Anthony Trollope

The heroine, Mary Masters, is the daughter of an attorney, and has been raised as a gentlewoman. Her stepmother is from a lower social order; believing it best for Mary, she pressures her strongly to accept a proposal from Lawrence Twentyman, a prosperous young yeoman farmer with aspirations to gentility. While Mary respects Twentyman for his excellent qualities, she feels that she cannot love him, as a wife should a husband. She admires Reginald...

It may be well that I should put a short preface to this book. In the summer of 1878 my father told me that he had written a memoir of his own life. He did not speak about it at length, but said that he had written me a letter, not to be opened until after his death, containing instructions for publication. This letter was dated 30th April, 1876. I will give here as much of it as concerns the public: "I wish you to accept as a gift from me, given...

"Cousin Henry" was first published in 1879, and has been called one of Trollope's more experimental short novels. Indefer Jones is forced to choose an heir to his estate due to his ailing health. Jones is torn between logic and social conventions to choose the heir, as the obvious candidate happens to be his niece, but tradition dictates that it should be a man that shares his surname. The tale follows the conflict between heirs, and the dramatic...

The novel contrasts two love affairs, each involving an aristocrat and a commoner. The subversive Lord Hampstead's plunge into middle class society in his passionate pursuit of Marion Fay, a Quaker and daughter of a City clerk, is balanced by the testing of his radical friend George Roden, a clerk in the General Post Office, whose bizarre experiences among the aristocracy during his courtship of Hampstead's sister Lady Frances Trafford, are employed...

Anthony Trollope mixes love, money, and ambition in his love triangles — which has kept his fans reading his work addictively ever since Queen Victoria. In this 1867 novel, Harry Clavering, an ambitious civil engineer, must choose: to wed a wealthy widow and gain a life of comfort, or to honor his previous engagement — and struggle.

George Walker goes to Egypt for his health and is persuaded by a friend to accompany him to the port of Suez where George finds himself obliged to spend five wretched days alone waiting for his onward passage. Mysteriously, a local dignitary, Mahmoud al Ackbar, treats him with elaborate generosity, even arranging a luxurious expedition to the nearby Wells of Moses. It emerges that he has mistaken the humble Englishman for his namesake Sir George Walker,...

John Scarborough, owner of a large landed property in Hertfordshire, resented the restrictions of the law of entail. He accordingly devised a scheme whereby he was able by a double marriage, one before and one after the birth of his eldest son, to declare him legitimate or not, as the future might make desirable.

1860s short story, telling of young Harry and Fanny Arkwright who have spent four years in Costa Rica. Now they and their baby can return home, but first they have to negotiate an arduous journey to the coast by mule Will any - or all - of them return to England, or will Fanny's oft-repeated plaint of "Poor mamma. I shall never see her!"

Mr. Robinson comes upon a party of travellers, the Greenes, consisting of one older man, a young woman, and a much younger woman, the lovely Sophonsiba. Early on in the story, Robinson is apprised of the fact that one of the seven boxes with which they are journeying to Italy is full of jewels and English sovereigns. Robinson is not particularly pleased to be the recipient of this information, and it would seem that the next thing to happen was this...

Nina Balatka is the story of a beautiful young Christian girl in 19th century Prague who is beset with two great troubles. First is her economic situation, having been plunged into poverty after her father's industry failed him and he became ill unto death. The second, portrayed as the greater trouble in this 150 year-old book is her love for a wealthy Jewish businessman named Anton Trendellsohn.