahy, 1910, p.397 . ~ 12 -

From 1861 on Trollope's novels often appeared first In monthly numbers and then in book form. Early in

this year Fr amity Parsonage was brought out In three vol• umes, and the only other Trollope work to appear that year was a collection of previously published short stories,Tales 49 "SO of All Countries' . In the first part of 1862 Or ley Farm and the Struggles, of Brown, Jones, and Robinson were pub• lished, the first in parts and the second in The: Cornhill, while Trollope was in America gathering material for his new travel book. was we11-liked; years later Trollope points out that. "Most of those among my friends who talk to me now about my novels, and are competent to form an opinion on the: subject say that, this is the best I have 52 written...." but only Trollope had a good word for Brown, Jones, and Robinson; "I think there is some good, fun in It, but I have heard no one else express such an opinion"5?3 It was Indeed such a flat failure that Smith an& Elder, though they had bought the copyright, did riot re-issue the story In book form at'a time when Trollope*s name would have sold almost anything. Yet even such, a performance as this dull attempt at a could not harm, its author much in 1862, when: ...Mr. Trollope has become almost a national institution. The Cornhill counts its readers by millions, and. it'is to his contributions- in 4sTrollope, Anthony, Tales of All Countries, 1 vol*,London,

Chapman and Hall,18610 50-Troll.ope , Anthony, Or ley Farm., 2 vols., ill ., London, Chapman and Hall,1862^(Originally published in shilling parts,1861.) SlTrollope,Anthony,. The Struggles of Brown,Jones and Robinson, 1 YoL,ill., London,Smith,Elder,187Cy(Originally published in the Cornhill,1861.) 52TrolTope, Auto., p.152, 55Trollope.AuTo.,.p.146. - 13 -

ninety-nine cases out of a hundred that the reader first betakes himself. So great Is his popularity, so familiar are his chief charac• ters to his country men, so wide-spread Is the Interest felt about his tales that they necess• arily form part of the common stock in trade with which the social commerce of the day is carried on. 54

His next offering to this eager circle of readers,

North America.55 had a mixed receipt ion, since Trollope had

allied himself firmly to the Northern cause. Most of the

reviewers approved of his efforts, and endorsed the baok: as

the work, of a sensible man well aware of the limits of his 56

powers, but BIackwood's maintained sternly that "...his

advocacy, useless to the North, is damaging to himself...)

he has contracted a kind of moral squint....This will Impair

his credit with his English audience; while the voracious; vanity of his Northern clients will be far from satisfied

with the amount of panegyric which the conscience of the 57 pleader will permit him to award." The book seems to have

been widely read, and was regularly reissued four times be•

tween 1862 and 1868.. Even promised to read it

on James Field's recommendation,"...since you tell me It is

endurable. I had no Intention of reading it otherwise, 54 • National. Review. January 1862, p.28 Cfteview of Orley Farm.) 55Trollope, Anthony, North America» 2 vols., London, Chapman and nail, 1862. 56 ' Athenaeum. May 24,1862, p.685; Dublin University Magazine. July 1862, pp. 75ff ;Frazer's Magazine. August ,1862, pp.250-264; National Review,July 1862,p. 201; Westminster Review» October 1862, pp.536 - 537. ^Blackwood's, September, 1862,p.374. - 14 -

58 or anything else the man. writes. He is mediocrity incarnate."0

Matthew Arnold did! read it, judging by a reference in a letter 59 twenty-one years later. But a ponderous two-volume book of travel, and even 60 the charming novel did not really meet the public?: s

demand. Rachel Ray was a resounding success with the reviewers,

even the Westminster --Review falling a victim to Its delicate 61 domesticity, but not set In Barsetshire, It was overshadowed 62

by The Small House at Allington which had begun its run In

the Cornhill of September,1862. The publication of this novel

marks the high point of Trollope's critical reputation and

popular success during his own life-time. As a serial it appa;?- rently caused considerable stir, for according to the Athenaeum

"...many readers at the moment would have rashly offered to

forfeit three weeks in the month, if they might thus; have . 63

learnt the progress of the story a little further ahead."

After the fiasco of Brown. Jones, and Robinson, The

Small House at Allington redeemed Trollope's reputation with

the proprietor of the Cornhill, while its heroine "Prig as

she was,...made her way into the heart of many readers, both g" • • . - 58Quoted In Elwin, Malcolm, Charles Reade,London,Jonathan Cape, 1934,p.23.7. • 59Russell George,W.E..Letter? of Matthew Arnold.1848-1888.London, Macmillan and! Co;,1895, vol3,p.247. GOTrollope,Anthony, Rachel Ray: A Novel,,2 vols.,London,Chapman and Hall,1863. 6IWestminster Review, January, 1864, pp.291-293. 62Trollope, Anthony, The Small House at Allington, 2 vola,ill. Mlllais,London, Smith,Elder,1864.(Published in the Cornhill 1862-1864). Properly speaking, this is not a Bar set novel (cf. Auto,p.253) , for Allington is just over the county border, - but the frame of reference is; Barsetshire Society. 65Athenaeum. March 26,1864,p.437. - 15 -

young and old; so that, from that time to this, I have been

continually honoured with letters, the purport of which has 64

always been to beg me to marry Lily Dale to Johnny Eames."

The story was published in book form in 1864 and given long

and generally favourable reviews in the press. The American periodicals were particularly enthusiastic, partly perhaps because "Mr. Trollope... has ...won the especial regard of

Americans from his; honest though unsuccessful attempt to 65 gain some insight into American institutions." The one .66 complaint made over and" over again, however, was that the

character of the hero, John Eames was, at best, "unattractive',' 67

and at worst "asinine."

To readers who had come to expect that a Trollope novel would always end happily with wedding bells pealing and

all loose ends neatly tied, it seemed that The Small House at

Allington was unfinished and! required a sequel. But once again,

as In The Three Clerks, Trollope refused to stay within the

bounds of Bar set shire and produced two works that were frankly 68

experimental.. The first of these* Can You Forgive Her ?

departed In several ways from the general type expectedlby

Trollope's devoted readers. In the first piace,although the

central situation, a young woman hesitating between two lovers, 64Trol.lope, Aufeo.. pp. 165-164. .. 65North American Review, July, 1864,p.292. 66Westminster Review, July,1864,p.252. .. 67North American Review, July,1864,p.294. 68Trollope, Anthony, Can You Forgive Her ? 2 vols., Lond on * Chapman and Hall,1864. 16-

was familiar enough, the character of the young woman was

decidedly unusual. Alice Vavasor is not one of TrollopeTs

"dear little brown girls" who having once given their hearts

are faithful to death. She is older than the average Trollo|f- pian heroine, being twenty-four at the opening of the talej

quite independent, both financially and socially; and extra•

ordinarily strong-minded, stubborn, in fact. As Trollope him•

self put it "The character of the girl is carried through with 69

considerable strength, but; Is not attractive." The same ob•

jection, applies to one of her lovers, her cousin, George

Vavasor; while the other, John Grey, has not even "consider•

able strength" to recommend him. Both Trollope and his readers

found it difficult to take much interest in Alice and her

troubles, but the novel was always one of the authorTs favour•

ites, since in it Plantagenet Palliser and the Lady Glencora

were fully presented for the first time. Unfortunately the

public did. not delight in these two as their creator did, and

at least one reader, a clergyman and former devoted follower

wrote in some anger to ask if Trollope thought "...that a wife r i 7

contemplating adultery was a character fit for.. .[.hisj pages?"

The reviewers treated the book kindly, praising

Trollope1s delicate portraiture of women, but the comic relief

retained from the novel1s original, the rejected play The Noble Jilt, wafer justly condemned as vulgar and out of key with the ^71 Whole. , 69Trollope, Auto., p.164. 70Trollope, Auto., p.167. 7* Athenaeum,,September 2,1865, pp.305-306;Westrainster Review, July,1865,pp.284-285. - 17 -

In what is formally the sub-plot, the Palliser part

of the story, Can You Forgive Her 2 is a serious book, present•

ing a difficult subject with delicacy and insight:. In it

Trollope opens up a whole new world, more sophisticated and less

wholesome than Barsetshire, and offering wider opportunities for

plots based on what Mr. Sadlelr has termed "social dilemma" and

""psychological analysis". With Can You Forgive Her 2 Trollope

breaks from the Never-Never land of Barset into reality. This

was a less pleasant domain, and many of his readers were to

become increasing by loath to enter it with him. 72

The second book, Miss Mackenzie has no great value

In itselfi It is Important because it too shows Trollope

attempting to break out In new paths. In the first place, he

refused to spin a slight tale out to three volumes. The

Dublin University Magazine reviewer approved strongly of thlst

"Miss Mackenzie is worked out within the compass of two volumes, 73

and the interest is enhanced by this compactness." The novel's

heroine was even less promising than Alice Vavasor, being a spin' ster of thirty-five whom Trollope describes as "...a very unat#- 74 tractive old maid who was overwhelmed with money troubles^...."

Miss Mackenzie herself, however, came off well enough, but the

Westminster Review maintained that the book's "...pictures of 75

human nature distorted by vulgarity... £arej simply offensive."

What was "cleverness" and "perception" when applied to Barset- 72Trollope, Anthony, Miss Mackenzie, B vols., London, Chapman and Hall, 1865. _.- 75Dublin University-Magazine, May 1865,p.576. 74Trollope, Auto..p.172- ' ^Westminster Review, July, 1865,p.284. - 18 - shire has already become "too faithful description-"76

In the spring of this year, 1865, Trollope was busy helping to establish , which was to be characterized by "freedom of speech, combined with personal responsibility,"77 "flf all the serial publications of the day, it probably is the most serious, the most earnest, the least 78 n devoted to amusement, the least flippant, the least jocose^.... For this serious publication Trollope.was to produce the first 79 novel. This, work, The Bel.ton Estate contains all the In• gredients for a standard successful Trollope novel. Its hero• ine, Clara Amedroz, charming,, and a lady, hesitates between two lovers for chapters; the surroundings,, if not avowedly

Barsetshire, could be traded for those of Franvley Parsonage; and there is not a line in the whole to which the clergyman who was shocked by Lady Glencora eould object. In shortj

Trollope played safe and wrote for the new magazine a novel that should have been a sure-fire success. Instead, it was greeted with luke-warm reviews and involved in the semi-failure 80 of the new magazine in its early days. Before The Belton

Estate had completed Its run in the Fortnightly the review had ceased to be eclectic and had become "an organ of liberalism, 81 f^ee-thlnklng, and open enquiry." was hardly hearty enough food for the subscribers to such a magazine; Trollope, Auto., p.172., Trollope, Auto.„ pp.173-174. Trollope, Anthony, The Belton Estate, 3 vols., London,Chapman and Hall, 1866. (published in The Fortnightly Review. May-Dec.,,

Trollope, Auto., pp.17 2-174 for details of the organization and collapse of the original Fortnightly Review. Trollope, Auto.. p.174. - 19 -

the Athenaeum said that "...the verdict of periodical read•

ers was unfavourable."82

Some idea of what that verdict may probably have

been can be gained from the review of the book done by one

of the bright young writers for the Hation of the mid-sixties,

Henry James, who felt that "Mr. Trollope is simply unable to S3

depict a mine! In any liberal sense of the word." To him

" 'The Belton Estate* Is a stupid book:; and in a much deeper

sense than that of being simply dull, for a dull book is

always a book that might have been lively. A dull book is a

failure. Mr. Trollope's story is stupid and a success. It

is essentially, organically, consistently stupid; stupid In

direct proportion to Its strength. It is without a single

idea. It Is utterly Incompetent to the primary functions of , 84 a book, of whatever nature, namely - to suggest thought."

We have already seen that the high point of Trollope's

success with critics and public was reached with the public- nation of The Small House at Allington In 1864. The financial high-point came In 1866, when he received £ 2800 for The 85

Claverlngs; a short story^ about the length of Framley Parson•

age, which appeared in the Cornhill, 1866-1867. Generally

accepted today as one of Trollope's finest works^ The Claverlngs

also found favour with the contemporary reviewers, though the oo Athenaeum, February 3,1866, p.166. 83The Nation, Jamuary 4,1866,p.21. Q^jbid., p.22 85Trollope, Anthony, The Claverlngs. 2 vols., ill., London,Smith, Elder,1867^tfublished in the Cornhill.1866-1867). - 20

first, notes of kindly condescension are heard amidst the. 86 praise.

If we take Trollope*s evidence in the Autobiography, 87

the story gained no great success with the public; and the

fact that it was four years after the first edition before

the book was reprinted, a longer gap than is found for any

other of Trollope*s important works up to this point except

his first four and the unhappy Brown, Jones,, and Robinson,,

indicates that his memory served him well on this point.

The Claverlngs has several of the qualities which we have

seen, objected to in earlier Trollope novels in one quarter

or another. Readers like the clergyman who was shocked by

Can You Forgive Her? must have been alienated entirely by

The Claverlngs, which Is the story of a. young woman who Jilts a man. to marry openly for money and position, and then, when

she is free,, does her best to break, up an engagement whi.ch her

former lover has entered upon during the meantime. The Fort- nightly Review critic objected to the humorous characters, 89 as the National Review writer had in the case of Orley Farm ^ but with less justice. Though some may feel that Moulder and

his companion bagmen are weak: Dickens, Captain Boodle, Archie

Clavering, and Sophie Gordeloup are all Trollope, and presented

in the round. Some of their scenes are sheer farce, as when Sophie makes her last entreaty on the way back from the Isle 90 of Wight, but it is very amusing farce and comes off well. 8 **> Athenaeum, June 15, 1867 t.p.785; Fortnightly Review June,1867,pp.771-772; Blackwood's, September ,1867,pp.275-278. 87Trollope, Auto., pp.179-180 * 88FortnightIy•Review, loc.cit. 8%ationaI Review, January, 1862,p.40 . 9°The Claverlngs, Chapter XXIX. - 21 -

Many readers may well have found such scenes "low", however, and certainly many would have felt that other elements were

"unpleasant": A wife ill-treated by a brutal husband, and an unedlfying mid-Victorian confidence man, Sophie's brother,

Count Pateroff.

Reviewers had sometimes complained that Trollope 91 kept repeating his characters from book to book, hut

they could have no such complaint against The* Claverings,

which mentions; not a single familiar name. There Is no reason

to suppose^though, that novel readers of the sixties objected to meeting the worthies of Barsetshire again and again, any more than their contemporary counterparts mind the constant reappearance of whole families In the works of Bar-set's pre•

sent chronicler, Mrs. Thirke11. With such readers The Small

House at Allington, a "nice" story about a "nice" girl, had had great success, and it Is understandable that to them The

Claverings was rather a disappointment.

In the eight years 1858 - 1866 Trollope had pro•

duced five complete successes (Doctor Thorne, The West Indies_

Framley Parsonage,, Or ley Farm, and The Small House at Alling•

ton) ; five partial successes (North America, Rachel Ray, Can

You Forgive Her ?? and The Bertrams); three near-

failures (Castle Richmond, Miss Mackenzie, and The Belton Estate);

and one complete failure,, (Brown, Jones, and Robinson) • In addition to these he had published four ephemeral collections,

Westminster Review, July, 1861, p. 282, and" July, 1864,p.252 - 82 -

92 Tales of All Co tui tries, Hunting Sketches, Clergymen, of the 95 Church of Inland, ana Travelling Sketehes^and a considerable

number of periodical articles. He had, In short, earned a

name by merit, and kept It constantly before the public by his

quick rate of production. At this stage he was more and more

struck by what he felt to be an injustice in literary affairs, the fact that "...a name once earned carried with it too much Q5 favour."" He felt that "...aspirants coming up below me .might do work as good as mine, and probably much better work, 96

and yet fall to have it appreciated."

To test this idea Trollope determined to establish

a second literary Identity, and to this end published two 97. novels anonymously In Blackwood*s, Nina Balatka in 1866, 98 ~ ' ~ &n®- L.inda Tressel the following year. Neither had much success. while both were recognized as Trollope*s work by seasoned ob- 99

servers. Less, than five hundred copies of Nina Bala tka had

beean<^ n Lindsolda iTresn ths eel firs, thougt fivh eBlackwoo and a dhal haf d monthshighe; r aftehopes:r ,publication did littl,e

bettero^"^ Trollope became convinced that English readers would

read his work only if he put his .name to it

Q4> Trollope j, Anthony, Hunt ing Ske t che s, 1 vol*, London,.Chapman and Hal1,1865. 9^Trollope, Anthony, Clergymen of the Church of England1. vol*, London, Chapman and Hall, 1866.. ^Trollope, Anthony j, Travelling Sketches, 1 vol., London, Chapman and Hall,1866. 9§Trollope;,. Auto, p. 185. "^Troilope, Auto.,p.186. ^Trollope, Anthony, Nina Balatka, 2 vols., Edinburgh and London, Blackwood, 1866 thirst published anonymously in Blackwood' s,1866) 98Trollope, Anthony, Linda Tressel., 2 vols,,. Edinburgh and London, Blackwood's, 1867^(3tirst published anonymously In Blackwood's, 1867) 99Bv Hut ton. In the Spectator; *4r* Trollope , Auto .p. 186: and ? Nation,JuneHtSjiSfe,pg*494-495. " LOOSadleir ^MIc'h'ael, Trollope,A^Commentary, LondonConstable: and Co.Ltd..^ - 23 -

Nina Balatka had originally been offered to George

Smith, but he, perhaps smarting still from Brown>Jones?and

Robinson, and safely in possession of the copyright of a new. two-volume Trollope work, had refused the little anonymity.

The new novel, The Last Chronicle of B&rset,1^1appeared in

1866 and 1867 in monthly numbers, and was aypopular as any of 102

Its Barset predecessors, while critics praised the increased seriousness of the theme and the extraordinary subtlety of the principal portrait, that of Mr. Crawley. The book is indeed an extraordinary achievement, having all the subtlety of motive and situation of Can You Forgive Her _? and all the tangible . setting^ and charm of the earlier Barset novels. Though

Trollope himself considered this his finest work, on the whole, he was always troubled by what he considered a fundamental flaw in the plot, the fact that Mrs. Arabin had supplied her friend's wants by tendering the cheque of a third person, and that a man 103 like Mr. Crawley should forget how he had come by it.

Trollope's objection is exactly what we might expect, as his main aim is always consistent portraiture, and these actions cannot be reconciled to the characters involved as they have been developed throughout the series. The reviewers were not so troubled, but were concerned by the fact that this was to be the last Barset chronicle. Presumably reflecting public taste ^.at this point, Blackwood's reviewer howled in protest

1Q1Trollope, Anthony, The Last Chronicle of Barset. 2 vols., ill., London,, Smith, Elder, 1867' (published In monthly parts, 1866- ... 1867)

102Cf. Athenaeum. August 3,1867,p.141; Blackwood's.September. 1867. p.277; Westminster Review. July,1867,p.309. 105Trollope,Auto.„ pp. 250 - 251. - 24

to the effect that readers were In no hurry to be done with

old friends; that killing Mrs, Proudie was sheer murder; and

that readers had been cheated about Lily Dale, who still.

writes herself "Lily Dale, Old Maid" at the end of this long 104

novel. Once again in fact, as in The Small House at Alling•

ton, Trollope had written his own book and declined to mani• pulate all his characters into a final tableau, superficially

pleasing: but fundamentally Inconsistent with his people's

natures as he had drawn them.

The Last Chronlcle of Barset marks the end of a

phase In Trollope's writing career. Its main concern is with

a psychological problem,, but the setting is still the ordered

civilized society of Barset. It is the last of Trollope's

novels where difficulties,, ranging from Mr. Harding's struggle

to make the right decision, through the purely financial diffi•

culties of Mary Thome and Frank Gresham,, and finally to the

tragic dilemma of Mr. Crawley,are played out against the back•

ground of a rural England in which all is more or less still all

right with the world. In all of Trollope's major works from

this time on his people, good and bad^move against a setting

which becomes Increasingly unhealthy and materialistic. This

change reaches its height In the bitter satire The Way We Live

Now, but its symptoms are quite apparent in the work that followed 105

The Last Chronicle of Barset, .

^^Blackwood's, September, 1867,p.277/. 105Trollope, Anthony, Phineas Finn. The Irish Member.2 vols.,111., London„ Virtue, 1869 (first published in St. Paul's Magazine. 1867-1869) v - 25 -

The first of the truly "Parliamentary Novels" was apparently more successful than Its author had: expected.

Written after Trollope's failure at the Beverley election* the book was designed as a means of" expressing himself politi• cally, but so constructed as to please the general reader as well: "If I write politics for my own sake, I must put in love and intrigue, sooial Incidents, with perhaps a dash of

T 0 fi sport, for the benefit of my readers" But in spite of this thought for the tastes of his readers, Trollope succeeded In pleasing only one circle of them,"...the men who would have * lived with Phineas Finn...,and the women who would lived with 107„

Lady Laura Standlshr other readers may have agreed with the critic of the Contemporary Review^ who considered the book to be "...not even among the best of Mr. Trollope's novels^...," and complained that not only did the story lack "...his wonder• ful gift of sketching the cleric of the day, and the power of pathos which he sometimes puts forth5.'..." hut that "The whole of the Lady Laura story comes as near cynicism as Mr. Trollope -.108 ever goes...*.' "The power of pathos" was certainly not lacking In the tireless novelist's next offering^the extremely long novel 109

He Knew He Was Right. Trollope himself, however, believed that he had failed In his attempt to; create sympathy for Lewis 110 Trevelyan, and felt that the story was "nearly altogether had," IQ6Trol,lqpe, Auto., p. 289. 107jbid. !Q8Contemporary Review^ September,1869, pp. 142-145,.

109Trollope, Anthony, .2 vols., ill., London, Strahan, 1869 (.first, published In weekly numbers >1868.-1869.). 110Trollope, Auto., p.295. - 26 -

r a verdict with which the Westminster Review heartily concurred.

Curiously, this eritic denounced the hook on the. grounds that

Trollope had long; ago shown his full bag of tricks and was now displaying signs of exhaustion. There Is no earlier Trollope novel that bears the slightest resemblance to this analysis of the destruction of first a marriage and eventually a man. by mxsunderstanlng and obtuse pride. Its secondary heroine,

Nora Rftwley,, is the first of his realistic young women very much aware of the desirability of marrying well, while in Miss

Wallachia Petrie and the Spaldings we meet the first of Trol• lopef s Americans abroad. Becoming more explicit, the same reviewer complained that Trollope had made a sorry attempt at describing Exeter, and that only Thackeray could have drawn

Miss Stanhury successfully. The implication seems to be that old Trollope has reached the point: where he cannot even play his trump card, the Cathedral Close, with any success.

While Phineas Finn had been a partial success, In that, it had reached a section of the. public likely to apprec• iate itf He Knew He Was Right; was a failure; since, being; apparently "just the new Trollope novel", it was of Interest only to the devoted, who "...probably consist of every young lady in England and the Colonies^.,"112 Had the bright people who were In 1869 praising Balzac deigned to read the novel they would have found it very much to their taste; but; what devotee of stark French realism would have bothered with Anthony Trol• lope ?

HlF&stmlnater Review, July, 1869. pp. 302 - 305.

112Westmlnster Review?, July, 1869, p. 302. - 27 -

The failure of Ete Knew He Was. Right marked; the be•

ginning of Trollope's decline as a popular novelist. As Mr.

Sadleir has pointed out, "For the first time Trollope had

obviously been paid beyond his value. —The knowledge: perco^t- fated through publishers' offices and from desk to editorial

desk that the two latest Trollope novels had not earned their

keep. Automatically and in response to this disquieting rumour'

his estimated value as a book or serial proposition checked.^13

Another factor which eventually harmed Trollope's reputation

greatly was his alliance with Virtue, the printer who became

publisher of St. Paul's Magazine of which Trollope was editor.

Virtue's sally Into publishing was affailure, and in the gen•

eral liquidation of assets Trollope was necessarily involved.

Through the sale of copyrights he became connected with such

firms as Strahan, and Strahan's associates, Daldy, Isbister,

and later, Isbister. This was bad, for their imprints lowered

his reputation, and "...he became primarily a writer of novels

for serial^ of novels whose subsequent book issue was less im•

portant than their magazine appearances.. .in an author of Trol- 114 lope's capacity and achievement..a sure mark of decadence."

Perhaps the feeling in the air that Trollope was no

longer the valuable property he had once been prompted George

Smith in 187Q to publish the long-deferred Brown, Jones, and

Robinson in book form, before Trollope's name on its spine would

automatically ensure a book's neglect rather than a still reason-

113Sadleir, Trollope, pp. 29Q - 291.

114ibid., p.29a. - 28 - ably good sale. Whatever the reason for the publication, it did untold harm, to a reputation now none too firm. Since the effort had been felt to be a mistake when it first ran in the

Cornhill. when Trollope was the rising .star of the day, its re• appearance at this point merely served to push the author once and! for all from his perch of eminence.

All In all, 187Q was disastrous for Trollope. His 115

long novel for that year^The Vicar of Bullhamptony "...was written chiefly with the object of exciting not only pity but sympathy for a. fallen woman, and of raising a feeling of for- 116 giveness for such in the minds of other women." Unfortunately, since the theme did not appeal to his Barset-minded followers, nor his cautious treatment of it to the more "advanced", Trollope succeeded In pleasing no one. The opinion of the second group may be found in a non-enthusiastic and rather patronizing notice 117 in the Athenaeum ;while a Blackwood*s reviewer inanely ex• pressed the point of view of the first: Why should he have abandoned those earlier, sweeter, charming young women...to toss us about with all the doubts and tribulations of a Nora Rowley or a Mary Lowther.. ?r It is hard for us to say a word against a writer from whom we have received so much amusement;but we must entreat him to consider his ways; -to take thought and mend - to go back upon his original canons, and to free us ^ bf the Mary Lowthers. The less we hear about 115Trollope, Anthony, . 1 vol, ill', London, Bradbury, Evans, 1870 (lirst published in monthly numbers; 1869- 1870,), noTrollope, Auto.i. p.300.. 117Athenaeum. April 30,1870,p.574. - 29 -

such people the better, if there are, as we^g- suppose there are, such people in the world.

The volume of short stories which followed, An 119

Editor*s Tales, was generally dismissed as "...reading for

sea-side loungers...land] %,..hardly worthy of the author,"

though it prompted a writer in the Westminster Review to main•

tain that Trollope*s characters "...have all some of the good heartedness and moral tone of their creator, and we feel that they are fit society for even the tenderest and dearest of 121

^our friends." The same writer called Trollope*s novels

"works of art", and he may quite possibly have been the last person to do so until a certain revaluation took place at

the author*s death.

The last Trollope work to appear in this unfortunate 122

year was The Commentaries of Caesarr a little book on which

he took the pains which critics were always urging him to take

with his fiction. With what appears now as malicious perverse- ness the critics attacked the book as a worthless piece of pre•

sumption. Xn this they were no doubt prompted, as Trollope

suggests, by "...a feeling that a man who has spen£ his life in 123 writing English novels could not be fit to write about Caesar." 1 ^Blackwood's, May, 1870, pp. 647-648. 119Trollope, Anthony, An Editor*s Tales, 1 voL,London,Strahan, 187Q. 120Athenaeum, July 23,1870,p. 112. - l2lYfestmins:ter Review, October, 1870,p.524. 122Trollope, Anthony, The Commentaries of Caesar, 1 vol^Edinburgh and London, Blackwood,.1870. 123TrolIope, Auto., p. 310. - 30 -

One kind word came from The Contemporary Review, whose writer recognised the modest purpose of the little book .and considered that "...the. versatile author of * Bar Chester . 124 Towers91 has succeeded in this to him somewhat novel task....." It vail be noted, however, that to this writer Trollope''is still the successful creator of Barsetshire, and not the rather pas.se' author whom critics more alive to fashion. seized an opportunity to snipe at. In the spring of 1871 Trollope set sail for , characteristically arranging a contract for a book about the Colonies before leaving. While he was on his travels three novels appeared in book form which had been written before he 125 126 left, Sir Harry, Hot spur of Humblethwaite. ," •» 127 and The Golden Lion of Granpere . The first of these is a good novel, Interesting because It shows the impact of a worldly wastrelj Harry Brandon, upon the decent society of Trollope's rural England. It enjoyed a moderate success, and might poss• ibly have done very well, had Trollope published none of the works that had come out the year before, Ralph the Heir, xvh ich 128 Trollope considered one of the worst novels he 'had ever written, , Ipg was not so happy; but The. Golden Lion of Granpere which he lelt to be far inferior to Nina Balatka or Linda Tressel, was well- liked. 1 P/L "Contemporary Review, September>1870, p. 314. --"Trollope Anthony, Sir Harry Hotspur of Humble thwaite „ 1 vol., London, Hurst and Bla.ckett,1871.

126rprollope, Anthony, Ralph the Heir^ 5 vols., London, Hurst and Blackett, 1871. 127Troliope, Anthony, The Go Men Lion of Granpere, 1 vol., London, Tinsley,1872. 1^8Trol1ope,Auto., p.313. 129T.his. was .the third,, novel offered to Blackwood for anonymous DUD lie at icon, in 186 7» 130"*Trol 1 o'nft.Antft. . rm P.PP.-P.Q! - 31 -

If these works did not seriously weaken Trollope's position, neither did they do anything to strengthen it. His 131 next novel, however, was as great a success popularly as anything he had ever written, and restored much of his public favour; but even it did nothing for his lit• erary reputation, which at this point was .apparently beyond, the aid of even such an obviously good piece of work as the history of Lizzie Eustace. Throughout the Athenaeum notice satiety and thinly-veiled contempt are evident, though the writer languidly observed that "...this particular permutation of the materials 132 is effective enough...." Two explanations for this attitude might be offered.. The first is that comedy, for the most part light and subtle, but varied by patches of truly amusing farce, was, like the Commentaries of Caesar-, not Trollope's preserve.

Though critics are constantly complaining of the flatness and monotony of Trollope's novels, and their similarity one to the other at this time, they seem Incapable of recognizing a new and successful departure Into fresh fields. A second reason for their disapproval of this novel is that it quite lacks Sa two qualities highly prized at the time, the heroic, and! the morally deep.

None of the works that followed Kie Eustace Diamonds was of a sort to capitalize on that novel's popular success and. ensure a definite return for Trollope to public favour. When 131 Trollope,Anthony, The Eustace Diamonds. 3 vols,, London, Chapman and: Hall, 1873^ (published in the Fortnightly Review ,1871 - 1873). 152Athenaeum, October 2:6,1872,p.527 . - 32 - that novel had completed. Its run in the Fortnightly it was 133 replaced by , one of the few Trollope novels which even the most devoted present-day reader finds almost imposs• ible to finish, for the book is dead. Contemporary readers did not find it so, apparently, since Trollope remarks,"In it; a young girl, who is really a lady of high rank and great wealth, though in her youth she enjoyed none of the privileges of wealth or rank, marries a tailor who had been good to her, and whom she had loved when she was poor and neglected. A fine young noble lover is provided for her, and all the charms of sweet: living with nice people are thrown In her way, in order that she may be made to give up the tailor... .The book, was read, and I was satisfied. The horror which was expressed to me at the evil thing I had done, In giving the girl to the tailor, was the strongest testimony I could receive of the 154 merits of the story." However, a book that was simply read was not enough to follow up a resounding success like The

Eustace Diamonds. . Trollope* s next published work Australia and New 135

Zealand was far more successful than he had ever expected, but the success of such a work has little effect on the gen•

eral popularity of a novelist. To the two thousand people who

bought out the first expensive edition,the ponderous volumes were primarily a book about the Colonies, not the new Anthony x^Trollope, Anthony, Lady Anna, 2 vols., London,Chapman and Hall 1874/(published in the. Fortnightly Review,18.75-1874). 13%rolIope, Auto.,pp. 516-517.

135Troilope,Anthony, Australia and New Zealand, 8 vols,,London, Chapman and Hall,1873. Trollope. Australia and New Zealand is a book off the same

class as North America; had it been another such readable

delight as The West Indies and the Spanish Main it would

have been of real value to Trollope's popularity and repu•

tation at this point. 156

Harry Heathcote of Gangoil was a popular story

for the Christmas trade, regarded as a pleasant change from

Trollope*s usual fields: "The story is too slight to add to

the author's reputation; but it will not diminish It, and Is 1317

at any rate, a not unwelcome variation." ' It is interesting

to note that the reviewers who had been complaining of the

"photographic reality" of Trollope*s descriptions of their own

world praised the; same technique when it was directed towards

unfamiliar scenes.

A more important event was the publication of Phineas _ / 138

g.edu* in 1874. This manuscript Trollope had left with Chap•

man and Hall before setting off to Australia; but publication

had been delayed. This was unfortunate, for it meant that five

years had passed since Phineas Finn had come out. Artistically

this is well enough, since Phineas has been rusticating in

Ireland for some time between the periods of his history covered

by the two novels, but five years was a long time for readers

to keep the. details of Phineas Finn in mind. Harry Heathcote

had been a general success, but so minor a book as to be of

136rQrolIope, Anthony, Harry Heathcote of Gangoil, 1 vol,, London, Sampson,Low, 1874. ... 157 Athenaeum% November 7,1874,p.606. 138Trollope, Anthony, , 2 vols., ilL, London, Chapman and Hall,1874. - 34 - little importance to |rollope as an author. Phineas Redux is a major work, but like its forerunner appealed largely to

"...the men who would have lived with Phineas^...,and the 139 women who would have lived with Lady Laura...."

Not having appeared first as a serial and so be• come quite well known before Its publication as a book, Phineas

Redux: received a larger number of press notices than had been usual for recent Trollope novels. These reviews are all much alike, and express the general critical attitude towards Trol• lope In the early seventies. The Athenaeum writer complains that it is difficult to say anything new of Trollope. He offers "...little to stimulate the Imagination or suggest topics for reflection... but.. .abundance of the •fight kind of intell• ectual gratification which may be drawn from seeing life-like 140 portraits of common-place people," Later the writer speaks of these people as being "^...as life-like and depressing as usual....", complaining of the; lack of the heroic or romantic, and being especially hard on the women, since he feels that "...the absence of romance Is less fatal to a man than to a 141 woman....." To this reviewer the strongest part of the book was. the political satire describing the effects of the dis• establishment of the Church, of England.

A more intelligent estimate appeared In the Atlantic

Monthly, whose critic paid homage to Trollopers "cleverness" and then summed up the prevailing critical Ideas on the prolific 159Tr.o.llQPe, Auto.,p.289. 14 0Athenaeum, January 10,1874,p.53. 141 ibid. author by saying "There is nothing but amusement to be got from Mr. trollope....Great novelists may tell the same story, but they put a meaning between the lines where Mr. Trollope leaves a blank. They teach as well as describe. Mr. Trol- lope seems to catch everything but the deeper meaning."

Most interesting and revealing of all was a notice in the Nation, in which Trollope is described as "...the most successful of literary artisans,...£whoJ fixes to himself a standard of literary excellence which he never fails greatly below; his standard is exactly that of the so-called intelli• gent reader. He meets the wishes of that large class of per• sons whose taste is too good to be satisfied with Mi a a. and not good enough to enjoy .WJ-' Curiously, the writer felt that "A...fault that will tell fatally against

Mr. Trollope's lasting reputation, is that he has not produced any of those great andl original characters that are to be found in the works of Thackeray, Miss Bronte, or George Eliot... throughout the whole of his works there is not to fee found a single character...^ which is a permanent addition to the world 144 of English fiction." He also claims that Trollope fails

"to develop the growth of character',' connecting this with his belief that" Mr. Trollope lacks entirely the intellectujal truth• fulness which compels Thackeray or Balaac to paint the most re• pulsive persons or the most painful scenes in all their hideous reality....The truth is that Mr., Trollope is essentially a super- 14! ficial writer and delights to deal, with the outside of things." 148 Atlantic Monthly .May.-1874,pp.617-618. l^Nation, March 12,1874,p. 174. - 36 -

The next offering of this; unromantie and superficial 146 writer to " an age which worships common-place" was a novel completely different from any he had written before, The Way 147 We Live Now, a satire prompted by what Trollope conceived to T AQ be "the commercial profligacy of the age.," "Upon the whole," says .'Trollope, "I by no means look upon the book as one of my failures; nor was it taken as a failure by the public or the 149 press,'* As far as sales are concerned this is true, since the novel, though originally published in numbers,had run to four editions by 1879, The press, however, did consider it a fail- 150 ure, according to the Stebbinses, who are thoroughly reliable when they are presenting facts. The Athenaeum felt that Mel- mottle ",.,requires a more powerful hand than Mr. Trollope's, and the choice of such a protagonist shows ignorance on the 151 novelist's part of the limits of his capacities," while the Westminster Review, on one of the rare occasions of recent years when it noticed Trollope at all,delivered a savage attack, likening Trollope to his own Lady Carbury, and ending paragraphs of denunciation with "In short, we look in vain for any of those 152 higher artistic touches that give life to a work of fiction,". 153 ^ Following The Wgy We Live Now, The Prime Minister 146ibid, 147Trollope, Anthony, , 2 vols., ilL,London,

Chapman and Hall,1875y*(«ubiished in monthly numbers, 1874- 1875) . .. 148Trollope, Auto., p.323. 149Trollope, Auto.,, p.325. 150On p.291 of The Trollopes they speak of Trollope as being"... confronted by an accumulation of unfavourable reviews of The Way We Live Now." . 15IAthenaeum. June 26,1875,p.851. 152Westminster Review, October 1,1875,p.530. 153Trollope, Anthony, The Prime Minister, 4 vols*, London,Chapman and Hall, 1876. - 57 -

brings us to the lowest point of Trollope's career. This

book had been a labour of love, In which he had sought to

produce the final portrait of his ideal English gentleman

and statesman, but Instead of enjoying the mild popularity of

the other Palliser novels.lt was a flat failure on a level with Brown, Jones, and Robinson. A rueful footnote In the

Autobiography tells of his disappointment: "Writing this note In 1878, after a lapse of nearly three years, I am. ob•

liged to say that, as regards the public, The Prime Minister was a failure. It was worse spoken of by the press than any novel I had written. I.was especially hurt by a criticism on 154 It In the Spectator." The reception was so bad that Trol- 155 lope felt that he should stop writing^ a thought he had never

entertained before. If the most scathing and Insulting re- 156 157 views, which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and the Nation

(whose notices of Trollope's books were usually kinder than those

In English periodicals, can be taken as representative) it is

little wonder that Trollope was disheartened. The chief reason

for its remarkable unpopularity was the fact that The Prime

Minister is entirely made up of elements which were unpleasant

to the admirers of the polite world of Barset, and vulgar and

commonplace to the consciously artistic and Intellectual. To

the first group the novel offers little of romance in the. story

of Emily Wharton; the hero is a stick; and the villain is a dis•

agreeable foreign adventurer unpleasantly reminiscent of Melmotte

154Trollope, Auto., ftn. 1»p. 529. 155Trollope, Auto.. ftn. t»p. 5.30. 156Atlantic Monthly,-August,1876,pp.245-246. 157Nation, July 20,1876,p.45. - 38 -

in The Way We Live Now, Never a popular figure, Plantagenet

Palliser is here unusually unattractive: In his over-sensitivity,

whL&£ Lady Glencora's charm is sacrificed to the greater glory

of Trollope*s ideal gentleman statesman. From the more criti•

cal standpoint the book was equally unhappy, since the main

subject of the careful portraiture is not in the least heroic, nor unusually Intelligent, but simply the embodiment of all

that, If worthy, is decidedly dull. Moreover, Emily Wharton*s misdirected constancy seemed painful and stupid rather than tra- .

gic; while Lopez himself, the one character who might have had

appeal If he had been drawn on the grand scale, was rightly re•

garded as a mere vulgar small-time swindler. The first group

of readers found the work depressing; the second found It dull.

Until his death, however, Trollope's reputation was

never again at so low an ebfo. In the next year, 1877, we find

the first evidences of a gradual change in ti& attitude to Trol•

lope, which becomes increasingly approving in the next five years.

He never regains the position he had held In the sixties, but in

the last years of his life he seems to have been granted, by

some sections of the public at any rate, that sort of affection•

ate regard usually reserved for public institutions. A clear

instance of this change from, the contemptuous feeling prevalent

In the early seventies Is found in an article which appeared in 158

the Edinburgh Review of October,1877. The tone is always

affectionate and tolerant, and frequently enthusiastic. It is;

noteworthy that by far the major portion of the essay is devoted

to nostalgic discussion of the Bar set stories, though the writer "Mr. Anthony*sTrollope*s Novels," Edinburgh Review. October, 1877,pp.455-488 . - 39 - speaks tolerantly of what he describes as the necessarily un• equal quality of such a prolific author's work and considers that Trollope has maintained a high general average. " A chance 'Miss Mackenzie' is far more than compensated by a

'Doctor Thome' or a 'Framley Parsonage' and while we are shaking our heads over a "Eustace Diamonds' he shows himself capable of higher:, work than we had hitherto credited him with, by something- that is. altogether charming like 'The Last Chron- t 159 icles of Barset,."

The same shift in opinion is expressed by Robert

Louis Stevenson In 1878, though he shows himself a rather shame• faced convert.

Do you know who is my favourite author oust now? How are the mighty fallen! Anthony Trollope. I batten on him; he is so nearly wearying- you., and yet he never does; or rather, he never does until he gets near the end., when he begins to wean you from him, so that you're as pleased to be done with him as you thought you would be sorry. I wonder if It's old age ? It is a little, I am sure. A young, person would get sickened by the dead level of mean• ness and cowardliness; you require to be a little spoiled and cynical before you can enjoy It. I have: just finished the Way of the World £>lc^0 j there is only one person in it - no, there are three, - who are nice....All the heroes and heroines are just ghastly. But what a triumph is Lady Car bury! That is real, strong, genuine work: the man who could do that, if he had. had courage, might have written a fine book; he has preferred to write many readable ones.160

The reception given the next few novels of Trollope'Is further evidence of a reputation being slowly re-established 161 between 1877 - 1879. received the first really favourable: review that the Athenaeum had given Trollope

159ibid, p.458. 160Colvin, Sidney, The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, London, Chatto and WIndus,1912, vol.23,p.215. Stevenson was 28 at the time of the letter quoted. 161Trollope, Anthony, The American Senator, 3 vols., London, Chanman and Hall.18771 - 40 - in years, with much praise being granted the quiet, Barset- 162 like charm of Dillsborough. Popularly, Trollope felt that 163 both this novel and the one that; followed, Is_ He Popenjoy? 164 enjoyed "fair success". Much the same reception met An Eye for an Eye; while John Caldigate was a definite success. 167

Even did not meet with very harsh treatment.

Two other- works that appeared during these years serve as reminders that Trollope, though once again in fairly 168 good estate^was not yet firmly placed. For South Africa , his last travel book, he could arrange a price of only 1»850, £400 less than he. had received for North America and Australia 169 and New Zealand, and when the book appeared It was, according 170 to Mr. Sadleir n...the least successful of his travel books." Nevertheless, running into four editions before his death, and receiving; a favourable notice in the Athenaeum, it had a happier: 171 history than the lit.tle book on Thackeray, which was. violently

2Athenaeum, June 16,1877,p.766. 163Trollope, Anthony,,ISQHe Popenjoy?, 3 vols, London, Chapman - and Hall,1878. Re viewed: Athenaeum. May 4,1878, p. 567,

I64Tronope,i Auto., p.331^ ftn. 1.61JTrollope, Anthony, Ah Eye For an Eye, 2 vols, London,Chapman and Hall, 1879, Reviewed: Athenaeum,,Jan.,11 ,,1879,p.47; Blackwood*s March,1879,pp.338-339; Nation, April 24,1879,p.290. 166Trollope, Anthony,John Caldigate, 3 vols, London,Chapman and Hall, 1879. Reviewed: Athenaeum., June 14,1879 , p.755.:Nineteenth Century, August,1880:, p.540. *-67Trollope, Anthony, Cousin Henry, 2 vols., London, Chapman and • Hall,1879. Reviewed: Athenaeum, October 18,1879, p.495. 168Trollope, Anthony, South Africa* 2 vols., London, Chapman and • Hall, 1878. - 169Stabbinses, op_. cit, p.302. 17QSadle.ir, op_. cit, p.315.

7i * Trollope, Anthony, Thackeray. 1 vol.?London, Macmillan,1879. - 41 -

172 attacked as stupid and unappreciatlve in America, while

more kindly British. revIews^73found the critical portion of

the book: at best "disappointing." 174 But with the publication in 1880 of a sequel to,

of all books to choose, The Prime Minister. Trollope once.

again came Into his own. The'comments in reviews make it -

clear that he was brought to this point on a wave of reaction

against the "esoteric doctrines" of "the modem school of high 175 art", Trollope Is praised for knowing "...that the first thing required of a novelist Is that he should seize the attention of 176 his readers by interesting- and amusing them" and a writer In

the Nation declared that "No one ever, we fancy, read a novel

of his without wishing that he might soon write another, and it Is only born story-tellers who leave us In this frame of 177 mind:."

To readers, weary of problem novels, who had fond; memories of the enjoyment Trollope's Barset novels had given

them. In the sixties, when they had been repelled by the flood

of sensation fiction, The Duke's Children was a delightful ex• perience. Though it is the author's thirty-ninth novel it has

all the freshness of Framley Parsonage. combined with a plot

172cl21,1879. Atlanti, pp.126-127c Monthly.. August 1879,pp.267-268; Nation.August 173cl. Athenaeum. June 14^1879.pp.749-750;Westminster Review. July 1879,p.258. 174Trollope, Anthony, The Duke's Children, 3 vols., London, Chap• man and Hall,1880. . 175Athenaeum, May 29,1880,p.695. l76ibid. 177 Sedgwick,A.G.,"Trollope's 'The Duke's Children'", Nation. August 19,1880, p.159. - 42 - that Trollope had never utilized before. In it Plantagenet

Palliser is made human, being presentedr.not as the stiffly- moving aristocratic statesman but as a father attempting to understand his family, who have grown up as strangers to him.

His daughter, Mary Palliser, is one of the most charming of the Trollope girls who descend from Lucy Robarts and Mary

Thome; Gerald, the younger son is a nit-wit not without charm; and young Lord Silverbridge, who bears a certain resemblance to Lord Lufton and Frank Gresham, is rather more interesting than they. Although early in the novel he seems a feather- headed young man, he grows up during the course of the action, unlike the rather static heroes of the earlier books, until finally he is felt to be quite worthy of Trollope*s charming

American girl abroad, Isobel Boneassen. Mary's lover, who delights in the name of Francis Oliphant Tregear, is a Phineas

Finn agreeably'reinforced in character by a strong admixture of Frank Greystock from The Eustace Diamonds. Some of the more attractive of the characters from earlier Palliser novels appear in The Duke * s Children, but the political atmosphere has gone completely, sweeping away the Ratl.ers, and Bonteens, and

Barring ton Erles. Certain elements too. are carried over from

The Way We Live Now,but the sting has gone from the description, giving way to the type of humour1 and comedy that pervaded The

Eustace Diamonds. Even the distressing American senator,Elias

Gotobed has here been atoned for by his countryman. Ezekial Bon• eassen. All in all, it is the one Trollope novel that has all the best from his two worlds, the ideal land of Barsetshire and - 43: - the realistic society of London, and consequently, like The

Last Chronicle of Barset, managed to please everyone.

With a reputation once more established by this long and rich novel Trollope worked on with undiminished 178 vigour. His next book was The Life of Cicero, in which he defended his hero from Froude in particular and the

scholars who followed Mommsen in general. Unlike his other essay into the classics, The Life of Cicero received general 179 approval. Once again In these reviews, and in those of the 180 following Doctor Wortle's School, the affectionate tone is very noticeable, and it may perhaps be largely traced to that fact that in both of these works Trollope's own pleasant personality comes through strongly. '.L'IB defending Cicero he reveals all his own vigorous and affectionate nature, while

Doctor Wortle's honesty, impatience, and kindly common-sense inevitably remind a reader of the man the author himself was

commonly supposed to be. 181

Two less important books followed, Ayala's Angel of which the Westminster Review said that though it ranked below his best works, "...which constitute his claim to be 182 considered a really good novelist...." yet "People who have 178Trollope,Anthony, The Life of Cicero, 2 vols„ London,

Chapman and. Hall,1880>- 179cf. Athenaeum, August 6,1881,pp.170-171; Atlantic Monthly, November 1882, pp.669-670; Blackwood's, February 1881,, pp.212-228; Nation, July 28,1881,pp.75-76. 180Trollope, Anthony, Doctor Wortle's School, 2 vols^ London,

Chapman and Hall, 1881# Reviewed: Athenaeum,January 15,1881, p.93; Nation, March 10,1881, pp.172-173;Westminster Review. July 1881, pp.283-284. lSlirollope, Anthony, Ayala's Angel, 3 vols., London, Chapman ' and Hall,1881. 182Westminster Review. October 1881, p.566. the Trollope taste strongly developed will read it and enjoy 183 it thoroughly...."; and another collection of short stories with the rather unwieldy title Why Frau Frphmann Raised Her 184 Prices; And Other Stories. Neither of these nor the novels 185 186 that followed, Marian Fay and is of any great interest in a study of Trollope's reputation. The littl- 187 monograph, Lord Palmerston which had been written in 1867 bu not published until 1882, was not very successful, but it met with none of the deliberate harshness that had assailed The Commentaries of Caesar and, to a lesser extent ^Thackeray.

On December 6,1882 Trollope died in London, At the time Kept in the Darkld8was just completing its. run in Good 189 Words and Mr* Scarborough's Family was appearing in All the Year Round. All periodical criticism, of these novels and the 190 two which appeared posthumously, An Old Man's Love and the 191

Incomplete The Landleaguers~? is written with a sort of res• pectful bias that makes it impossible to determine how the most interesting of these, Mr. Scarborough's Family, was re• ceived'. It is a malevolent story of a man who detests the law of entail, in which, according to the Stebbinses, never res- 183iMd., p,567. -^Trollope, Anthony, Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices: Ancl Other Stories, 1 vol.,'London, Isbister, 1882. 185Trollope, Anthony, Marion Fay, 5 vols., London, Chapman and Hall, 1882. "Trollopej Anthony, The Fixed Period, .2 vo 1 s^dinbur&h and London, Blackwood1^, 1882. * i87Trollope, Anthony, Lord Palmerston, 1 vol, London, Isbister 1.882. 188Trollope, Anthony, , z vols.,London, Chat to and Winders, 1882. 189 WV^Ki^°n7i ^Jiandl^uers,3 vols.London,Chatto and - 45 - trained in their judgments, "Titan-like, Trollope questioned the moral order and writhed with pain and contempt at his own 192 answer." It would he interesting to know how the admirers of The Duke's Children took to such a tale.

The peculiar affection that we have found to he a prevalent attitude towards Trollope since 1877' reaches its height, naturally enough, in the notices of his death. This is only true, however, of those written by his friends, which record the death of Anthony Trollope, the man. Those which deal merely with the death of.a novelist are "...at.best tol-

193 194 erant at worst contempuous.Mi While the Athenaeum , Black• wood »s,I95Goot Words,196 and above all Macmillajfs19^ were app• reciative and sympathetic, The Times, after describing his per• sonality as that"...of the hearty, frank, English gentleman, t well-cultivated, but somewhat ostentatiously contemptuous of the petty; refinements of the drawing-room....",firmly and not. very 198 kindly relegated Trollope*s work to respectable oblivion. Similar were the account in the Spectator, and a waspish essay 199 by Edmund Yates in the World. According to Sadleir" Only the

192Stebbinses, op. cit., p.327. IQgSaaieir, op_. cit.. p. 361. 194Athenaeum.Dec. 9,1882,pp.772-773. ^Blackwood's, Feb.^883,pp. 316-320. 196011phant," Mrs. Margaret, "Anthony Trollope, "Good Words ,XZXV,. ; 1882, pp. 142-144. 197Freeman, E.A., "Anthony Trollope", MacMHans, Jan .,1885,pp236-240 I98London Times, Dec.7,1882,quoted Sadleir, op.cit.,pp. 3.61-362. 199Sadleir, op_. cit. .p. 562. . . 46 -

Saturday Review gave. the dead man. true and generous credit for his qualities"^00

A sad end to the long and lucrative career of the novelist who had been a bright hope twenty-five years before,

but not a very surprising one. Apparently Trollope had owed

his last successes entirely to the people who had originally

turned to him In the sixties as a relief from sensation fiction,

and had returned again In the seventies in reaction against the

"art" novel. To this public he was a writer you could depend

on for likeable gentlemanly work, that contained no unpleasant

shocks or violent outcries against the conventions of civil•

ized mid-Victorian society. But unfortunately, popularity with such people, many of whom had been reading Trollope since.

1855j was not very good Insurance of continued favour-. For one

thing they were dying out, and those who remained had always

depended on a new Anthony Trollope In Mudie's box: every few months. When the supply failed their interest was likely to

flag. To another group he had remained "the chronicler of

small beer," the photographer of dull, commonplace men and. women leading futile lives, and" the endless turner-out of

novels all,as like as peas. For them, when Trollope novels

no longer appeared, the unpleasant hum of an old-fashioned machine had.stopped, and the silence was refreshing.

200ibid IX. In Examination of Trollope*s Present Position.

The relegation of Trollope*s#work to the oblivion predicted: by the: Times was delayed only momentarily by the. 201 publication of his Autobiography and then speeded by the book*s effect. The reactions of both the old-fashioned lovers of Barset and the rigorously up-to-date were exactly what we should expect. Once again the first group was represented by the reviewers In the more conservative periodicals, the Athen-

QQ1 202 ^ 203 204 ontz aeum, Blackwood* s , the Edinburgh Review. Good Words20and especially the American Atlantic Monthly2?6Haper*s?Q7and the

*r *• 208

NatronT all of whom gave the book sympathetic and ready praise.

But the second group,the consciously artistic and intellectual, was younger and far more vocal. The effect of the Autobiogra• phy on them has been neatly described by ; Rarely can the conventions and assumptions of a vanished age have made an appearance at once so untimely and so uncompromising as did those of mid- Yictorlanlsm, when. Trollope*s Autoblography fell with a splash into the elegant waters of aesthet-

203-Trollope, Anthony, An Autobiography, 2 vols., Edinburgh and London, Blackwood, 1883...... 202,Athenaeum. October 13,1883, pp.457-45,9. 2Q5Blackwood*s, November, 1883, pp. 577-596.

204 Edinburgh Review^ Jan.,lS841.pp 186-203. 205Good Words, 1884,pp.248 - 252. 2Q6Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 188.4,pp. 667-671. 207Harper*s, Jan., 1884, p. 517. 208Nation, Nov. 5, 1885,pp. 596-597. - 48 -

Icism. The book is a compendium of all that was most offensive to the new modishness. It Is, the self-portrait of a man who went out of his way to deny his literary caste; of a man physically exub• erant and morally unadventurous; of a man (and this was perhaps worst of all) who was blatantly English. And not content with being personally distateful to the generation of his supplanters, Trollope by his expressed views on authorship flouted their every aesthetic prejudice. He put the writing of books on a level with the practice of amy other trade; he glorified industry and perseverance; he spoke a little sceptically of genius; he reckoned the re• wards of literature in pounds sterling and the calendar of its creation in hours by the clock. It would have been impossible to counter more pro• vocatively the studied attitudes of Paterism, the sour defiance of the Zolaesques, and the proclaimed indifference to pecuniary reward of all the gifted amoralities, who In the half lights of Parisian studies or along the misty parapet of Cheyne Walk- chanted the twilit loveliness of decadence.209

Barred from, personal attack by Trollope*s irritating modesty, the aesthetes defended their cherished theories from this old-fashioned flouting by assailing the mid-Victorian*s 210 work. A. E. Newton, in his essay "A Great Victorian" has quoted some of the remarks made, which describe Trollopers novels as "commonplace", "vulgar", "without charm or Imagination," and so on. These are general attacks, which merely fling derogA-

#t.ory adjectives at Trollopers work as a whole. A more effective sample of the eighties'contempt was a long essay which appeared in the Westminster Review for January, 1885, sandwiched, between.

"On the Study:':of the Talmud" and "The Materials, of Early Russian

History." innocently titled "English Character and Manners as 211

Portrayed by Anthony Trollope," the essay contains the most

809Sadleir, op_> cit „ pp. 562?-565. 21QNewton, A.E. The Amenities of Book Collecting, Boston,Atlantic 211 MonthlWestminstey Pressr Review, 5 Imp.,, January, 1924,pp;1885. 249-266, pp.53. - 100. - 49 -

effective; attack, upon Trollope as a novelist that I have

seen. The -writer knew his Trollope inside-out, and. by cleverly

chosen extracts, slight twists, and adroit omissions, managed

with the politest and most dexterous raillery to render Trol•

lope's much-praised photographfs of English society quite

ridiculous. His main point Is that Trollope's version of Eng•

lish character and manners cannot be accepted unreservedly as

true to life, which of course hits directly at what was

assumed to be Trollope's major claim to be considered a good

novelist, his realism. The writer goes on to show that Trol•

lope's manly gentlemen are in truth heavy, insensible, unin-

tellectual, unreasonably reserved and yet completely lacking

In restraint, inarticulate, frequently discourteous and. some•

times grossly rude,. Incapable of carrying on a polite dis,cus#-

Sion or of being good-tempered under raillery, and eminently

incapable of reasonable thought. The much-admired Trollope

girls fare little better, for their shy constancy is shown to

be reticent stubbornness. Trollope, who had seldom been sus•

pected of being unfit for the family reading beloved of the mid-

Victorians, Is here convicted on the charge of depicting family

relations in an impossible gloomy light, where there Is no con•

fidence between parents and children, and selfishness is the

prime motive for all action. This, charge is closely connected

with another, a sordid materialistic over-emphasis on money.

All In all, Trollope fared badly at the hands of this clever

writer, who finally paid his characters one tribute}, while

ibid., pp.56 ff - 50 - neither their morals nor their intellect are fine, they are

"...strong in their desires; strong in practical, sense and the energy of their pursuits; strong above all In undaunted 213 perseverance and tenacity." In short, the comfort given Mr.

Crawley, "It's dogged as does it," is their maxim. If we imagine the reaction to such advice of the young George Moore, 214

"eager for some adequate philosophy of life" we shall have some idea of how completely out of place Trollopers English character and manners were in the world of the eighties and the nineties.

To say that no just appreciation of Trollope is to be found between his death and the turn of the century would be to take an excessively gloomy view,, but one not far from accurate. Provoked no doubt by the meagre praise granted

Trollope the novelist in the notices of his death, two mild protests against the general lack, of sympathy appeared a few months later in America. The first of these was by ¥. H.

Pollock, who defended. Trollope from, the charges of mere mech• anical hack-work which the Autobiography had stimulated, and from the derogatory label of "photographer", very sensibly pointing out that no photographer needs invention, a quality 215 with which Trollope was liberally endowed. The second defense came from an unlikely quarter, since It was written by the man who twenty years or so ago 216 had slashed The Belton Estatej Henry James. 2isibid, p.99. ' 214Modre, George, Confessions of a Young Man, London,William Heineman Ltd,, 1928,p. 11 (-|irst published 1889) . ai5 Pollock, W.H.J "Anthony Trollope", Harper's, May?1883,pp. 9Q7-912„

216James, Henrys"Anthony Trollope", Century Magazine. July, 1883, pp.385-395. - 51 -

His advocacy is less enthusiastic than Pollock*s, who had known Trollope well, but its point of view is more signifi•

cant of the coming age, though it is far from unappreclative.

He hastens to dismiss the notion that Trollope Is unimagina• tive, but goes on to complain that "Having his imagination at his command, he is touched with the common, for he abused 217 it. He never took himself seriously as an artist." This, however, is the only harsh note In an essay which remains one of the most suggestive that has appeared on Trollope, as is shown by his tribute to the man whom he could not help but reprove for having written too fast: When the French are disposed to pay a com• pliment to the English mind, they are so good as to say that there is in it something remarkably honnete. If I might borrow this epithet without seeming to be patronizing, I should apply it to the genius of Anthony Trollope. He represents in an eminent degree this natural decorum of the English spirit, andi represents it all the better that there is not In him a grain of the mawkish or the prudish. He writes, he feels, he judges like a man, talking plainly and frankly about many things, and is by no means destitute of a certain saving grace of coarseness. But he has kept the purity of his imagination and held fast to old fashioned reverences and preferences.216

His summing up is both acute and just:"There are two kinds of taste in the appreciation of imaginative literature; the taste for emotions of surprise, and the taste for emotions of familiarity. It is the latter that Trollope gratifies, and he gratifies it the more that the medium of his own mind, through which.we see what he shows us gives confidence to our sympathy. His natural Tightness and purity are so real that 219 the.good things he projects must be real." 2I7ibid..p. 585. 818ibid., p.586. 219Xhi.d* * P. 595. - 52: -

One other point is worth particular notice/ Since it may well have influenced later Trolloplan criticism. In spite of his sane and sympathetic attitude to Trollope, James comes out flatly in condemnation of the later novels;"For the most part*...he should be judged by the productions of the first half of his career; later, the strong wine was rather 220 too copiously watered."

James's objection that Trollope had never taken him• self seriously as/an artist expresses the final unforgiveahle charge that the eighties brought against the once popular writer. Here of course it Is not the truly critical minds, like James's,at work. This mass reviling of a good author was done by the literary snobs, at this time directed in their likes and dislikes by critics whose canons were those of Art for Art's sake. The clearest distinguishing mark of the lit• erary snob Is his inability to laud more than one writer, or at most one school of writing, at a time. His passion of the moment is work that complies with the dicta of the currently fashionable critics, and none that has been written under diff• erent standards Is worth a thought. It is not too harsh to say that. Art for Art's Sake criticism affords the most sympathetic climate for the literary snob, since its emphasis upon the individual reaction as a standard and the basis of Impression• istic criticism, and upon form and matter as separable entities, capable of independent evaluation provides almost unlimited scope for pseudo-critical discussions, tremulously appreciative,

aa°ibid., p. 386. - 53 - and wonderfully vague. Led by their guides, the literary snobs dismissed Trollope's work "... with everything that Is of the 2E1 day and the craftsman, not of eternity and! art."

By 1899 forgetfulness and snobbery between them had gone a long way towards proving the Times * obituary accurate 222: in its prediction of oblivion for all of Trollope's work.

There is an odd. semi-parallel between the beginning of his career and its immediate aftermath. Of his first novel, The

Macdermotts of Ballycloran? the Athenaeum reviewer had remarked, that "Twenty years ago 'The Macdermotts' would have made a. reputation for its author," and Implied that no one could be bothered: with it in the more enlightened days of 1.847. The

Trollope novels of the sixties had made a reputation for their author, but to the readers of twenty years later they were be• neath notice.. The vast quantity of Trollope's work was dead and gone; and J;here was no hope of resurrection. 221Saintsbury, George, "Three Mid-Century Novelists", In The Collected Essays and Papers of George Saintsbury, London, J. M. Dent and. Sons, Ltd.,, 1923, vol II, p-.«7-(.First published 1890). 222N6thing gives more concrete evidence of this than the pub• lishers' lists from 1885 to 1889. The English Catalogue, of Books records five of Trollope's sixty-odd works, all in cheap monthly numbers with advertising, and a cheap edition of The Warden, From 1890 U1899. the sole listings are a one. shilling edition of The Commentaries of Caesar and a cheap edition of Marlon Fay. The situation in America, as revealed by The American Book CatalogueJLs only slightly different. Several of Trollope's later novels appeared In a cheap paper- covered series published by Munro under the general title of the "Seaside Library"' in 1885, while a cheap edition, of Mr, Scarborough's Family came out the following year. Only twa< other listings occur between 1885 and 1899, an expensive set of the Barsetshire Chronicles In 1892:, and of the Parliamen• tary Novels in 1893. The venture does not seem, to have been very successful, since for the next seven years Trollope's name disappears completely from the American lists. - 54 -

In view of this state of affairs it is startling to find in 1945 a journal entitled The Trollopian,. whose editor justifies its existence on the grounds, that "First,

Trollope is a key figure for a rational Interpretation of

Victorian life; and second, there is a large group of people who admire the man and his works and who wish to 223 study both intensively"'. In the following number he points out that by "...the present day when Trollope Is at least among the half dozen most widely read English. novelists and" when the amateur of only moderate means Is frozen out of the auction sales, a chapter in the history 224 of taste has been written."

To examine this chapter is amusing and valuable,for by distinguishing the various elements that have gone Into the making of Anthony Trollope*s mid-twentieth century reputation we may be able to form some conclusions as to its validity as an estimate of his novels* worth.

Though the regeneration of Trollope*s novels has often been described as unexpected, startling, sensational, or unaccountable, none of these adjectives has In fact any great justification. It is generally accepted that good literary work will weather a few temporary squalls, and

Trollope*s was the object of real critical contempt for a relatively very short period, some fifteen to twenty years.

By the late nineties, especially among the older critics,

223B6oth, Bradford Allen,"Preface;* The Trollopian, vol.1, No. I.„ 1945, p.#2. 224Booith, Bradford Allen, "Editorial Note", The Trollopian, vol.1, No. 2, 1946, p. 4. - 55 - the effects of yet another reaction begin to appear as the pendulum swings away again not so much from Art for Art's

Sake as from. Life for Art's Sake, no?; felt to be a decadent ideal. The years just around the turn of the century are for Trollope a period of critics who,taking pity on his battered reputation, felt that they should play the Good

Samaritan, Unfortunately these writers, though feeling un•

easily that injusticeshas been done somehow still cannot man• age a really Just' rer»assessment of his work's value. Men like

Frederick Harrison225Leslie Stephenf26 George Salntsbury227and: 228

Wilbur. Cross wrote largely from the point of view that "nobody can claim, for Trollope any of the first-rate qualities which strain the powers of subtle and philosophical criticism; but: perhaps it would be well if readers would sometimes make a 229 little effort to blunt their critical faculty". The result of such an effort on their parts is; a body of apologies for

Trollope, which on the whole set the key-note for many later critical attitudes and establish certain ideas about his novels which gradually become wide-spread superstitions and prejudices.

Several reasons for their rather grudging and uncer• tain praise might be suggested. First, to these men the great

Victorian novelists are still Thackeray and George Eliot (not, however, Dickens) and their reputations cast a mighty shadow HarrisontFrederio,Studies in Early , 2 ed.. over their contemporaries. Second, they are not attracted London, Edward Arnold, lB9o7pp7iaS-"BT!3": " 226Stephen, Sir Leslie, Studies,of a Biographer,London,Duckworth and Co., 1902,vol.4, pp.168-205. 2 7 ^ Saintsbury4 George. A History of Nineteenth Century Literature C 1780.-1900£London,Macmillah and"-Go.Ltd. ,192.9,pi.jajlfirst pub.1896 2g8Cross. W.L..- The Development of the ,New Tork,,The Macmillan Co., 1899,pp. 215-224*. 229stephen, Sir Leslie, o£. cit.. pp. 16.9 - 170. - 56 - by the Autobiography. Trollope's personality,so thoroughly foreign to their conception of the artist, distracts them from his work: and prejudices them against it. He recorded his life as that of a Philistine, and therefore his novels must be- with• out beauty and without commendable form. Their feeling Is that any man who considered himself to be an artisan could not in fact be an artist, and that such a man's system of necessity produces commonplace books, marked by n..*the absence of all the greatest qualities of style; absence of any passion, poetry, e, 230 mystery, or subtlety". Though they recognized Trollope's, genius for characterization, their prejudice against his writing methods is so strong that they speculate frequently on how much finer his work would have been "...if his whole life had been given to his work, if every book, every chapter of every book were the fruit of ample meditation and repeated revision, if he had never written with any thought of profit, never written 231 but what he could not contain hidden within him...."

Here begins the first superstition about Anthony

Trollope: though his work is good, it is not as good as it might have been. The second, that the Barset novels are his only important work, grows in part from this, for in their view

,his inartistic speed exhausted his invention, and so only his

early work could be really worthwhile. The fact remains,how•

ever, that the Barset novels were written extremely quickly,

Harrison, op. cit.. p. 188.

231ibid., p.187. - 57 -

? "^2 even for Trollope, and are farthest from the ideal of

artistic method outlined by Harrison. His work here has.

been evaluated on the basis of how It was done, rather than what it actually was. By these critics Trollope was pigeon•

holed as a novelist whose early work had managed fairly well,

to overcome the crippling handicap of his Inartistic methods.

The patronizing tones of these rescuers grated upon

some whom/ft a writ^er In the Dial described as "A group of wor•

shippers who have been faithful in their devotions at an all. 233 but deserted literary shrine."

/no*® Suspicions of such luke-warm converts and resenting their rather noisy procession to a shrine which they had been

frequenting all the time, some of their number burst into print

to announce that no apologies were needed for Anthony Trollope.

They range in point of view from the pugnaciously/ British G.S.

Street234to the mild and scholarly H.T; Peck235and the earnest 236

but ever, urbane Stephen Gwynn. Their essays form a striking

contrast to the group we have just examined, for they defend

Trollope from the generalities of Harrison and Stephen by highly

detailed and specific evidence drawn from the novels themselves;

These are men anxious to bring the discussion back to the real point, which is not Trollope*s personality and methods, but

what they produced. Unfortunately such loyal partisans tend to be over-allusive., with the result that they preach effectively 232cf. the. calendar of events in Trollope's life appended to Sadleirs*5' Trollope, A Commentary. 233E.M.,"The Re coming of Anthony Trollope", The Dial, vol .34* xx*»v, 1903, p.141. ~ ' 234street, G.S.'"Anthony Trollope", Cornhill, New Series, vol. X, 1901, pp. 349-355. 235Peck, Harry "Thurston, "Anthony Trollope", The Bookman,, vol.XIII, 1901, pp.114 - 125. 236Gwynn, Stephen, "The English Novelfin the Nineteenth Century", Edinburgh Review. October, 1902, pp. 487 - 506. - 58 - only to the already converted. They do not, in short, play into the hands of the literary snobs, who found the material in the more general essays far more useful.

On the whole, however, these writers did contribute one generality to the growing stream of ideas about Trollope, and that was the suggestion that^chief value was sociological.

That they were inclined to exalt this claim for Trollope over all others may perhaps be explained by the consciousness of recent social changes, and the surge of Englishness stimulated by the Boer War. Here we find the first evidence of Trollope's appeal during and! after wars: "After a year of public excite• ment when one's interest and! sympathy have gone with the strain• ing energies of the country, now, while still larger thoughts of destiny bear on one's mind, and great issues still are to• ward some gentle refreshment is necessary, and! it is pleasant to contemplate the social English as they were in a quiet time, not our own, but not unfamiliarly remote. Consequently I have betaken myself to Anthony Trollope, an old and constant friend, 237 and for months at a time almost my only reading in fiction."

So speaks one writer who makes no pretence of critical detach• ment towards his author, while another comes out flatly and maintains that "...the greatest claim of Trollope's novels to permanence^...is their picture of contemporary English life...

Surely future ages will turn to Trollope more than to any other author for a true and vivid picture of this, life, when it shall 238 have wholly passed away." _yrm 1 ; — ^'street, op_. cit..,, p.349$

238 Bradford,Gamaliel., jr;>_ "Anthony Trollope" .Atlantic Monthly vol.U8|X,1902,. p. 431. - 59 -

The dangers to their favourite's reputation of such well-meant praise can be seen when the same idea is taken up

by someone who lacks their stabilizing familiarity with the novels. A list of articles on Trollope covering the past fifty

years would contain a large number of essays which it is not

too harsh to term opportunist, and these have sent abroad some

curious melanges and distortions of current critical sugges•

tions. Perhaps the earliest of these is W. F. Lord's "The 239

Novels of Anthony Trollope," which endeavours to maintain all the cautiousness and emphasis upon artistry of Harrison and his

companions and yet stand by the major points of the devoted

Trolloplans. Properly, Lord was an historical scholar, but in

1901-1902 he produced a whole series of articles on English novelists, and it is significant of the changing fashion, that he should have thought it politic to devote an entire essay to

the once-despised Anthony. Acknowledging enthusiastically the

claim that Trollope presented a vivid picture of an age* Lord proceeds to draw the conclusion that in that case his novels are doomed, since "...the world In which Trollope lived has 240 passed away." Because of this "Every page brings its own OAT flavour of unreality.. .;'"s*xIn order to support this theory

Lord has to resort to the old cry that Trollope was not an artist, but only a photographer. After establishing this, how•

ever, he- is sent veering off towards the enthusiast pole by a

cursory and very general discussion of the Barsetshire novels, and by the end of the essay is tempted to withdraw the epithet

In view'of what his labours have then led him to praise as 239L,crd, W.F., "The Novels of "Anthony Trollope", Nineteenth Century, vol.49,1901,pp. 804-815. 240Lord, op_. cit.,p. 806. ^libld., p.811. - 60 -

2433

Trollope's fine characterization and mastery of plot and narrative. Finally, however, he is brought safely home

again by the restraining influence "...of remembering the

Indignation with which Mr. Trollope himself repudiated the 243

idea that he was any more of an artist than a bootmaker."

As a critical essay the piece is worthless, but It serves as

a fine example of the effects of literary gossip upon the

literary snob.

From 1895 4b1905 then we find Trollope thoroughly resurrected, and very much a matter for discussion among

critics and", .those who make it a point to be alive to what

critics are saying. For another year or two the movement to reassess the worth of Trollope dragged on, but by 1910 the

question was apparently considered settled and the spate of

articles ceased. When the noise had died down he emerged In

very much the position which Henry James had given him. He is not the equal of the three great YictorlanSjThackeray, Eliot

and Dickens, but by virtue of his Barset novels he is a minor

classic. His other work is of interest only to the student

of the history of manners, who will find" in it his close obser•

vation and "complete appreciation of the usual" directed to•

wards other aspects of mid-Victor Ian Ehglandl than the rural.

To establish this as Trollope's rightful position

involved the removal of two factors which had been working

against his reputation ever since his death. The first of these,

842The quality of this criticism may be gauged by his require• ments here. cf. p. 814,"All the plots are good: it. is never -exactly obvious how they are going to< end."

243 lord, op. cit.,. p.816.: - 61 -

the Autohiography, presented' no gre^t problem. Though the

book Itself was felt to be a rather comic record of literary

activity, hardly in the best of taste, the damning it had

received was even more comic. Because of a reaction against-

those who had condemned it, the Autobiography was no longer

used as a weapon against Trollope. Instead, It was simply

sloughed over or apologized for on one ground or another. The

second, the sheer bulk of his work, proved equally easy to

deal with. Forty-six novels are apparently too many to be

considered in estimating a novelists' work - the mind haggles -

and so by a simple process of selection six are chosen as

eclipsing all the others completely. No critic who had a

hand in this arbitrary action offered any real evidence of

the Barsat novels* imperishable superiority over all of the

.others^ but the choice was made and still stands; today. Whether

or not their choice can be justified will be our chief concern

later,, but undoubtedly It can be explained. In the first place,

the Barset novels, as we have seen, had been the best-sellers

among Trollope's books, and it Is tempting to believe that

here the critics see acknowledging the authority of popular

taste. More convincing is the suggestion that their choice

was inevitable, in view of the type of literature which they

were decrying. To men who found the works of Moore and Gissing

disagreeably unhealthy, the indisputably wholesome atmosphere

of Barsetshire would be boutnd to have unusual appeal. A third

factor may perhaps have been an unconscious preference for deal•

ing with, a fairly homogeneous group of novels, which can be

discussed neatly as a Whole or easily compared one with another - 62 rather/ than, ranging amongst the diversity of the other forty, few of which lend themselves to such economical treatment.

During this period of critical readjustment Trollope's novels began once again to be fairly accessible. At the be• ginning of the century his books came out of copyright, and

John Lane published a cheap, and very attractive edition of the complete novels, while In America a similar set of forty vol• umes appeared,, edited by Harry Thurston Peck. Other reprints were numerous, especially of the Barsetshire series. Prom this period may be traced the beginning of Trollope's considerable popularity in the twentieth century. Publishers took a chance on the public's being Influenced by the critics and added

Trollope to their list of nineteenth century authors whom It was becoming- highly profitable to reprint. At this time his work shared the benefits of certain readers' return to older novelists. A century and a half of high achievement in the field of the novel had made this form, of art by far the greater part of most readers' literary diet, but by 1900; the ordinary educated man was beginning; to have his troubles with current fiction. He was In fact caught between two phenomena: the dtsentegration of the reading public; and the novel's increas• ing tendency to move away from the model set by the great elgh

#eenth century novelists and take over functions formerly per• formed by biography, the essay, and above all, poetry. The first resulted in lowered standards of taste which ensured fantastic sales for the novels of Marie Corelli and Hall Caine, and" for Individual books like Robert HicHens' Flames. The second was turning the novel away from the tradition of story- - 63 - telling and vivid characterization towards a disregard for plot, an emphasis on fine analysis of character, motive and emotion, experiment in language and form, and, very often, special pleading, direct or implicit, for some particular purpose or general philosophy. The eventual result of both these movements is the complete split in the reading public which today guarantees millions of eager readers for Faith

Baldwin and Lloyd Douglas, and a very limited and specialized group for Truman Capote, or even Ivy Compton-Burnett. The breach was well begun in the first decade of the century, and already the reader of some taste and education, who was yet no specialist in literature, was hard put to it to find many novels among current fiction with which he could relax and enjoy himself. Novels were either vulgar and cheap, or re• quired the close attention of poetry.

In contrast, the Mid-VictorIan period had presented

»o such difficulties to these readers. As Q. D. Leavis has 244 pointed out, Thackeray, George Eliot and Trollope: were the favourite novelists of the cultured, among their contemporar• ies, and Dickens, Reade, and of the less edu• cated. Between these groups there was no great barrier. The admirer of Esmond could respectably and enjoyably kill an idle evening over The Moonstone; and the most sentimental devotee of

Little Nell would- not find any insuperable difficulties in the language or the ideas of Adam Bede. Accordingly, Mid-Victorian

Leavis, Q. D.,. Fiction and the Reading Public, London, Chat to and WindHSjf, 1932, pp.33 - 34. - 64 -

fiction is a paradise for the middle brow and to the novelists

of this period he began to turn at the beginning of the new 245

century.

Once established as a minor classic by virtue of the

Barset novels Trollope continued to hold much the same position

for some years. The reception in 1915 of the first full length

study, T. H. S. Escott's, Anthony Trollope: His Works, Associates 246 and Literary Originals, was very much what we should expect. It was welcomed as "...an admirable record of the life of the author 247

of the Barsetshire novels...." and stimulated much remark on the

recent revival of Trollope. The book was criticized, however,

for its frequent analyses of plots, which had led Escott to

describe Trollope as in some degree the progenitor of the twen#- tieth-century problem novel. The Nation's reviewer dismissed the

idea with ease, on the grounds that V..it is for manners, not for

psychology, that we turn to Trollope."248 The affection for Bar•

setshire, the impatience with detailed study of Trollope's work,

the great interest in his life and personality, and the conscious•

ness of his value to the social historian,-all these greeted

Escott's book, and all are characteristic of the attitude towards

Trollope current from 1900 -fo 1914.

With 1915 came the centenary of Trollope's birth and.

one or two articles commemorating the date, a. highly sympathetic

245-pandor onth eaccoun generat l odemanf thed interesfor reprintst In eve, cfn ver. Fuller,Edwardy minor Victorian, s "Real ForceForces.is in Literature"Literal , Atlanticlbnthly, vol. ^2,1905, pp. 270 - 274. ' 2461scott,. T.H.S., Anthony Trollope: His Works. Associates and Literary Originals, JLOKPO.), -XO^W Lt*ne, !«•••». 247MelvIlle.Lewis, "Escqtt.'.s Anthony Trollope", Bookman,Oct, 1913,p. 43 • 248Nation, September 20,1913, p.920. - 65 - one in the Nat ion., and another in the Bookman which looked with distrust upon the last fifteen year's praise but admit• ted finally "...,he can be counted on to divert us."250 This idea also appeared in Punch, couched in some enthusiastic but remarkably flat verses by C. L. Graves, who sang his gratitude

to Barsetshire in what might almost be a burlesque of current 251 criticism: Good Chrohiclear of Barset, weaver of genial yarns, Homely and unaffected as the verse of Dorset Barnes, When the outlook is depressing, when the journals bleat and scare, I turn to your kindly pages and find oblivion there. You lead us back from the turmoil of these unhappy days To the land where our fathers went their untroubled ways;

etc., etc.

Had there been many such effusions Trollope and Barset alike might well have been killed off then and there,but on the whole the war period left the novelist in peace. This Is not

surprising. Anyone browsing through the newspapers, magazines and letters of the time is immediately struck: by the hysteria and emotional flag-waving and tear-jerking he finds everywhere.

It is the hey-day of the stock appeal. Even if we dismiss

Trollope's work as commonplace it has an honest restraint com• pletely foreign in spirit to such a sentimentally overcharged

atmosphere as this.

The same honesty and absence of cant caused his star

^"Trollope1 s Centenary", Nation, April 29,1915,pp.460 - 46.1. 250seccombe, Thomas, "Anthony Trollope," Bookman, April,1915. 251It isn't, however. The latter part is an outburst against "high brows" typical of Punch of the period. - 66 - to shine forth again in the post-war period, lighted by en• thusiasm, for the Autobiography, which appeared in 1922 for the first time since the original publication. The influence of this book upon Trollope's reputation has been remarkable.

Having effectively damned him for one generation,.by its very intransigence and assertive bluntness [itj remade more than it ever unmade{and] established more effectively than it ever disestablished, the fame of the man who wrote it.,and of the long list of wise, tender, and unpretentious novels 252 which he created." The twenties saw Trollope rockettlng higher than he had ever soared before, even in the 1860's, and. behind this rise were enthusiastic Trollopians, the avant- garde of a classical aesthetlcism, a fine scholarly critic, and a sympathetic popularizer.

The first of these is well represented by the American bibliophile, A. E. Newton, whose opinion of Trollope is voiced 255 clearly In The 'Amenities of Book Collecting. He ends his essay in this fashion:

Those of us who love Trollope love him for the very qualities which cause fatigue. In others. Our lives, it may be,, are faily strenuous; it is hardly necessary for us to have our feelings wrung of an evening. When the day Is done and I settle down In my arm chair by the crackling fire, X am no longer inclined to problems, real or imaginary. X suppose the average man does his reading with what comfort he may after dinner; it is the time for peace - and Trollope.254

252

At first sight, this seems to follow along in the tradition of Street and Gwynn hut the Integrity that marked their en• thusiasm has gone, and the spirit of C.L* Graves' unhappy verses has taken its place. However sincere and well-meant, this type of praise has attracted a bedside reading- school of Trollopians whose goal, whether they call it "peace" or

"oblivion" is not rational and appreciative enjoyment,, but escape; and whose highroad to it is unimaginative reading.

Trollope*s novels leave feelings unwrung and pose no prob• lems only for those who fail to recognize the paths implicit in many off his situations.

On the other hand, his second group off supporters seized upon this very reticence of emotion and elevated Trol• lope to Jane Austen's astral plane, there to join her In serv• ing as a pattern of perfection and a reproof to romantic excess.

Here the wheel has come full circle, and the abomination of the

1885 aesthetfis has become the darling of their 1928 counter• parts. The fantastic lengths to which this particular school could go are demonstrated by Ford Madox Ford in his book on the English novel:

Trollope and Miss Austen. - like Shakespeare and Richardson - stand so absolutely alone that no• thing very profitable Can be said about them by a writing analyzing British fiction in search of traces of main currents of tradition. They were both so aloof, so engrossed, so contemplative - and so masterly - that beyond saying that some, people prefer "The Warden" to "Framley Parsonage" and "Sense and Sensibility" to "Pride and Prejud• ice" and that others think the reverse there is little to be said. These at least are authentic writers - they neither flare out Into passages that are all super-genius.. .nor do they descend. to the Intolerable banalities of the endings of "Copperfield" or "Vanity Fair",..4all you can say is that they were just temperaments, and quiet ones at that. Inimitable - that is what they are ,250.

Obviously this is a radical move^ shooting Trollope from a lowly but respectable position to heights on which none of his admirers had ever dreamed of his belonging before. Twenty- five years previously Leslie Stephen had thought he was doing; his best for Trollope when he suggested that "...perhaps it would be well if readers would sometimes make a little effort to blunt their critical faculty." By 1928 his daughter, Virginia Woolf, could write of a dominion of perfection exercised by "...those two perfect novels, Pride and Prejudice and The Small House At

Allington ....?257and she had reached this point not by any blunt• ing of her critical faculty,, but by an extreme sharpening of one side of It* Pride and Prejudice and The Small. House at Allington. can be described as perfect novels only if the ideal of fiction is the stimulation of what Henry James called "the emotions of '258 familiarity." Here Trollope has been sucked Into a tide of that criticism which considers these emotions of familiarity to consist In the pleasure of recognition not of the commonplace,, the ordinary, the everyday,, but the basic, universal features of human life and character. Since these are fundamental and true to nature they ean have no power to provoke the "emotions of surprise".

255'Ford, Ford Madox, The English Novel. London, J.B.Lippencott Company, 1929, pp. 119 - 120. 256Quoted above, p. SS, 257 Woolf, Virginia, Common Header, 2nd\!L Series,, London,Hogarth Press, 1935.,, p. 234. (elssay Aiftst printed 19.28.) 7

258cf. p. - - 69 -

With their emphasis upon the human values in literature these English twentieth-century; neo--cla.ssI.cals have certain elements in common with another group that ex• tolled Trollope, the Babbitt New Humanists in America. An outstanding member of the movement, Paul Elmer More, devoted a long chapter in The Demon of the. Absolute to "My Debt to 259

Trollope," making a claim for him that had never been serious• ly offered before: The element of religion which,..pervades all Trollope*" s fiction,, is the ethical. ...No one of our greater novelists, unless it be George Eliot, saw more clearly than he the In• exorable nexus of cause and effect In the moral order, or followed more relentlessly the wide- spreading consequences of the little defalca• tions of will, the foolish misunderstandings of sympathy, the slight deflections from honesty, the deceptive temptations of success, the fail• ures to make the right decision at critical moments, the ruinous conrosions of passion and egotism.260

All this is a far cry from the cautious praise of

Saintsbury and Harrison, and the dangers to any author of thus becoming a particular movement's darling are obvious. From, the hands, of the truly critical he falls among a new set of literary snobs, and becomes a fashion, faced" with the inevitable fate awaiting all fashions. That Trollope was not blotted out once more by a new feeling that the movement against excess was itself excessive, a little unbalanced, and bent upon deifying the common• place into the universal, can be directly attributed to the re- 261 straining influence of Michael Sadlelr* s Trollope,A^ Commentary,

259More, Paul Elmer, The Demon of the Absolute. Princeton,Prince ton ' University Press, 1*328, pp.8T~-~TT8 260More, op_. cit., p.98. 261SadleIr, Michael, Trollope, A Commentary, London, Constable and Co. Ltd., 1927. - 70 -

which came out in 1927. Primarily a biography, the book

devotes nine tenths of its space to an examination through

Trollope^ of the Mid-Tictorian period, since he is represen•

ted as having expressed both "a period and an individual phy-

chology."262 This is the interpretation of Trollope which has persisted, as we have seen from the aims of The Trollopian,

Part of the success of Sadleir's view may be traced to the fact

that, unlike Virginia Woolf's interpretation, it jars none of

the traditional ideas that had developed since Trollope's death.

The emphasis throughout falls first upon the man himself, as being far more interesting ultimately than his work, secondly upon his novels' "expression of period psychology," and lastly upon the books themselves. The last thirty-five pages of a

bulky book are devoted to trying "...to appraise him fairly and

dispassionately, to take account, neither of period whim nor of

his own expressed ideals, but only of his right to hold a place

in the imperishable pageant of, the English novel"264

To this attempt Sadleir was prompted by both the C.L.

Graves and the Virginia fifoolf types of Trollope admirers, feeling

that "Trollope deserves a graver admiration than as a mere bed-

book author, and at the same time a judgment more stringent than^ .

would be passed by a new found enthusiasm for his Victorianism".

He is, in short, to be neither petted nor deified, but treated

seriously and soberly as a novelist. Sadleir's attempt to do - 71 -

this results in a sensitive and appreciative survey of Trol•

lope^ output, written with all his usual wit and charm. From 266 it Trollope emerges as "the supreme novelist of acquiescence? whose "almost pugnacious acceptance of reality" distinguishes 267

him from all other novelists of standing*. His art has two pre•

dominant qualities: "the power off characterization and the power 268 of dramatization of the usual."

Up to this point Sadleir has offered nothing that had

not already been put forward by Henry James in 1885, and more

or less established as the proper estimate of Trollope by 1910.

He does, however, go farther than this. Trollope is presented

as an. adult writer for adult readers, "more interested In the

deceptive calm of society's, surface than in the details of the 269 hidden whirlpools beneath" and. "...In all things sophisticated 270

and in social things more than a little cynical." The re• mainder of the chapter Is devoted to a description of his lit•

erary development, and, though the novels; are recommended whole•

sale, Sadleir's purpose here is to reaffirm the already estab•

lished supremacy of Barsetshire. This he achieves by a detailed

analysis off Doctor Thorne, which he describes as typical off the

good qualities of Trollope as a novelist. One point in this

study illustrates Sadleir's point of view at once: he feels that

the portrait of Sir Roger Scatcherd, a self-made man who finally

drinks himself to death, is: essentially un Trollop-ian,- the shad- lil ibid-. P- 366. 267 ibid., p. 367-

268 i^d-, P- 369. 269 ^ f p>370. ibid-, p. 371. - 72 -

ing is too strong. The pure Trollope is found in the drawing

of Mary Thome: "In her the light and beauty of the whole book

are centred." On a wider scale the ending of the chapter pre•

sents the same idea: "At times one wonders whether this fierce

tremendous book fThe Way We Live Now)is not the greatest novel

Trollope ever wrote. But when the thought of Mary Thome re•

turns, and be cause beauty is more permanent than anger and sweets

ness more abiding than even righteous cruelty, the satire falls

Into second place, leaving at the proud apex of Trollope fiction 271

the tale of Doctor Thorne perpetually enthroned."

Unfortunately, this brilliant biography was closely

followed by the English Men of Letters Series' volume on Trol- 070

lope, written by , Ostensibly the author's aim was the complete popularization of Trollope, but unhappily this purpose is achieved entirely on Walpole*s own terms. The early part of his book is based upon the Autobiography, or rather upon

Walpole's sentimental interpretation of what he describes as "one of the most honest, sincere and noble-minded books in the English 273

language." He produces a Trollope who bears a startling res•

emblance to one of Walpole*s own characters, a popular novelist 274 named Campbell who appears; in The Young Enchanted . Seen

through the eyes of one Peter, who represents the writer's own

point of view, "Campbell was a bit of a fool, too fat, too pros- perous, too anxious to be papular, but he was a happy man, and

ayj -ibld. t pp, 599 - 400., 272 Walpole, Hugh, Anthony Trollope, London, Macmillan and Co.,Ltd., 1928. 273Walpole, op. cit., -8.1. '^Walpole, Hugh, The Young Enchanted, London, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1921. - 73 - a man who was living his life at its very fullest. He was not a great artist, of course - great artists are never happy - but he had' .a narrative gift that it amused him to play with every morning of his life from ten to twelve, and he made money from that gift and could buy books and pictures and occasionally do a friend a good turn. Monteith and Grace Talbot and the others were more serious artists and were more seriously considered, but their gifts came to mighty little in the end - thin, thin little streams.**275

£. Fairly well forestalled, however, in any extended attempt at biography by Sadlelr*s book^Walpole of necessity devoted most of his attention to the novels. He glances at the whole catalogue, even the almost forgotten La vendee: passes

some acute remarks on the later novels that yet are vitiated by

an underlying current of "See*, old Trollope can beat the high• brows at their own game"; and finally plumps firmly for Barset•

shire, on the grounds that in this series "Trollope has created

276 a world." One cannot help but feel that his affection for

this world stems from the fact that to his mind it has the virtue

of his own sea-side town of Cladgate. "No New Art In Cladgate!

No Indeed. Mostly very charming warm-hearted people with no nonsense about them."277 In this, study Trollope is firmly dragged

down to the middle-brow level, and the seal of approval is set upon the bedside-reading school of Trollopians by a novelist of

the respectable "literary" type who has great popular influence.

The book represents the final debasement of the affection of Peck

and Gwynh, but at the. time reviewers united In saying that It a75ibid.,. Book II, Chapter VII. 276Walpole, Anthony Trollope, p. 67. 277walpole, The Young Enchanted. Book III, Chapter I. - 74 - would help not a little in the rehabilitation of Trollope's reputation.

Whether or not it helped to rehabilitate Trollope's reputation,, Anthony Trollope certainly helped to fix it for a number of years, and also to sell the novels, especially the

Barsets. From this time on slightly querulous- notes are struck

In articles, complaining that this novel or that, mentioned by

Walpole, is not available, and publishers saw to it that these

cries did not go long unanswered. The Barset novels appeared in many editions, the Palliser" novels fairly frequently, while the

Oxford University Press devoted an increasingly large section of their World's Classics Series to Trollope's works. The re• sults of all this publication should have been happy for Trol• lope, since-it meant that critics who chose to discuss certain novels could be reasonably sure that; their readers would have access to them. However, though Trollope was certainly read in the thirties, critically speaking he remained almost en• tirely static. From 1928 to 1938 only two Important studies 278 appeared, an essay by , and the section on

Trollope in Ernest Baker's comprehensive History of the English 279

Novel. Trollope at the time was In the position of an author who stood or fell with his Victorianism, Michael Sadleir had

studied him primarily as an expression of his period, and had

done so with a sober detachment that passed no judgment on the period itself. Walpole on the other hand had praised him because

278Cecil, Lord David, Early Victorian Novelists, New York, Bebbs-Merrill Company, 1935., pp, 253 - 287. - 279Bakerj Ernest A.,The History of the English NoveljLondonH. F . and G. W&therby, Ltd., 1937, vol. 8, pp.112 - 160. - 75 - of the conservative elements which he admired' in the Mid-

Victorian social scene, quite illogically contrasting them with the intellectual Ideals of the New Art highbrows that he feared. Cecil, in his turn sought to compare the Victor-

Ian novelists one to another as artists. The result in Trol• lope's ease is an urbane^slightly bloodless essay which passes much the same judgment as had Henry James r "Trollope Imagined truly,, but he imagined faintly." «ms most Interesting point is that Trollope, commonly considered the Arch-Victorian^Is the only one of these novelists to whom the Victorian, conven• tions are mere machinery, so that "the modern reader never has 281 to adjust his mind to a Victorian angle In order to enjoy him."

There, his heresy ends, however, and his final observation upon the novels Is that since Trollope's greatest value lies In his power to make us laugh,, the Barset series are his highest achleve- 282: ment,for they make us laugh the most.

Similarly, only one new suggestion appears in the Baker study, and like Cecil's idea it has never been taken up and de• veloped. He is the first to claim a poetic quality for Trol• lope, basing his claim upon "the generous feelings and self- abnegation that he regards as perfectly natural, as the reverse of surprising and extraordinary in such as Mr. Harding, Grace 285

Crawley and her father, etc."

On the whole these are the two lone critics, seriously considering Trollope as a writer. As the fashion for Victorian- ism waned Trollope was more commonly dismissed as a smug; old- 28QCeeil, 0£. cit.. p.265.

28I ihld.t p.261. 282ibid.^ p.286. 285Baker, op.cit., p.144. - 76 -

fashioned cynic, totally lacking in social conscience. By

the end of the thirties a rather pompous leading article In

the Times Literary Supplement described his. position among

those who move with the fashions In no kindly terms.

...Trollope's little burst of popularity in the twenties has already warred. It leaves behind It a charming book by Mr. Hugh Walpole and a brilliant one by Mr. Michael Sadlelr» but no cult survives. Apart from, the unpalatableness of Trol• lope's form to modern taste, the reason doubtless is that on examination he turns; out to be not a genuine de bunker at all. There is no malice In him. He takes the political world as he took the. religious world and every other kind of world he described... to be an everyday, material, seamy- sided affair, and he was not a bit horrified by his discovery.284

This is a curious description of the gradual Trollope rehabilitation we have traced from 1895. Though there ia ample

evidence of different groups turning to Trollope for different

things there has been no Indication of his enjoying popularity

as a de^bunker of Victorian!sm of the Lytton Strachey school.

Equally Inaccurate was the article's acceptance of a fresh and permanent eclipse for Trollope, since the "little burst of popularity"' from which "no cult survives" proved to be a mere

earnest of the really startling- rage for Trollope during- the

Second World War.

This surge of popularity manifested itself in a greatly

increased demand for his novels at a time when publishers had no paper for the purpose, with the result that poorly bound 285

second-hand copies of older editions sky-rocketted in price.

The effects of this demand are still with us In 1950, when not

only—the popular World^s Classics editions are hard to come by, 284Times Literary Supplement. March 20,1957, p. 19 3. 285Wildman, John H., "Anthony Trollope Today", College English, vol. VII, 1946, p.398. - 77 - but the expensive Oxford Illustrated Trollope eludes the eager purchaser. During the war^too several of the Barset novels were broadcast as serials by the B.B'.C. with considerable success, while Trollope even invaded the London stage for a respectable little run with a version of the Last Chronicle of Barset.

With the exception of the activities of R.W. Chapman, who has recently turned his attention to the task of establish• ing a definitive text of Trollope, Trollopian criticism during the last ten years has been largely devoted to speculation about the reasons for this craze. From all the mass of ephemeral con• jecture on this point we. can gather that two Trollopes caught war-time: England's fancy, the one that offered an escape into a world for which people felt nostalgia, and the one who offered comfort to those who were too honest to turn their backs on the present. The first of these is the more common, and It is the

Trollope- popularized by Hugh Walpole aa the creator of Barset• shire. The second is a distorted over-simplification of Vir• ginia Woolf's interpretation, and Its main source of Interest is not the novels, but the Autobiography.

For fifty years Barsetshire has been keeping Trollope in the ranks of authors whose work is not dead, and it has done so because it has never lost its appeal for Englishmen and all who have a feeling for the English countryside. Yet if we turn to the Barsetrhoyels to learn of Barsetshire, it is not there.

Several people including Trollope himself, have drawn maps of the country, complete with railway lines, but this bare outline is all that is to be found in the novels themselves. In spite - 78 - of all that other people have since written about the sunlight, the fields, the gentle air of Barsetj Trollope has not succeeded in realizing his county as George Eliot did hers and Thomas

Hardy his. His names, Barchester, Eramley, St. Ewold*s, Ullathorne,

Omnium, Hogglestoc^, and Plumstead Episcopi can create a reality only for those who can draw on their own experience or background to supply it, and the details of that reality will vary from per• son to person. Trollope did not create the world of Barsetshire; he evoked hundreds of Barsetshires from hundred's of readers.

The charm and value of this for people uprooted and tossed about by war is undeniable, but its 'literary worth is doubtful since its appeal is limited. More nearly universal is the value found In Trollope by a second group of readers, whose point of view is expressed in Elizabeth Bowen's Anthony Trollope: _ 286

A New Judgement, which was originally a fantasy for radio pro• duction. "Voiced by a yoiing soldier going to battle with a borrowed

Trollope novel, their new judgement Is that the Trollope characters are a support against hopelessness, since they are stronger than circumstances. "It is essential for us, these days, to believe in people, and in their power to live. Not just In heroes or monsters, but in ordinary people with the knack of living ordinary lives,... 287

We long for the ordinary."

The inference to be drawn from this is that Trollope*s characters have a peculiar power to comfort and refresh only when the ordinary is the extraordinary, and it becomes of great im• portance to have some source of assurance, that one need be neither hero-nor monster to overcome circumstance. For reassurance off this 286Bowen, Elizabeth, Anthony Trollope:. A New Judgement, Ltardoas, o*f««<, Oxford University Press, 1946. 287ibid.« pp.24 - 25. - 79 -

sort Miss Bowen? however, provides the young soldier not with the novel that he had intended to take, hut the Autobiography, and by doing so she has set the tone of subsequent serious

criticism. If Trollope's great value is to prove that "it's dogged as does it" then the Autobiography is his greatest achieve• ment and all that we need to remember of his vast output.

This is the trend that Trollopian criticism is taking today, and it is. the Inevitable outcome of the constant emphasis that intelligent critics, have laid upon the Autobiography since the beginning of the Trollope revival. The result of this close examination and consequent appreciation is that it is the only one of Trollope's works that rests on firm critical rock., staun• chly; supported by Michael Sadleir's Qommentary. This is proved by the failure of the Stebbinses to destroy the image of Trollope which the Autobiography reflects, for in many ways theirs is a clever book, slanted to catch the psychoanalytical fancy of the times. At present Trollope. himself Is safe, but his great host of men and women are drifting nearer and nearer to a whirlpool from which they are never likely to emerge. 288

In protest against this a brief study has just appeared in England which, judging by reviews, makes an attempt to turn the emphasis back to the novels and their characters and to consider them not as mere bed-book reading for people unwilling to cope with novels that experiment beyond the limits of the eighteenth century tradition, but as fiction that has something in it of permanent value. Unfortunately, the author, though en• thusiastic, has been nervous and hesitant, and generally unskill^ ful In presenting her case, with the result that at least one 288Brown, Beatrice Curtis, Anthony Trollope, London, Arthur Barker, Ltd., 1950. - 80 - one reviewer has felt that "The hook Is one to puzzle over...

But...£itsj all-excusing merit...is that it persuades one that a further and more attentive reading of the novels would reveal a greatness beyond what one has yet discovered, whether 289 of Trollope*s greatness or of his character"

A more attentive reading of the whole range of the novels will certainly reveal that Trollope Is not just a highly competent story-teller with a gift of sketching life-like char• acters, whose main claim to our regard is his drawing of his own bluff and honest personality. This very Autobiography gives us the clue, for in it Trollope is very definite In expressing 29 0 his views on the purpose and value of fiction. Because he also made a point of saying that he wrote for money readers have tended to dismiss his discussion of the moral nature of fiction as tri• vial and superficial. Nevertheless, Trollope was quite sincere

In his belief that the functionoof the novel was both to divert and to instruct by Implication, and most of his own books gain value and Interest from the fact that the problem with which he dealt was the one with which he himself had struggled through• out his early life, the difficulty and the prime Importance of. retaining one's self-respect as a human being.

Fithithis in mind we shall find the Autobiography not a record, of literary activity, comic, or interesting, or admir• able, but a most valuable gloss on the novels. In It Trollope presents himself |cast as a boy despised by everyone, and above all by himself. He then traces his struggles to gain the good

28%otes and Queries, May 27,1950, p. 242 . 290fcrollope, Auto.., pp.197* - 203. - 81 - opinion of others, but even more to regain his self-respect.

That he has expressed, the course of this struggle largely in terms of money earned and clubs joined has either bothered or pleased many readers, and let them to' think either that

Trollope was a mercenary snob, or that he was a remarkably honest man In an age that has gained a reputation for hypocrisy.

Both these Interpretations have^I believe^confused Trollope's symbol for his success with his true goal. When he writes the. final sum of his literary earnings, the famous B68,939 17s. 6d., he is merely using his symbol for his final success in his. long struggle. We- cannot Ignore Trollope's frequent emphasis on money, but neither can we say that to htm It was the prime good.

Since lack of it had originally destroyed his self-confidence by denying him. a normal life at Harrow and Winchester and then tossing him Into a London world with which he was not equipped to deal,, it Is neither unnatural nor culpable that he should later associate wealth with happiness, security, and his res• tored self-respect. That he never confused the symbol with the real good with which he associated It can be seen from his treat• ment of the whole question of self-respect in. the novels.

Miss Bowen's young soldier described the Trollope characters as ordinary people-who "...know what they want and... 291 want what they want all out? Many of Trollope's contemporary critics would have been startled at such a statement, for one of their most frequent complaints was that his heroes were poor creatures who vacillated interminably, while his silly heroines never seemed to be able to make up their minds. Neither des• cription is accurate, for it is certainly true that the Trollope

29.1 Bowen, Trollope, p.24. 8S -•

characters very often do not know what they want, yet their

Indecision does not stem from stupidity or lack of principle;

Rather, their difficulties arise from a combination of circum•

stance and their own temporary frailties, and the main interest

of the novels centres upon their eventually making the right

decision, the one which will preserve for them their self-res• pect.

In its simplest form the problem, appears in The

Warden, where Mr. Harding, whose only fault was that of taking his position for' granted, prevails against all the massed power

of the Archdeacon's faction to make and keep* to the only decis.-. ion compatible with his principles. The struggle in this case proves relatively straight-forward, since Mr. Harding is a

saintly old man who finds little in the world to tempt him. His

sole concern Is to distinguish the course which will enable him to regain his self-respect, and once he has found it his usually mild and amenable temper turns stubborn, and refuses to oblige those for whom he Would do anything else In the- world;

Barchester Towers has none of this element, for It is

simply the tale of a war between, tyrants, Mrs. Proudie and Mr.

Slope, complicated by the exotic and unpredictable natures of

Bertie Stanhope and the Slgnora Neroni. Largely slapstick,

though on a very high level, it is undoubtedly the Barset hovel

that makes us laugh the most, and so will probably continue to win an audience. In the general scheme of the Barsetshire

Chronicles, however, its chief value is that it elaborates on

certain of The; Warden* s personages and introduces the most

famous of all the Trollope characters, Mrs. Proudie. - 83 -

When, we pass to Doctor Thorne, however, we find a man fighting to adhere to what he senses to he right in the

face of the temptation of letting a worthless young man drink

himself to death so that a beloved adopted daughter may Inherit

the fortune that will make everything smooth before her* Mi•

chael Sadieir has analyzed.this novel as though It were chiefly 292

the story of Mary Thorne, but Trollope had a tendency to

spotlight, the main concern of a novel In Its title, and has done

so In this case. The main matter of Doctor Thorne is the doc•

tor's struggle to maintain his duty to himself against all the

temptations; prompted by his love for Mary.

The Warden and Doctor Thorne show as two men for whom

personal ambition was never a motive complicating the moral issue,

but with Framley Parsonage the whole social scene becomes more

tangled and the Issues less cut and dried. Nearly everyone In

Framley Parsonage has difficulty In deciding what he should do,

but the chief emphasis; falls upon the young clergyman: Mark

Robarts* Though Framley Parsonage has sometimes been dismissed

as trivial, it is the Barset novel which Indirectly presents;

Trollope's case for the virtues of a rural English society al•

ready disappearing. In this book we have not only Individuals

trying to solve Individual problems, but an older tradition of

responsibility both to the land and to one's associates striv•

ing, against the. self-seeking, dog^eat-dog activities of the de•

generate Sowerbys and their upstart friends, supported by the

great power of wealth the Duke of Omnium. The difficulties of

Sadie Ir, Trollope, pp.387 - 388:. - 84 - remaining, a conscience - easy young clergyman in such an en• vironment, when one Is both personally ambitious and socially vain are obvious, and Mark Robarts comes very close to com• plete disgrace and self-hatred. Yet eventually toe chooses the only path that will lead him back to self-respect and humbly prepares to sacrifice everything to pay off his debts. That no such drastic measures are required of him, since the Luftons come to. his aid, points two typical Trollopian morals: the essential decency of the older order in rural England, and the. fact that In Barsetshire, though a man may make a serious mis• take, his recognition and. repentance of it will guarantee his return to grace.

The Small House at Allington is a Barset novel neither

In setting nor In outlook, as Trollope's Instinct told htm when he hesitated to Include it In the Barset Chronicles. In our search for the central motif of self-respect In these chronicles it will be as well to pass for the moment to by far the most subtle and engrossing of them all, The last Chronicle of Barset;

In it two characters; clash who have been developing from Bar- chester Towers through Framley Parsonage, Mrs. Proudie and the

Reverend Mr. Crawley of Hagglestock. Both of these creations; are worth study in the light of Trollope's preoccupation with the value of integrity, for they of all the Barsetshire person• ages are the most fully drawn and justly the most famous.

To Trollope, self-respect was of necessity based in self-knowledge, and so the most dangerous force that eould drive anyone was that pride which led to self-deception, and

thesfcAboth Mrs. Proudie and Mr. Crawley expresses Itself in a - 85 - militant and uncompromising righteousness. In The Last Chronicle of Barset these two stiff-necked creatures clash for the last time, and it is the hitherto indomitable Mrs, Proudie that gives way. The reason for her defeat and the explanation Trollope later gave for her death give us a clearer notion of how his mind worked on this question with which he concerned himself,

Mr. Crawley prevails over Mrs, Proudie because he has gained insight and so recognized his much prized righteousness for what it is, pride. He is the only proof that need ever be cited to dismiss the notion that Trollope's great gift to the world is the rather doubtful doctrine of "it's dogged as does it." Through much of the latter half of this very long novel

Mr. Crawley clings to this idea, because it supports him in his self-righteousness, but finally he recognizes it for the mislead• ing advice it Is and makes his grand gesture of self-abnegation.

Xn doing so he regains the self-respect which he had destroyed by his pride years before, and so goes into battle with Mrs.

Proudie with the strongest armour that Trollope can give him.

In contrast, Mrs. Proudie meets him with no such self- knowledge and has the'recognition of the nature of her righteous• ness forced upon her by defeat. From that moment she is a bro• ken and repentant woman, and since she has throughout, been portrayed as a fundamentally good person and sincere Christian we accept the sudden collapse. In the novel she dies of a 293. heart attack, though many people have maintained in 'the light

293cf. Walpole, op. cit:, p. 66. - 86 - of Trollope's own anecdote that he murdered her in cold blood.

Elsewhere in the Autobiography, however, he says that Mrs.

Proudie died of repentance, a repentance too sudden and too late, that resulted not from self-searching but from exposure..

On the basis of the Barsetshire novels some sort of a case might be made out to prove that Trollope confused wealth with his goal of self respect, for It Is quite true that in Barsetshire "all have won and all shall have prizes." After they have chosen the honourable course In each case Mr. Harding,

Doctor Thorne, Mark Robarts and Mr; Crawley all eventually spend the rest of their lives in easy circumstances. Mr. Harding and

Mr. Crawley gain good livings, while Doctor Thorne marries the fabulous heiress, Miss Dunstable. Mark Robart's benefits are simply the payment of his debts, and, as we have noticed before, this results from the peculiarly kindly and unworldly attitude of true Barset. Trollope would probably make this his defense against the suggested charge, for in the older gentler world of

Barset It is a case of: Be upright, and all good things shall come to you.

We have only to cross the border to Allington to find a slightly different world which contains two of the most puzz• ling of the Trollope characters, Lily Dale and John Earaes. Here we have two young people who act with principle and courage, and are rewarded with disappointment and frustration. Both have a background of Barset society, and both are victimized by a less honourable world. John Eames Trollope describes as a "hobble• dehoy", endowing him with an origin and background similar to his own. He even gives him a similar clerk's job in the civil - 87 - service, and altogether the resemblance between Johnny Eames and the young Anthony Trollope is quite marked. With the.

London schemers Amelia Roper and Madelina Desmollnes he has his troubles, but his good sense and courage extricate him from these entanglements. It is Adolphus Crosbie, weak,selfish and cowardly, who ruins John Eames' life by destroying Lily

Dale's faith in herself.

More light may be thrown on Trollope's purpose in this story by comparing It with The Belton Estate. I have never seen the connection between these two novels noted, yet there is a plain parallel between the stories of Lily Dale,

John Eames, and Adolphus Crosbie, and Clara Amedroz, Will Belton, and Captain Aylmer. If John Eames is the young Anthony, Will

Belton Is Anthony self-aware and self-confident. Where Eames fails, Belton is successful, and, like his Barsetshire counter• parts, ends up with both his self-respect and his reward. Surely the difference may be traced to the fact that in The Small House at Allington the new order of a selfish and corrupt aristocracy and upper middle class has overcome the true Barset gentry, whi^fe.

IDhe Belton Estate plays itself out in the heart of some county where the older standards still prevail.

In the later novels the difficulties of maintaining one's integrity become more and more complicated by the wider opportunities offered for mistakes and mishaps in parliamentary life and the polite society of London. By 1876, when he wrote the Autobiography Trollope had learned to describe the world he dealt with in terms quite different from his picture of the decent and unselfish society off Barsetshire. Having- moved once - 88 -

and for all from this society Into that of the present reality he turned his attention from men and women whose sense of duty to what they know to be right triumphs over difficulties; to those who fail, yet repent; and finally to those who, placing no value whatsoever on their own Integrity are driven entirely by pride and ambition:

In these times, when the desire to be honest Is pressed so hard, is so violently assaulted by the ambition to be great, in which riches are the easiest road to greatness; when the temptations to which men are subjected dull their eyes to the perfected Iniquities? of others; when it Is so hard for a man to decide vigorously that the pitch, which so many are handling,will defile him if it be touched;- men's Conduct will be actuated much by what Is from day to day depicted to them as leading to glorious or Inglorious results.294

This is Trollope's expression of his purpose In the non-Barset novels, and it is one which he achieved in book after book. . First among- the characters he draws in this endeavour are Julia Brebazon, later Lady Ongar, and Lady Laura Standish.

They may be taken as typical of those who make one mistake, and

then having recognized tt, repent it for the rest of their lives.

For both of these women "the ambition to be great" is too strong,

causing them to allow pride or false reasoning to turn them from

their less exalted but honest lovers, Hugh Claverlng and Phineas

Finn, to men whose wealth is their sole asset. Julia Brahazon has both too much worldly pride to marry a young schoolmaster,

and complete confidence in her ability to handle any man, even

the difficult Lord Ongar, Lady Laura's motives are not so simple,

and with her the situation is far more complex;. While Julia Bra- kazon has beggared herslf by extravagance, Lady Laura has

Trollope, Auto., p 200 - 89 -

sacrificed her fortune to pay her brother's debts. Her great

fault is not selfishness, but a self-deceiving pride which

she rationalizes as worldly common sense and" reasonableness.

Like Julia she has complete confidence in her ability to do

her duty in the sphere which she has chosen, but both women

have allowed pride to blind them to the duty they owe them•

selves, the sense that would prevent them from degrading them•

selves to the level of merchandise.> and shoddy at that. Trol•

lope pities them* however, as people who have deceived themselves rather than deliberately designed to deceive others. The lives

they bring upon themselves Inspire pity, and it is a pity inten•

sified by the irony of their fates. The Julia who considered

her position In the eyes of the world, to be more Important than

her Integrity as a human, being, ends with a doubtful name, the

victim of the cheapest intriguers. Once so sure of her Influence

over men, she loses Hugh Clavering and sinks to a point where

even the wretched Archie can be persuaded that she would con•

sider his proposal. Lady Laura's fate has a similar ironic

twist: the woman who placed all her trust in her good sense

and strong Intelligence finally loses her mind in the horror

of the situation she has brought upon herself.

The rejected Phineas Finn and Hugh Clavering were

chief among, the Trollope heroes whom contemporary reviewers

slated as being vacillating;. That they seem to lack the con• viction of the earlier Far.set heroes results simply from the

far more difficult world they struggle In. Neither is In the

least heroic, and both are romantic and Impressionable, with

the result that they fall prey to the guile of men and women - 90 -

who work on their impulsiveness for their own purposes. Tet

both Phineas and Hugh have that sense of the supreme import•

ance of integrity which prevents them from taking the step

that would lead Inevitably to self-disgrace. Phineas will not

vote against; his convictions; Hugh will, not go back on his

word to Florence Burton. The temptations in each case are

great. For Phineas a little more compliance would mean fur•

ther success in his political career rather than a lame with•

drawal to Ireland; while to Hugh Is offered a beautiful wife,

with an Income of E7,Q00 a year. Unlike the unfortunate Julia

and Lady Laura they recognize these goods as of less ultimate

value than their own self-respect.

Bridging the gap between these novels and the savage

The Prime Minister and The lay We Live Now is that exotic

among the Trollope works. The Eustace Diamonds. To anyone

reading Trollope for analyses of men and women wrestling, with

ethical problems Lizzie Eustace at first seems an anomaly,

though, perhaps some distant relation of the Signora Neroni.

Lizzie never faced an ethical problem In her life, yet Trollope

had a larger purpose than sheer amusement In his careful draw•

ing of this diverting figure. The criticism of the commercial

Ideals of his age which we saw beginning in Framley Parsonage

and constantly Implied In the three books we have just examined,

in The Eustace Diamonds becomes the theme of the novel. Here

integrity of character has been almost completely swamped and

self-seeking rides high. A group of worldly and selfish people

are themselves victimized, by the perfect product of the society

they have created, Lizzie Eustace. It is significant that except for the Signora Neroni and Grlselda Grantly, neither of whom was ever intended to be human,Lizzie is the only Trollope woman whose; appearance Is constantly emphasized. She is a remarkably pretty woman, but Trollope manages to convey the impression that her beauty was just a little flashy. This showiness Is all of a piece with the whole society in which she moves, a world where appearance is- everything. The im• portance that Lizzie herself attaches to externals causes her downfall. The reason that she Is determined to have the dia• monds is that to her they are the visible sigh/ and proof of

the wealth and. position she has acquired by her marriage. To

Lizzie everything, from a memorized passage from Queen Mab to her little son, is Important only as a means of giving her the appearance of being something: she Isn't. These are the weapons with which she defeats all who deal as she does In ex•

ternals, from the pompous Lord Fawn to the ambitious Frank

Greystock. Eventually, however,, in the face of the solid and honest persistence of the lawyer Camperdown,. her stupid game

to keep, the diamonds falls, and when she loses them she loses

all the other trappings she has gained. She keeps the solid benefits of her marriage, her E.4.00 a year, but in her own. eyes the glitter has gone from her life, and she and her Income fall

victim to someone just as unscrupulous as she but far more real•

istic, the Reverend Mr. Emilys.

Mr. Emil|u\j)s, like Lizzie, belongs to comedy; but be•

cause he knows exactly what he wants and and will do anything

OJ

to get It, herserves as^rehearsal for Ferdinand Lopez of The

Prime Minister and Melmotte of The Way We Liffe Now. The Prime - 92 -

Minister presents a mixture of two worlds, in which an un• scrupulous adventurer invades a decent household where integrity and affection are the chief goods. Th«$ Integrity and affection he uses for his, own ends and by his unbridled ambition kills his wife and destroys his father-in-law's happiness. Lopez has not even a hint of grandeur to condone his machinations; all his schemes are on a miserably small scale, and In his sys• tematic robbing of his father-in-law he descends to haggling over even the smallest bills. He is all sham., and when his schemes are finally tumbling about him. it is that mistress of sham Lizzie Eustace who gives him the coup de grace. In res• ponse, to his florid appeal to fly with him"to some romantic clime with her £400 a year Lizzie dismisses him with a bored

"Mr. Lopez, don't be such a fool." Fool he certainly was, but a very dangerous one. The Prime Minister has been criticized on the grounds that it is simply two novels strung together on the flimsiest connection. This is not really just, for the havoc that the miserable Lopez causes even in the Palliser house hold is a symptom of the disruptive effect the way off life he represents can have on even the most high-minded and upright.

Integrity, in the person of Plantagenet Palliser, holds out against the new order represented by Lopez In Ufae

Prime Minister, but with The Way We Live Now all relics of the decency and honour which were the norm in Barsetshire have dis- 29(5 appeared. As Michael Sadleir has observed, this is the novel

Sadleir, op. cit., p, 396. - 95 - in which Trollope seems really to despair of humanity. Mel- mot te is the final expression of the new ideals, the Incarna• tion of a heartless and unscrupulous ambition that by its very nature is self-destructive. In this book Trollope has reached the position that once men have no sense of duty to their own integrity or responsibility to anyone else, they destroy both others and. themselves.

These novels ^then,are a fair sampling of the major works of a writer whom we have not too willingly granted a niche among the lasting English novelists as an unusually skill• ful depicter of mid-Victorian men and manners, complacently realistic and aiming solely at amusement. But even this brief examination of his most familiar books shows Trollope to be

Instead a great novelist, whose major concern is one of univer• sal importance and ethical interest: the problem of how to live in such a way as to maintain one's integrity. Because the struggle he depicts was one which he himself had experienced in a world that was not made easy for him, his teaching has the breath of life that comes only from the understanding gained by experience. In this estimate of Trollope's value the Barset• shire Chronicles must take second place in his achievement, for in this world the struggles are seldom very complex and never unsuccessful. It is the later novels, that the full, force of

Trollope's own courageous belief in the supreme value for society

of personal integrity and unselfishness finds expression; and It

is this strength of conviction, combined with the urbanity and

skill as a story-teller Yrtilch have never been denied him, that - 94 - entitles Trollope to be lifted once and for all from the ranks of the second-rate to join the company of the great English novelists. I

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. The works of Trollope. *The Macdermotts of Ballycftinran. London, Newby, 1847. *The Kellys and the 0 'Kellyg; or Landlords and Tenants, 3 vols, London, Colburn, 1848. La Vendee: An Historical Romance', 3 vols, London, Colburn, 1850. *The Warden, Ivol, London, Longman, 1855. *Barchester Towers, 3 vols, London, Longman, 1857. *The Three Clerks; ,A Novel, 3 vols, London,Bentley, 1858. *Doctor Thorne: A NQvel, 3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1858. The Bertrams: A Novel,3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1859- *The West Indies and the Spanish Main, I vol, London, Chapman and Hall, 1859. • Castle Richmond: A Novel, 3 vols, London,Chapman and Hall, I860. *Qrley Farm, 2 v-di&s, London, Chapman and Hall, 1861. *Framley Parsonage, 3 vols, London, Smith, Elder, 1861. *Tales of All Countries, I vol, London Chapman and Hall, 1861. North America, 2 vols, London,Chapman and Hall, 1862. Tales of All Countries: Second Series, I vol, London, Chapman and Hall, 1863. *Rachel Ray: A Novel, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1863- *The Small House at Allington, 2 Vols, London, Smith, Elder, 1864. *Can You Forgive Her?, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1864 • II

*Miss Mackenzie, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1865. Hunting Sketches, I vol, London, Chapman and Hall, 1865. *The Belton Estate, 3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1866. Travelling Sketches, I vol, London, Chapman and Hall, 1866.

Clergymen of the Church of England? I vol, London, Chap• man and Hall, 1866. *Nina Balatka, 2 vols, Edinburgh and London, Blackwood, 1867 *The Claverings, 2 vols, London, Smith, Elder, 1867. *The Last Chronicle of Barset, 2.vols, London, Smith, Elder, 1867. Lotta Schmidt: and Other ..Stories, I vol, London, Strahan, 1867. *Linda Tressel, 2 vols, Edinburgh and London, Blackwood, 1868. *Phineas Finn, the Irish Member, 2 vols, London, Virtue, 1869. *He Knew He Was Right, 2 vols, London, Strahan, 1869- *The Vicar of Bulliiampton, I vol. London, Bradbury Evans, 1870. An Editor's Tales, I vol, London, Strahan, 1870. The Struggles of Brown, Jones and Robinson: By one of the Firm, I vol, London, Smith, Elder, 1870. The Commentaries of Caesar, I vol, Edinburgh and London , Blackwood, 1870. *Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite, I vol, London, Hurst and Blackett, 1871. *Ralph the Heir, 3 vols, London, Hurst and Blackett, I87I. *The Golden Lion of Granpere, I vol, London, Tinsley, 1872. *The Eustace Diamonds, 3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall,

1873. Australia and New Zealand, 2 vols, London, Chapman and

Hall, 1873- Ill

*Phineas Redux, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1874. *Lady Anna, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1874. S^EEE Heathcote of GangAil: A Tale of Australian Bush Life, I vol, London, Sampson, Low, 1874. ISY. If. live Now, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1875. *The Prime Minister, 4 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1876 *The American Senator, 3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1877. South Africa, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1878. *Is He Pop en .joy ?, 3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1878. An Eye 'for an Eye, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1879. Thackeray, I vol, London, Mac'millan, 1879. *Jo_hn Caldigate, 3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1879. *Cousin Henry, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1879- *The Duke's Children: A Novel, 3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1880. The Life of Cicero, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1880. Dr. Wortle's School, 2 vols, London, Chapman and Hall,

1881. * Aval a 's Angel, 3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1881. Why Frau FRohmann Raised her Prices: And Other Stories, I vol, London, Isbister, 1882. Lord Palmerston, I vol, London, Isbister, 1882. Kep_t in the Dark, 2 vols, London, Chatto and Windus,1882. Marion Fay, 3 vols, London, Chapman and Hall, 1882. The Fixed Period, 2 vols, Edinburgh and London, Black• wood, 1882. *Mr. Scarborough's Family, 3 vols, London, Chatto and Windus, 1883- IV

*An Autobiography, 2 vols, Edinburgh and London, Blackwood, 1883- The Landleaguers, 3 vols, London, Chatto and findus, 1883. *An Old Man 's Love, 2 vols, Edinburgh and London,. Blackwood, 1884. * Presently- available in the Oxford University Press's " World's Classics " series.

II. General. Baker, Ernest A., The History of the English Novel, 10 vols, London, H. F. and G. Wetherby, Ltd., 1937.

Batho, Edith, and Dobree, Bonamy, The Victorians, and After, L33_0-I9I4, London, the Cresset Press, 1938.

Bowen, Elizabeth, Anthony Trollope: A New Judgement, Oxford, Cjxford University Press, 1946.

Bowen, Elizabeth, " English Novelists ", in Impressions of , ed., W. J. Turner, London, Collins, 1944. Bryce, James, Studies in Contemporary Biography, New York, The Macmillan Company, I9II. Cazamian, M. L., Le Roman et Les Idees en Angleterre, 2 vols, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1923. Cecil, Lord David, Early Victorian Novelists, New York, Bobbs-Merrill, 1935- Chesterton, G. K., Ail is Grist, London, Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1931. Chevally, Abel, The Modern English N6vel, New York, Alfred Pinopf, 1930. Collins, Norman, The Facts of Fiction, London, Victor Goll- ancz, 1932. Colvin, G. S., ed., The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, London, Chatto and Windus, 1912. Cross, J. W., George Eliot 's Life as Related in her Letters §5.d Journals, Edinburgh, Blackwood, >8*«r. Cross, Wilbur L., The Development of the English Novel, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1899. V

Cruse, Amy, ^he Victorians and their Reading, Boston, Hough• ton Mifflin, 1935. Cunliffe, John, The Leaders of the Victorian Revolution, New York, D. App'leton Century, 1934. Devonshire, M. G., The English Novel in France, 1830-1870, London, The University of London Press, 1929. Elton, Oliver, A Survey, of English Literature, 1830-1880, 2 vols, London, Edward Arnold and Company, 1932. Elwin, Malcolm, Charles Reade, London, Jonathon Cape* 1934. Flower, Newman F. , ed. , The Journals, of , .19II- 192I, London, Cassell and Company, 1931. Ford, Ford Madox, The English Novel, London, J. B. Lippin- cott Company, 1929. Forster, E. M., Aspects of the Novel, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1927- Furniss, Harry, Some Victorian. Men, London, John Lane, 1924. Gerould, Gordon Hall, The Patteras of English and American Fiction, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1942. Harrison, Frederic, Studies in Early Victorian Literature, 2 ed., London, Edward Arnold, 1905- Kenyon, F. G., ed., The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Brown- New York, The Macmillan Company, 1910. Lang, Andrew, A History^ of English Literature from " Beowulf " to Swinburne, London, Longmans Green and Co., 1912. Leavis, Q-. • D. , Fiction and the Reading Public,London, Chatto and Win dus, 1932. ~ Lovett, Robert M., and Hughes, Helen S., The History of the Novel in England, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1932. Lubbock, Percy, The Craft of Fiction, London, Jonathon Cape, 1921. McCarthy, Justin, A History of Our Own Times, 4 vols, London, Chatto and Windus, 1880. McCarthy, Justin, Reminiscences, 2 vols, London, Chatto and Windus-, 1899. Maitland, F. W., The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen, London, Duckworth and Co., 1906. Melville, Lewis, ( pseud. L. S. Benjamin ), Victorian Novelists, London, Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1906. VI

Moore, George, Confessions_qf a Young Man, London, William Heineman Ltd., 1928. "~

More, Paul Elmer, The Demon of the Absolute, Princeton, Prince• ton University Press, 1928.

Newton, A. E., The Amenities of Book Collecting, Boston, The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1924. Newton, A. E., End Papers, Boston, Litgle, Brown, and Company, 1933- ' Paul, Herbert, A History of Modern England,5 vols, London, fflacmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904. Pavey, L. A., " Anthony Trollope " in The English Novelists,, ed., Derek Verschoyle, London, Chatto and Windus, 1936. Perry, Bliss, A Study of Prose Fiction, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1902. Phelps, William Lyon, The Advance of the English Novel,New York, Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1927. Pollock, Sir Frederic, Personal Remembrances^ 2 vols, London, Macmillan and Company, 1887. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, and Other Victor• ians , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1927. Raleigh, Lady, ed., The Letters of Sit Walter Raleigh, 1879- 1922, 2 vols, London, Methuen and Co., Ltd., 2 ed., 1928. Reid, T. Wemyss, ed., The life, Letters, and Friendships-of

Richard Monckton Milnes, First, Lord H0ughton, 2 vols, 2 ed, London, Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1890. Russell, George W. C., ed., The Letters of Matthew Arnold, I848-1888, 2 vols, London, Macmillan and. Co., 1895. Sadle^r, Michael, Trollope: A Commentary, London, Jonathan

Saintsbury, George, A History_ of Nineteenth Century Literature 1780-1900, London, Macmillan and Company, Ltd., 1929- Speare, Morris Edmund, The Political Novel, New York, Oxford University Press, 1924. Stebbins, Lucy Poate, arid Stebbins, Richard Poate, The Trollopes:, The Qh.ronicle of , a Writing. Family, New yYork, Columbia University Press, 1945. Stephen, Sir Leslie, Studies of a Biographer, 2 series, 4 vols, London, Duckworth and Co., 1902. VII

Swinnerton, Frank, A London Bookman, London, Martin Seeker, 1928.

Wagenknecht, Edward, Cavalcade of the English Novel, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1943. Walker, Hugh, The Literature of the , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1910. Walpole, Hugh, Anthony Trollope, , London, Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1928. Walpole, Hugh, The English Novel, The Rede Lecture, 1925, Cam• bridge, Cambridge University Press, 1925. Weygandt, Cornelius, A Century of the English Novel, D. Apple- ton Century Company, Inc., New York, 1925. Wingfield-Stratford, Esme, The Victorian Aftermath, London, Routledge, 1933- Wise, Thomas J., ed., Letters of Robert Browning, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1933. Wotton, Mabel E., ed., Word Portraits of Famous Writers, Lon• don, Richard Bentley and Son, 1887. Wright, William Aldis, ed., Letters of Edward Fitzgerald, 2 vols, London, Macmillan and Company, 1901. Wright, William Aldis, ed., Letters of Edward Fitzgerald to Fanny; Kemble, I87I-I885, London, Richard Bentley and Son, 1895. Young, G. M., ed., Early Victorian England, 1850-1865, 2 vols, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1934. 1 Young, W. T., " Lesser Novelists ", in The Cambridge History ?JL English Literature, vol XIII, New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1928. Woolf, Virginia, The Common Reader, London, The Hogarth Press, 1935.

III. Periodical Articles. Allen, Hope E., " The Text of Trollope ", Times Literary Supplement, April 4, 1942, |.180.

Belloc, Hilaire, " Anthony Trollope ", London Mercury, vol . n, 1932-33, PP- 150-57. Bettany, F. M., " In Praise of Anthony Trollope's Novels ", l°l£n±£htl£ Seviewj. vol77, N. S. , 1905, pp. I000-I0II. VIII

Booth, Bradford Allen, ed., " Preface ", The Trollopian, Spring I945< -

Booth, Bradford Allen, " Editorial Note ", The Trollopian, March, 1946.

Box, H. Oldfield, 11 The Decline and Rise of Anthony Trollope 11, Listener, December 28, 1944,.pp. 718-719. Bradford, Gamaliel Jr., " Anthony Trollope ", Atlantic Monthly, vol 89, 1902, pp. 426-432. Bush, Douglas, " The Victorians, God Bless Them ", Bookman, vol 74, I93I-I932, pp. 589-597. Cecil, Lord David, " Victorian Novelists ", National Review, vol 99, pp. 652-664. Chapman, R. W., " The Text of Trollope ", Times Literary Supp• lement, Jan. 25, 1941, p. 48; March 22, 1941, P.144; Feb. 8, 1941, p. 72; March I, 1941, p. 108. Chapman, R. W., " Trollope's American Senator ", Times Liter- Supplement, June 21, 1941, p. 304; July 12, p. 335. Chapman, R. W., " The Text of Trollope's Ayala' s Angel ", Modern Philology, vol 39, 1942, pp. 287-294. Chapman, R. W. " The Text of Trollope's Sir Harry Hotspur ", Notes and Queries,,Jan. I, 1944, pp. 2-3. Chapman, R. W., " Trollopian Criticism ", Times Literary Sup• plement, July 5, 1941, p. 323; July 26, 1941, p. 359. Chapman, R. W., et. al, " The Text of Phineas Finn ", Times Literary Supplement, March 25, 1944, p. 156; April 15, p. 192. Chapman R. W., " The Text of Trollope's Autobiography Re• view of English Studies, vol 17, pp. 90-94. Chapman, R. W., " The Text of Trollope's Novels ", Review of English Studies, vol 17, pp.184-192. Chapman, R. ff., " The Text of Phineas Redux ", Review of Eng• lish Studies, vol 17, pp. 322-3^1. Cooper, H., "Trollope and Henry James ", Modern Language Notes, vol 58, 1943, P- 558. •Edwards, Ralph, " Trollope on Church Affairs Times Liter• ary Supplement, Oct. 21, 1944, p, #16. Ellis, S. M., " Trollope and Mid-Victorianism ", Fortnightly Review, vol 122, 1927, pp. 422-425. " English Character and Manners as Portrayed by Anthony Trol• lope ", Westminster Review, Jan. 1885, pp. 53-100. TV

Escott, T. H. S., " Anthony Trollope: An Appreciation and Rem• iniscence 11, Fortnightly Review, vol 80, N. S. , 1906, pp. I095-II04. " T. H. S. Escott's Anthony Trollope ", reviewed: Athenaeum, Oct. 4, 1913, pp. 337-338; Nation, Sept. 20, 1913, pp,9I8- 920.

M Everybody's Books: Popular Tastes and Clever Enterprises, 1837-1937 ", Times Literary Supplement,May I, 1937, pp. 328- 329. F., M., " The Re-Coming of Anthony Trollope ", Dial, vol 34, " 1903, pp. I4I-I42. Freud enrich, C. J.', " Victorian Novelists: Their Sales ", Notes and O^ueries^ May 4, 1946, p. 193- Fuller, Edward, " Real Forces in Literature Atlantic Monthly, 1903, vol $1, pp. 270-274. Greenberg, Clement, " A Victorian Novel ", Partisan Review, Sum• mer, 1944, pp. 234-238. Gwynn, Stephen, " The English Novel in the Nineteenth Century ", Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1902, pp. 487-506. Hamilton, Lord Ernest, " The Midvics ", Cornhill, vol 75, pp. 257-270. Harter, Eugene W., " The Future of Trollope ", Bookman, vol 2, 1905, pp. I37-I4I. House, Humphrey, " Michael Sadleir's Trollope ", New Statesman and Nation, Sept. 29, 1945, pp.215-216. Huling, Elizabeth, " Mr. Trollope's New Wine ", New Republic, April, 16, 1945, p.533- Huxley, Leonard, " Anthony Trollope and the Cornhill ", Cornhill, vol 73, 1932, pp. 758-766. James, Henry, " Anthony Trollope ", Century Magazine, July, 1883, pp. 385-395.

Kellett, B. E:., " Mudie's ", Spectator, July 16, 1937; pp. 100- 101; July 23, 1937, p. 149. La Farge, Christopher, " I Know he was Right ", Saturday Re• view of Literature, Jan. 27, 1940, pp. 12-14. Lord, W. Frewen, " The Novels of Anthony Trollope ", Nineteenth Century, vol 49, 1901, pp. 805-814. Macarthy, Desmond, " Trollope on the Stage New Statesman, vol 27, 1944, P 252. M. , F. , " Is He Popen.joy? ", Kenvon Review, vol 7, 1945, PP- 723-724. " Menander's Mirror: ImagininXg th e Future ", Times Literary Supplement, Dec. 9, 1944, p, 591. " Menander's Mirror: On Picking Sides ", Times Literary Sup• plement, Oct. 9, 1943, p. 483. Morgan, Charles, " Trollope Today Atlantic Monthly, May, 1946, pp. .125-127. Munson, Gorham, " Who are our Favourite Nineteenth Century Authors? ", College English, vol 5, pp. 291-296. Obituaries of Anthony Trollope: Athenaeum, Dec. 9, 1882, pp. 772-773; Blackwood 's, Feb., 1883, 316-320; Good Words, vol 24, 1882, pp. 142-144;Macmillan's Magazine, Jan.,1883,pp. 236-240; Punch, Dec. 16, 1882, p. 287.

Parker, W. M., " Anthony Trollope and 1 Maga. 1 ", Blackwood's, vol.257, pp. 57-64. Partridge, Ralph, " Lucy and Richard Stebbins' The Trollopes New Statesman and Nation, Oct. 12, 1946, pp. 268-269. Payn, James, " Some Literary RecollectiOBS ", Cornhill, vol ?3, 3, N. S., 1884, pp. 41-58. Peck, Harry Thurston, " Anthony Trollope Bookman, vol 13, 1901, pp. II4-I25. Piper, lyfanwy, " Trollope ", New Statesman, Feb. 17, 1940, p. 209. Pollock, W. H., " Anthony Trollope Harper's, vol 66, 1883, pp. 907-912. Punch, June 5, 1880- Oct. 16, 1880," 1 The Beadle, or The Latest Chronicle of Small Beerchester ' by Anthony Dollop ". Randeil, Wilfred L., " Anthony Trollope and his Work ", Fort• nightly Review, vol 108, 1920, pp. 459-467. Richardson, Dorothy, " Saintsbury and Art for Art's Sake in England PMLA, 1944, pp. 243-260. Sadleir, Michael, "The Caldagate Novels ", Times Literary Supplement ,Dec. 20, 194I, p. 643- Sampson, A., " Trollope in the Twentieth Century ", London Mercury, vol 35, 1936-1937, pp. 371-377. Street, S. S., " Anthony Trollope ", Cornhill, N. S. Vol 10, 1901, pp. 349-355. Taylor, Robert H., " Letters to Trollope ", The Trollopian, Sept., 1946, pp. 5-9. "Trollope's House of Commons ", Times. Literary Supplement, March 20, 1937, pp. 193-194. XI

" Trollope's Novels ", Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1877, pp. 455-488. Vincent, C. J., " Trollope: A Victorian Augustan ", Queen 's Quarterly, vol 52, 1945, pp. 415-428. Waugh, Arthur, " Trollope after Fifty Years ", Fortnightly Review,vol 132, 1932, pp. 712-724. Whibley, Charles, " Trollope's Autobiography',' English Re• view, 1923, vol 37, pp. 33-38. Wildman, John H., " About Trollope in a Postwar Mood ", The Trollopian, March, 1946, pp. 17-22. Wildman, John H., " Anthony Trollope Today ", College Eng• lish, vol 7, 1946, pp. 397-399- Woolf, Virginia, " Phases of Fiction ", Bookman, 1929, pp. 123-130.

IV. Contemporary Reviews of the Trollope Novels.

The Macdgrmotts of Ballycloran: Athenaeum, May 15, 1847, p. 517.

Ih§. Nellys and the 08Kellys: Athenaeum, July 15, 1848, p.701. La Vendee: Athenaeum, July 6, 1850, p. 708. The Warden: Athenaeum, Jan. 27, I8551, p. 107. Barchester Towers:'Athenaeum, May 30, 1857, pp. 689-690; Westminster Review, Oct., 1857, pp. 594-596. Three Clerks: Natiojial Review, Oct., 1858, pp. 427 ff. Doctor Thorne: Athenaeum, June 5, 1858, p. 719; National Review, Oct., 1858, pp. 431 ff. The Bertrams: Athenaeum, March 26, 1859, p. 420; National Review, April, 1859, p. 565, and July, 1859, pp. 187-199. Castle Richmond: Athenaeum, May 19, I860, p. 681; Westmin• ster Review, Oct., I860, pp. 588-589. Orley Farm: Athenaeum, Oct. 4, 1862, p. 704; Dublin Univer• sity Magazine, April, I863, p.437; National Review, Jan., 1862, pp. 27-40.

Framley Parsonage: National Review, July, I861, p. 240; Westminster Review, July, 1861, pp. 282-284. Rachel Ray: Athenaeum, Oct. 17, 1863, pp. 492-493; West• minster Review, January, 1864, pp. 291-293. Small House at Allington; Athenaeum, March 26, 1864, pp. XII

437-438; National Review, April, 1864, P. 582; Atlantic Monthly., August, 1864, pp. 254-256; North American ~Re^~ view, July, 1864,pp. 292-298; Westminster Review, July, 1864, pp. 251-252. " * Can You Forgive Her?; Athenaeum, Sept. 2, 1865, pp. 305- 306; Westminster Review, July, 1865, pp. 284-285. Miss Mackenzie: Dublin University Magazine, May, 1865, p. 576; Westminster Review, July, 1865, pp. 283-284. The_ Belton Estate1 Athenaeum. Feb. 3, 1866, p. 166; Nation, Jan. 4, 1866, pp. 21-22. Nina Balatka: Athenaeum, March 2, 1867, p. 288. The Claverings: Athenaeum,June 15, 1867, p. 783; Black• wood 's, Sept., 1867, pp. 275-278; Fortnightly Review, June I, 1867, pp. 771-772. The Last Chronicle of Barset: Athenaeum, Aug. 3, 1867, p. 141; Blackwood's, Sept., 1867, p. 277; Westminster RE- view, July,. 1867, p. 309. Linda Tressel: Athenaeum, May 23, 1868, pp. 724-725; Nation, June 18, 1868, pp. 494-495. Phineas Finn: Contemporary Review, Sept., 1869, pp. 142-143. He Knew He Was Right: Westminster Review, July, 1869, pp.. 302-305. The Vicar of Bullhampton: Athenaeum, April 30, 1870, p. 574; Blackwood's, May, 1870, pp. 647-648. Brown, Jones and Robinson: Westminster Review, April, I87I, pp. 574-575. Sir Harry Hotspur: Athenaeum, Nov. 19, 1870, p. 527. Ralph the. Heir: Athenaeum, April 15, I87I,p. 456; North American Review, April, 187I, pp. 433-441. The Golden Lion of Granpere, Athenaeum,.May 25, 1872, p. 578. The Eustace Diamonds: Athenaeum: Oct. 26, 1872, p. 627; Nation, Nov. 14, 1872, p. 320.' Phineas Redux: Athenaeum: Jan. 10, 1874, p. 53; Atlantic Monthly, May, 1874, pp- 617-618; Nation, March 12, 1874, pp. 174-175. Lady. Anna: Athenaeum, April II,IB8?4,p. 485- Harry Heathcote: Athenaeum, Nov. 7, 1874, p. 606; Westmin• ster Review, April, 1875, p. 558. - XIII

The Way. We Live How: Athenaeum, June 26, 1875, p. 851; Nation, Sept. 2, 1875, pp. 153-154; Westminster RE- view, Oct. I, 1875, p. 530. The Prime Minister) Athenaeum, July I, 1876, p.' 15; Atlan• tic Monthly, Aug., 1876, pp. 245-246; Nation, July 20, 1876, p. 45. ~" The American Senator: Athenaeum, June 16, 1877, p, 766; At• lanta Monthly., Oct., 1877, p. 509. !§. He Popen.joy?: Athenaeum, May 4, 1878, p. 567. M for an Ey_e: Athenaeum, Jan. II, 1879, p. 47; Black• wood 's, March, 1879, pp. 338-339; Nation, April 24, 1879, p. 290.'

42*22, Caldagate: Athenaeum, June 14, 1879, p. 755; Nineteenth Century, Aug., 1880, p. 340. Cousin Henry, Athenaeum, October 18, 1879, p. 495. The Duke's Children: Athenaeum, May 29, 1880, p. 695; Nation, Aug. 19, 1880, p. 138-139; Nineteenth Century, Aug., 1880, p. 340; Westminster Review, Oct., 1880, p. 574.. Dr. Wprtle 's School: Athenaeum, Jan. 15, 1881, p. 93; Nation, March 10, 1881, pp. 172-173; Westminster Review, July, 1881, pp. 283-284. Ayala's Angel: Athenaeum, May 21, I881,p.686;Harper's, Oct., 1881, pp. 794-794;"Nation, Sept.29, 1881, p. 257; West- Minster Review, Oct., I881, pp. 566-567. Kept in the Dark: Athenaeum, Nov. 18, 1882, p. 658; Westmin• ster Review, Jan., 1883, p. 287.. Marion Fay:Athenaeum, June 24, 1882, pp. 793-794. The Fixed Period: Athenaeum, March II, 1882, pp. 314-315; Westminster Review," July, 1882, pp.. 285-286. Mr. Scarborough's Family: Athenaeum, lay 12, 1883, p. 600. The Landleaguers: Athenaeum, Nov. 24, 1883, p. 666. An Old Man's Love: Athenaeum, April 5, 1884, p. 438; West• minster Review, July, 1884, p. 305.

V. Contemporary Reviews of Other Trollope Works. The West Indies and the Spanish Main: Athenaeum, Nov. 5, 1859, pp. 642-644; Atlantic Monthly, March, I860, pp. 375-378; National Review;, Jan,. I860, p. 257. XIV

North America: Athenaeum, May 24, 1862,p. '685;Blackwood 'a, Sept., 1862, pp.372-390; Dublin University Magazine, July, 1862, p. 75; grazer's Magazine, Aug., 1862, pp. 250-264; National Review, July, 1862, p. 201; Westmin• ster Review, Oct., 1862, pp. 536-537. Tales of All Countries: Second Series: National Review, April, 1863, p. 522. ~* ' Hunting Sketches: Fortnightly Review, Aug. I, 1865, p. 764; Westminster Review, Oct., 1865, p. 524. Clergymen of the Church of England: Contemporary Review, 1866, pp. 240-262. Lotta Schmidt:.And Other Stories: AthenaeumN Nov. 23, 1867, p. 723; Nation, Dec. 19, 1867, p. 503; Westminster RE- Oct., 1867, p. 598. An Editor's Tales: Athenaeum, July 23, 1870, p. 112; Con• temporary Review, Sept., 1870, p. 319; Westminster Rg- view, Oct., 1870, pp. 523-525. The Commentaries of Caesar: Contemporary Review, Sept., 1870, P- 314. Australia and New Zealand: Athenaeum, March I, 1873, p. 276; Fortnightly Review, May, 1873, p. 662; South Africa: Athenaeum, Feb. 16, 1878, p. 211. Thackeray: Athenaeum, June 14, 1879, pp. 749-750; Atlantic Monthly, Aug., 1879, pp. 267-268; Nation, Aug. 21, 1879, pp. 126-127; Westminster Review, July, 1879, p. 258. The Life of Cicero: Athenaeum, Aug. 6, 1881, pp. 170-171; Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 1882, pp. 699-670; Blackwood's, Feb., 1881, pp. 212-228; Nation, July 28, 1881, pp. 75-76; Frau Frohmann: And Other Stories: Athenaeum, Jan. 14, 1882, p. 54. Lord Palmerston: Athenaeum, Sept. 16, 1882, p. 367; Westmin• ster Review, ©ct., 1882, p. 566. An Autobiography: Athenaeum, Oct. 13, 1883, pp. 457-459; At- lantic Monthly, Feb., 1884, pp. 267-271; Blackwood's, Nov., 1883, PP- 577-596; Edinburgh Review, Jan., 1884, pp. 186- 203; Good Words, vol 25, 1884, pp. 248-252; Harper's, Jan., 1884, p. 317; Macmillan's Magazine, Nov., 1883, pp. 47-56; Nation, Nov. 5, 1883, pp. 396-397.