Anthony Trollope Books In Order

Publication Order of Chronicles of Barsetshire Books

Publication Order of Palliser Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Anthony Trollope was one of the most prolific, respected, and successful English authors of the Victorian Era. He was well known for writing novels based on the fiction, travel, and history genres. Author Trollope was born on April 24, 1815, and died on December 6 1882. His most beloved works include a series of novels called as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. This series is set around an imaginary county known as Barsetshire. Other than that, author Trollope also wrote several perceptive books based on the social, gender, and political issues, as well as other matters of topical interest. The literary reputation of author Trollope saw a dip during his last years. However, he was able to regain the critics’ esteem during the mid 20th century. Author Trollope was born in London, England, The United Kingdom. His father, Thomas Trollope was a barrister. Even though he was a well educated and clever man, he was not able to pass the bar because of his bad temper. He always wanted his sons to attend Cambridge or Oxford and get raised as gentlemen. But, author Trollope had to suffer from the misery during his growing years due to the disparity between the rich background of his family and their relatively small means. Therefore, he went on to attend the Harrow School in London.

From the age of 7, he studied as a free day pupil for a period of 3 years because the farm of his father lay in the neighborhood of the school. Then he completed a short spell in one of the private schools in Sunbury. Then, author Trollope followed the footsteps of his father and two elder brothers and joined the Winchester College. After spending three years there, he returned to the Harrow School and started studying as a day boy, thereby reducing his education cost. Even though author Trollope studied in 2 of the most elite schools in the UK, he suffered a lot of misery because of his poor financial condition. No one was willing to become his friend and he was bullied to a greater extent by the fellow pupils. At that time, he even used to fantasize about committing suicide. In the year 1827, his mother moved to America along 3 younger siblings of author Trollope. After several initial failures, she became a writer and started earning some money. After learning that his mother made a good name for herself as a writer in America, author Trollope also decided to join her. But, he was not able to stay for long over there and soon returned to England to work on his father’s farm. Then, he took a job at a post office, but continued to face problems in his life. He was not punctual and also got himself under a huge debt.

In an attempt to overcome all the failures of his life, author Trollope decided to start writing novels, just like his mother. And up to the time that he got married, he had finished only the first 3 volumes of his debut novel. In the following year, he went on to complete the whole novel. He was still carrying out his postal duties in Ireland and had to take long train journeys. He began using his journey time for writing his novels. Trollope became so much dedicated towards his writing that he set up firm goals about the amount of writing he would do in one day. Eventually, he went on to become one of the most prominent authors of all time. He continued with his writing habit even after becoming a Post Office Inspector, and occasionally drew ideas from the lost letters for developing the plots of his books. As author Trollope used to spend a lot of time in Ireland, the plots of most of his novels are set there. In spite of working sincerely and with a lot of determination, the critics were not much impressed by his writings. One of the reasons for this was that author Trollope was not Irish by birth. Seeing the dislike towards his literary works among the Irish, Trollope returned to England. While working on a postal assignment, he traveled to a number of places in Great Britain for a period of two years. This helped him to get some idea for writing the Barsetshire novels. Author Trollope saw much recognition and appreciation for these novels and hence, decided to continue writing more novels based on Barsetshire by staying in England.

One of the successful novel series written by author Anthony Trollope is titled as ‘Pallier’ series, which consists of 6 books published between the years 1865 and 1880. All the books in this series feature the primary character named Plantegenet Palliser, who is described by the author as a politician and aristocrat. The first book in the series was published under the title ‘Can You Forgive Her?’. It was released by the Penguin Classics publisher in the year 1865. At the start of the book, it is depicted that Alice Vavasor is not able to decide whether to marry the upright gentleman named John Gray or her violent and ambitious cousin named George. In the events that follow, she ends up accepting and rejecting both of them in turn. She becomes increasingly confused and unwilling to forgive herself for letting go the golden opportunity, twice. One of her friends named Lady Glencora seems to have a contrasting fortune as she gets forcefully married to a rising politician named Plantagenet Palliser. This is done so as to prevent Burgo Fitzgerald from wasting all her fortune. With the story of the transgression of Alice, author Trollope has tried to create a telling account of the present condition of the social world.

The first book of the Palliser series was followed by another one titled ‘The Eustace Diamonds’. It was also published by the Penguin Classics publisher in the year 1873. This book begins with the description of the death of Lizzie Eustace’s husband named Sir Florian. She is described by the author as being a beautiful woman. After the death of her husband, Lizzie mysteriously comes across a highly costly diamond necklace. Even though she maintains that she had received it as a gift, the lawyers of the Eustace family insist her to give up the necklace. Lizzie gets the support of her cousin named Frank, however, her new lover named Lord Fawn says that he will marry her only if she surrenders the necklace. Soon, scandal and gossip intensify as the truthfulness of Lizzie is thrown into question. With the desire of keeping the diamond necklace for herself, Lizzie Eustace gets driven to some desperate acts. In this novel, author Trollope has tried to blend dark cynicism and humor, along with a keen perception of the nature of humans. This book bore the hallmarks of all the future works of author Trollope that were followed over the course of his writing career.

One Response to “Anthony Trollope”

1. Kathy Roylance: 1 month ago

   I have read and loved Anthony Trollope for decades.
   I always wanted to do a book club but have not found other Trollope readers.

   Reply