Anthony Trollope Author Biography
British Writer known for Barchester Series and Palliser Novels
Life and works of English novelist Anthony Trollope, whose books are about English society set in imaginary Barchester cathedral city.
British author Anthony Trollope was best known for 'Barchester series' and 'Palliser' novels. Barchester series novels include: Barchester Towers, (1857) Doctor Thorne, (1858) and The Last Chronicle of Barset. (1867) Palliser series novels include: Can You Forgive Her?, (1864) Phineas Finn, (1869) The Eustace Diamonds, (1873) and The Prime Minister. (1876)
Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), a popular 19th-century novelist, was born in London and educated at Harrow and Winchester public schools. His father was a Fellow of New College, Oxford, and his mother was Frances Trollope, a prolific writer of novels and travel books.
Pre-Writing Career
At 19, Trollope became a post office clerk in London's General Post Office. After few years he was transferred in Ireland and made a deputy postal surveyor. He worked for the post office for 33 years before he finally left the civil service. Notably, Trollope first introduced the red British mail boxes known as pillar boxes. He lived mainly in England and Ireland, but his work also took him to Africa and America.
Early Writing Years
Soon after marrying at the age of 29, Trollope began writing in his spare time to earn extra money. He regularly produced 1000 words an hour before breakfast. He published his first book Macdermots of Ballycloran, followed by The Kellys and the O'Kellys. They were unsuccessful.
The Barchester Series
He was already 40 when his first successful story The Warden, his first series of Barchester novels appeared. It is about a clergyman accused of misusing money meant for the old people's home he looks after. The Barchester series of novels are set in imaginary English county of Barsetshire depicting provincial English middle-class society in the cathedral city of Barchester.
The Palliser Novels
The format of the Barchester series appealed to his readers. Stimulated, Trollope embarked on a more ambitious sequence, known as the Palliser novels. Many of these later works are about power and politics involving his invented family of wealthy aristocrats and politicians called the Pallisers, with Plantagenet Palliser, as one of his lead characters.
Literary Legacy
Anthony Trollope wrote some forty-seven novels altogether, including Orley Farm. He introduced into English fiction some of the most memorable characters like Mr. Harding, Archdeacon Grantly and Bishop Proudie. With humour and gentle satire, he told stories of ordinary men and women with human weaknesses.
Trollope's other works include travel books, Biographies of Thackeray and Cicero, plays, short stories, and literary sketches.
Sources:
Chambers Biographical Dictionary (2002)
Larousse Dictionary of Writers, ed. by Rosemary Goring (1994)
The A-Z of Great Writers by Tom Payne (1997)
