Showing results by author "Anthony Trollope" in All Categories

Anthony Trollope’s The Warden was the first of Trollope’s hugely successful Barchester Chronicles, appearing in 1855 and reversing the rather unfortunate sales of his previous three novels. It concerns the story of Mr. Septimus Harding, Warden of Hiram's Hospital almshouses and Precentor of Barchester Cathedral.

Love, courtship, and marriage are explored in many moods and many lands in this unusual collection.

Set against the background of the Irish famine in the 1840’s, the novel tells of the tangled relationships between Clara Desmond, Herbert Fitzgerald and his cousin Owen Fitzgerald. Clara – whose previously ‘great’ family is almost bankrupt – is initially attracted to Owen, but whose dissolute lifestyle is a handicap. The matter is further complicated by the fact that Lady Desmond, Clara’s mother, is in love with Owen. Meanwhile, Herbert supplants Owen in Clara’s affections. Herbert is heir to Castle Richmond and the name and property but this position is threatened for much of ...

Penguin Classics presents Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, adapted for audio and now available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by the actor David Timson. 'What! to come here a stranger, a young, unknown, and unfriended stranger, and tell us, in the...

Phineas Finn, a handsome young man of 23, comes to England to make his fortune in parliamentary politics. But despite all his aspirations, Finn is haunted by ethical questions as his personal convictions conflict with his duty towards his party. Loyalty versus honor, love versus money, and privacy versus prominence: our eponymous hero faces a variety of dilemmas as he navigates his way through the House of Commons.

The charming heir to an earldom has an affair with a sweet young lady of inferior background. She becomes pregnant - and the consequences may not be what one would usually expect from Mr. Trollope's pen.

What was Anthony Trollope's favorite Anthony Trollope book? Which was the most difficult for him to write? When he settled down by the fire for a good read, whose books did he choose? What nonliterary profession occupied him for much of his life? Learn the answers to these and other questions as one of the great authors in literature takes you on a guided tour of his personal and literary life.

Step into the captivating world of Doctor Thorne, where love, social class, and the complexities of human relationships intertwine. Follow the story of the enigmatic Dr. Thorne as he navigates the challenges of his profession, the expectations of society, and the pursuit of true happiness. With rich character development and a vivid setting, this tale will keep you enthralled from beginning to end.

Miss Mackenzie by Trollope was the runner-up in Radio 4's 'Neglected Classics' vote. Margaret Mackenzie is a single woman in her mid-thirties who receives a large inheritance when her brother dies. She must then deal with what comes with the fortune, including several suitors, who may, or, may not, simply be after her money.

Anthony Trollope is known primarily for his epic novels like Barchester Towers. However, he also wrote a number of smaller "gems". This is one of the best. Alice Dugdale is a plain but intelligent girl who sees the love of her life pushed by society to marry the beautiful, but somewhat vacuous, rich girl in town. Alice's reaction to this situation makes a wonderful and insightful story.

Set in Nuremberg, this psychological novel explores the crushing of a young girl's spirit by her aunt's Calvinist fanaticism and insistence on her marrying an old man against her will.

William Whittlestaff, an aging bachelor, becomes a guardian to the much younger Mary Lawrie. Having lost the woman he loved to a richer rival many years ago, he now finds himself falling in love with Mary despite knowing that her love belongs to another man, John Gordon. John left three years previously in search of his fortune in order to make himself worthy of Mary. Not knowing if she will ever see him again, Mary accepts Whittlestaff's proposal only for her true love to return.

His beloved wife having died in childbirth, Phineas Finn finds Irish society and his job as a poorhouse inspector dull and unsatisfying, particularly after the excitement of his former career as a Member of Parliament. Back in England, the Whigs are determined to overturn the Tory majority in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Since Finn had once been considered the most promising of the younger set, he is encouraged to run for office again. Bribery, romance, and murder are peppered throughout this Trollope novel.

When the liberal government falls and neither party is able to form a cabinet, Plantagenet Palliser is called upon to lead a coalition government. He is reluctant at first, and displays none of the charisma of his predecessors, but eventually he grows into the role. However, his confidence is short-lived as he becomes embroiled in a scandal involving the villainous Ferdinand Lopez - unintentionally brought about by Lady Glencora Palliser. Pronounced "a beautiful book" by Leo Tolstoy, The Prime Minister is a superb portrait of marriage and politics.

The fifth novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire, The Small House at Allington, concerns the lives of the two Dale girls, Lily and Bell, who live at the Small House. While Bell is in love with the local doctor James Crofts, Lily is pursued by two men: the worldly, rich and handsome Adolphus Crosbie and the poor but honest Johnny Eames. With each determined to gain her hand in marriage, who will she choose?

The brilliant conclusion to the Palliser novels, this touching story follows the elderly Duke of Omnium, the former prime minister of England, as he struggles to overcome his grief at the loss of his beloved wife, Lady Glencora. To complicate matters, he must also deal with the willfulness of his three adult children as he tries to guide and support them - his plans for them are quite different from their own. While his two sons, sent down from university in disgrace, rack up gambling debts, the duke’s only daughter yearns to marry the poor son of a country squire.

Everyone thinks Augustus Melmotte, a new arrival in London, is a wealthy financier - until he is caught in a forgery scheme. This is a satirical look at immorality and dishonesty as Trollope saw them in the worlds of business, politics, journalism, literature, and society on his return from the colonies in 1872. Scoundrels, coquettes, swindlers, and intriguers abound in this novel, which is often called his masterpiece.

Originally published in the 1876 Christmas edition of The Graphic, Christmas at Thompson Hall is a Victorian tale concerning the proper Mr. and Mrs. Brown and their journey from southern France to Thompson Hall to celebrate Christmas with their relatives - a trip that becomes a comedy of errors once Mr. Brown's throat condition, a malady that almost prevented the trip entirely, worsens.

In Framley Parsonage, the fourth novel of Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire, the author leaves the confines of Barchester and looks to the countryside, where he relates the moral difficulties of Mark Robarts, the young clergyman who has recently been appointed Vicar of Framley. Desperate to keep up with the local aristocracy, the country parson is persuaded to underwrite the debts of Sowerby, a well-respected peer.

In the opulent world of Tretton Park, Mr. Scarborough, a wealthy patriarch, faces his mortality. As he prepares to leave his estate, a dark cloud looms over his family. His eldest son, Mountjoy, has squandered their fortune on unscrupulous money-lenders who now threaten to claim everything. In a shocking twist, Mr. Scarborough declares Mountjoy illegitimate, asserting that he married just before the birth of his younger son, Augustus, positioning him as the rightful heir. But is this revelation truth or a desperate maneuver to save the family fortune from falling into the hands of unscrupulous...