For other people named Trollope, see Trollope (disambiguation).

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Anthony Trollope (April 24 1815 – December 6 1882) became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works, known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire, but he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.

Trollope's popularity continues into the present day (famous fans include Sir Alec Guinness never travelled without a Trollope novel, former British Prime Minister Sir John Major, and American mystery novelist Sue Grafton); his literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, for reasons detailed below, but he had regained the esteem of critics somewhat by the mid-twentieth century.

Biography

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Anthony Trollope's father, Thomas Anthony Trollope, worked as a barrister; and Anthony's mother Frances Trollope would later become a successful writer. Thomas Trollope, a clever and well-educated man and a Fellow of New College, Oxford, failed at the bar due to his bad temper; his ventures into farming proved unprofitable; and he lost an expected inheritance when an elderly uncle married and had children. Nonetheless, he came from a genteel background, with connections to the landed gentry, and wished to educate his sons as gentlemen and for them to attend Oxford or Cambridge. The conflict between his family's social background and its poverty would cause misery to Anthony Trollope as a boy.

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