Trollope

[Milburn Stone]

Any Anthony Trollope fans here? @EtheltoTillie and I, as the two of us discovered over in another topic, are in that club. He's a marvelous English novelist of the second half the 19th century, just about as widely-read as Dickens in his time, but not Dickensian at all. (He typically writes about the dilemma of the good person driven by society's expectations to make morally questionable choices. So, with some exceptions, he focuses more on the internal states of his characters and less on the need to reform the world they live in. Which makes him more recognizably a 20th century writer than Dickens, even though they wrote roughly in the same era. He wrote 47 novels (!) but not because he wrote quickly, rather because he was incredibly disciplined and industrious. (Side note: He also invented the neighborhood mailbox as we know it!) I've read about 20 of the 47, and look forward to eventually reading the remaining ones.

[EtheltoTillie]

Very good description, @Milburn Stone. I find Trollope easier to read than I do Dickens.  Less dense, maybe.  I like movies of Dickens novels but I find them hard to read. 

[isalicat]

I'm a big fan although its been a couple of decades at least since I read any of his novels. They are fast and fun reading though, in a way that Dickens and Thomas Hardy are not.

[Babalu06]

I love Trollope, though I’ve only read the Barsetshire Chronicles and the Palliser series (I say “only,” but those 12 books are cumulatively thousands of pages, I think.) If you can find it anywhere, I recommend the Pallisers TV series from the 70s.

[Milburn Stone]

17 hours ago, isalicat said:

They are fast and fun reading though, in a way that Dickens and Thomas Hardy are not.

This is true. His sentences can be very long, and so can his paragraphs, but when they are, they are so impeccably organized that they're a pleasure to read.

[Constant Viewer]

Which Trollope book or books would you recommend beginning with if you have never read his work before? 

[EtheltoTillie]

On 8/4/2024 at 9:33 AM, Constant Viewer said:

Which Trollope book or books would you recommend beginning with if you have never read his work before? 

My gateway drug was Can You Forgive Her?  It’s the first book in a series, but it can even stand alone. I had the series and I just started reading it on my first trip to the UK. What a perfect pairing. I have great memories. 

[Brn2bwild]

On 8/4/2024 at 6:33 AM, Constant Viewer said:

Which Trollope book or books would you recommend beginning with if you have never read his work before? 

The Way We Live Now.  

[Caoimhe]

I’ve no idea how or why I had it but went on holiday with Barchester Towers (in the early 1980s) and still remember how I laughed and enjoyed reading it. I went on to read the entire Barsetshire series and the Palliser books as well. I’ve seen the television adaptations of both but always go back to the books and audiobooks. At the moment I’m listening to The Way We Live Now audiobook and have He Knew He Was Right up next when I finish that. 

Edited August 29 by Caoimhe