View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by OTHES DIPLOMARBEIT Titel der Diplomarbeit “The Life and Art of Anthony Trollope With Special Emphasis on His Short Stories” Verfasserin Marion Scheiner angestrebter akademischer Grad Magistra der Philosophie (Mag. phil.) Wien, 2008 Studienkennzahl lt. Studenblatt: A 344 299 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: LA Anglistik und Amerikanistik Betreuerin: Univ. Prof. Dr. Margarete Rubik My special thanks go to Prof. Dr. Rubik for her never-failing advice and encouragement throughout the extended period of my writing. Without her support this paper would not have been possible. I would also like to thank my friends Sue Norris, Petra Mitterhauser-Gratzer, Prof.Georg Gratzer and Harry Blatterer, who all of them now know more about Trollope than they have ever wanted to know, and my family for their love and their patience. Table of Contents 1 Biography..................................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 1.2 Childhood ........................................................................................................................................3 1.3 Schooldays.......................................................................................................................................7 1.4 London...........................................................................................................................................18 1.5 A New Life.....................................................................................................................................24 1.6 Rose................................................................................................................................................26 1.7 Success...........................................................................................................................................38 1.8 Short Stories...................................................................................................................................46 1.9 Personal Passions...........................................................................................................................49 1.10 Social Life....................................................................................................................................55 1.11 America........................................................................................................................................63 1.12 The Late 1860s - Change Again...................................................................................................71 1.13 Politics..........................................................................................................................................75 1.14 Decline.........................................................................................................................................82 1.15 Money ..........................................................................................................................................87 1.16 Younger Women..........................................................................................................................90 1.17 The Final Years............................................................................................................................94 2 Trollope's Art and its Reception...........................................................................................................104 2.1 The Role of the Novel in Victorian Society.................................................................................111 2.2 The Victorian Short Story ...........................................................................................................116 2.3 Trollope's Short Stories................................................................................................................118 2.4 Plot...............................................................................................................................................123 2.5 The Narrator.................................................................................................................................124 2.6 Language and Style......................................................................................................................132 2.7 Characters.....................................................................................................................................142 2.8 Dialogue.......................................................................................................................................150 2.9 Themes.........................................................................................................................................152 2.9.1 Love and Marriage...............................................................................................................153 2.9.2 Gentlemen and Ladies.........................................................................................................185 2.9.3 Religion...............................................................................................................................194 2.9.4 War......................................................................................................................................199 2.9.5 Working Girls......................................................................................................................204 2.9.6 Traveling..............................................................................................................................207 2.9.7 Editors and Writers..............................................................................................................211 2.9.8 Christmas.............................................................................................................................215 2.10 Trollope's Impact........................................................................................................................219 3 APPENDIX...........................................................................................................................................223 4 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................................228 Works by Anthony Trollope:...............................................................................................................229 Novels:............................................................................................................................................229 Non Fiction:....................................................................................................................................231 Short Story Collections:..................................................................................................................231 Contents of the Collections Available on the Internet....................................................................232 5 Kurzfassung..........................................................................................................................................234 6 Abstract.................................................................................................................................................235 1 Few men I think ever lived a fuller life (AB XV) 1 Biography 1.1 Introduction Reading Trollope I could not help noticing how inseparable the life of the man and his work are. I do not believe that there is a single major event or occupation in his life that we cannot trace in his fiction. Whatever he did, whether he was working for the Post Office, travelling, hunting, canvassing, editing, or just dining with friends, it all went into his books. We regularly find him expressing his views on everyday matters such as ladies' dresses and hairstyles, people’s teeth or the new fashion of 'dining à la Russe', in addition to the political problems of his time. These detailed descriptions and their accuracy have often caused Trollope to be put into the category of a writer of social history, even a 'photographer' of events rather than a serious novelist. What has mostly been overlooked in this unjust labelling are the very philosophical and profound reflections about politics, life or human destiny we also find in his writing, as well as the topicality his writing still has 150 years later. Today most critics agree that his closeness to life, his seeming simplicity is a form of art rather than a lack of it1. It is the aim of this paper to show how many of the major events in Trollope's life, as well as his passions and ideas, are reflected in his short stories, a part of his writing which has been relegated to second place by literary critics. Within the last fourteen years there has been another Trollope 'revival', which brought forth three extremely informative, detailed, interesting and well written biographies of Anthony Trollope and one of his mother, Fanny Trollope. The first one I read, Anthony Trollope by Victoria Glendinning, I found so intriguing that it has become my main source of reference, together with Anthony Trollope, A Victorian in His World (1990),