The Last Chronicle of Barset
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Authors: Anthony Trollope
THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
was born in London in 1815 and Died in 1882. His father was a barrister who went bankrupt and the family was maintained by his mother, Frances, who was a well-known writer. He received little education and his childhood generally seems to have been an unhappy one.
Happily established in a successful career in the Post Office (from which he retired in 1867), Trollope's first novel was published in 1847. He went on to write over forty novels as well as short stories, and enjoyed considerable acclaim as a novelist during his lifetime. The idea for
The Warden
(1855), the first of his novels to achieve success, was conceived while he wandered around Salisbury Cathedral one midsummer evening. It was succeeded by other âBarsetshire' novels employing the same characters, including Archdeacon Grantly, the worldly cleric, the immortal Mrs Proudie and the saintly warden, Septimus Harding. These novels are
Barchester Towers
(1857),
Doctor Thorne
(1858),
Framley Parsonage
(1861),
The Small House at Allington
(1864) and
The Last Chronicle of Barset
(1867). This series is regarded by many as Trollope's masterpiece, in which he demonstrates his imaginative grasp of the great preoccupation of eighteenth-and nineteenth-century English novels â property. Almost equally popular were the six brilliant Palliser novels, comprising
Can You Forgive Her?
(1864),
Phineas Finn
(1869),
The Eustace Diamonds
(1873),
Phineas Redux
(1874),
The Prime Minister
(1876) and
The Duke's Children
(1880). The notable titles among his many other novels and books include
He Knew He Was Right
(1868â9),
The Way We Live Now
1874â5),
An Autobiography
(1875â6) and
Dr Wortle's School
(1881).
SOPHIE GILMARTIN
received her first degree from Yale University and her doctorate from Trinity College, Cambridge. She is the author of
Ancestry and Narrative in Nineteeth-Century British Literature
. (CUP, 1999) and has published widely on aspects of Victorian literature, art and social history. She lectures in English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London.
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
of Barset
With an Introduction and Notes by
SOPHIE GILMARTIN
PENGUIN BOOKS
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First published 1867
Published in the Penguin English Library 1967, reprinted in Penguin Classics 1986
This edition published in Penguin Classics 2002
1
Introduction and Notes copyright © Sophie Gilmartin, 2002
All rights reserved
The moral right of the editor has been asserted
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EISBN: 978â0â141â90541â9
1815 | Battle of Waterloo Lord George Gordon Byron, Anthony Trollope born 24 April at 16 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, the fourth son of Thomas and Frances Trollope. Family moves shortly after to Harrow-on-the-Hill |
1823 | Attends Harrow as a day-boy (â1825) |
1825 | First public steam railway opened Sir Walter Scott, Sent as a boarder to a private school in Sunbury, Middlesex |
1827 | Greek War of Independence won in the battle of Navarino Sent to school at Winchester College. His mother sets sail for the USA on 4 November with three of her children |
1830 | George IV dies; his brother ascends the throne as William IV William Cobbett, Removed from Winchester. Sent again to Harrow until 1834 |
1832 | Controversial First Reform Act extends the right to vote to approximately one man in five Frances Trollope, |
1834 | Slavery abolished in the British Empire. Poor Law Act introduces workhouses to England Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Trollope family migrates to Bruges to escape creditors. Anthony returns to London to take up a junior clerkship in the General Post Office |
1835 | Halley's Comet appears. âRailway mania' in Britain Robert Browning, His father dies in Bruges |
1840 | Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Penny Post introduced Charles Dickens, Dangerously ill in May and June |
1841 | Thomas Carlyle, Appointed Postal Surveyor's Clerk for Central District of Ireland. Moves to Banagher, King's County (now Co. Offaly) |
1843 | John Ruskin, Begins to write his first novel, |
1844 | Daniel O'Connell, campaigner for Catholic Emancipation, imprisoned for conspiracy; later released William Thackeray, Marries Rose Heseltine in June. Transferred to Clonmel, Co. Tipperary |
1846 | Famine rages in Ireland. Repeal of the Corn Laws Dickens, First son, Henry Merivale, born in March |
1847 | Charlotte Brontë, A second son, Frederic James Anthony, born in September |
1848 | Revolution in France; re-establishment of the Republic. The âCabbage Patch Rebellion' in Tipperary fails Trollopes move to Mallow, Co. Cork |
1850 | Alfred, Lord Tennyson, La Vendée |
1851 | The Great Exhibition Herman Melville, Sent to survey and reorganize postal system in southwest England and Wales (â1852) |
1852 | First pillar box in the British Isles introduced in St Helier, Jersey, on Trollope's recommendation |
1853 | Thackeray, Moves to Belfast to take post as Acting Surveyor for the Post Office |
1854 | Britain becomes involved in the Crimean War (â1856) Appointed Surveyor of the Northern District of Ireland |
1855 | David Livingstone discovers Victoria Falls, Zambia (Zimbabwe) Dickens, Moves to Donnybrook, Co. Dublin |
1857 | Indian Mutiny (â1858) Thomas Hughes, Barchester Towers |
1858 | Irish Republican Brotherhood founded in Dublin George Eliot, Travels to Egypt, England and the West Indies on postal business |
1859 | Charles Darwin, Ireland to settle in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, after being appointed Surveyor of the Eastern District of England |
1860 | Dickens, Framley Parsonage |
1861 | American Civil War (â1865) John Stuart Mill, Travels to USA to research a travel book |
1862 | Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elected to the Garrick Club |
1863 | His mother dies in Florence |
1864 | Elizabeth Gaskell, Elected to the Athenaeum Club |
1865 | Abraham Lincoln assassinated Lewis Carroll, Fortnightly Review |
1866 | Eliot, The Claverings |
1867 | Second Reform Act extends the franchise further, enlarging the electorate to almost two million Algernon Charles Swinburne, Resigns from the GPO and assumes editorship of |
1868 | Last public execution in London Wilkie Collins, Visits the USA on a postal mission; returns to England to stand unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate for Beverley, Yorkshire |
1869 | Suez Canal opened Richard Doddridge Blackmore, The Vicar of Bullhampton |
1870 | Married Women's Property Act passed Dickens, Resigns editorship of |
1871 | Eliot, Gives up house at Waltham Cross and sails to Australia with Rose to visit his son Frederic |
1872 | Thomas Hardy, Travels in Australia and New Zealand and returns to England via the USA |
1873 | Mill, Settles in Montagu Square, London |
1874 | The first Impressionist Exhibition in Paris Hardy, The Way We Live Now |
1875 | Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone Travels to Australia, via Brindisi, Suez and Ceylon Begins writing |
1876 | Mark Twain, Finishes writing |
1877 | Henry James, Visits South Africa |
1878 | Hardy, Sails to Iceland |
1879 | George Meredith, Cousin Henry, The Duke's Children |
1880 | Greenwich Mean Time made the legal standard in Britain. First Anglo-Boer War (â1881) Benjamin Disraeli, Settles in South Harting, W. Sussex |
1881 | In Ireland, Parnell is arrested for conspiracy and the Land League is outlawed Robert Louis Stevenson, Ayala's Angel, The Fixed Period |
1882 | Phoenix Park murders in Dublin Visits Ireland twice to research a new Irish novel, and returns to spend the winter in London. Dies on 6 December |
1883 | An Autobiography |
1884 | An Old Man's Love |
1923 | The Noble Jilt |
1927 | London Tradesmen |
1972 | The New Zealander |