Trollope, Anthony

trol'up, Anthony (1815-1882), an English novelist. He was a native of London. He was educated at the schools of Harrow and Winchester. When a young man he entered the postal service, a department in which he spent the greater part of his life. Later he was an inspector of posts in Ireland and England. In 1868 he visited the United States on postoffice affairs. The result of the trip was The American Senator. In 1865 he established The Fortnightly Review. He began writing novels as early as 1847. The McDermotts of Ballycloran was the first. It was followed by The Kelleys and La Vendee. These attracted little attention, but The Warden, published in 1855, was an entire success. Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Framley Parsonage, and The Last Chronicle of Barset belong to the same series as The Warden. In these, Trollope did his best work as a novelist. A group of political novels followed. Trollope's books had a wide circulation during his lifetime, but lost in popularity after his death. They possess qualities, however, which are deserving of the appreciation to which a recent revival of interest in them has testified. His characters are well drawn, and his pictures of English life in the third quarter of the nineteenth century are vivid and true. His stories are wholesome, pleasant reading. He is said to have written more fiction than any other author of the nineteenth century. In 1875 he wrote his Autobiography, which was not published, however, until the year after his death. He is best known in American schools as the author of a Life of Cicero. His mother, Mrs. Frances Milton Trollope, was also a writer of repute. His brother, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, resided for thirty years in Florence, and wrote chiefly on Italian topics.