Anthony Trollope (1815-04-24 – 1882-12-06) was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era.
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- [An attorney] can find it consistent with his dignity to turn wrong into right, and right into wrong, to abet a lie, nay to create, disseminate, and with all the play of his wit, give strength to the basest of lies, on behalf of the basest of scoundrels.
- The New Zealander (Oxford, 1965), p. 63. Written 1855-6, published posthumously 1965.
- Men who cannot believe in the mystery of our Saviour's redemption can believe that spirits from the dead have visited them in a stranger's parlour, because they see a table shake and do not know how it is shaken; because they hear a rapping on a board, and cannot see the instrument that raps it; because they are touched in the dark, and do not know the hand that touches them.
- The New Zealander (Oxford, 1965), p. 73.
- No man thinks there is much ado about nothing when the ado is about himself.
- The Bertrams (1859), ch. 27
- It would seem that the full meaning of the word marriage can never be known by those who, at their first outspring into life, are surrounded by all that money can give. It requires the single sitting-room, the single fire, the necessary little efforts of self-devotion, the inward declaration that some struggle shall be made for that other one.
- The Bertrams, ch. 30
- Marvellous is the power which can be exercised, almost unconsciously, over a company, or an individual, or even upon a crowd by one person gifted with good temper, good digestion, good intellects, and good looks.
- Rachel Ray, ch. 11. (1863)
- The affair simply amounted to this, that they were to eat their dinner uncomfortably in a field instead of comfortably in the dining room.
- Can You Forgive Her?, ch. 78 (1864)
- On a picnic.
- Men who can succeed in deceiving no one else will succeed at last in deceiving themselves.
- Miss Mackenzie, ch. 13. (1865)
- Is it not remarkable that the common repute which we all give to attorneys in the general is exactly opposite to that which every man gives to his own attorney in particular? Whom does anybody trust so implicitly as he trusts his own attorney? And yet is it not the case that the body of attorneys is supposed to be the most roguish body in existence?
- Miss Mackenzie (1865), ch. 17 (Project Gutenburg e-text)
- The good and the bad mix themselves so thoroughly in our thoughts, even in our aspirations, that we must look for excellence rather in overcoming evil than in freeing ourselves from its influence.
- He Knew He Was Right, ch. 60. (1869)
- It was admitted by all her friends, and also by her enemies— who were in truth the more numerous and active body of the two— that Lizzie Greystock had done very well with herself.
- The Eustace Diamonds (1873) First lines
- To be alone with the girl to whom he is not engaged, is a man's delight;— to be alone with the man to whom she is engaged is the woman's.
- The Eustace Diamonds, ch. 18
- Love is like any other luxury. You have no right to it unless you can afford it.
- The Way We Live Now, ch. 84. (1875)
- As to that leisure evening of life, I must say that I do not want it. I can conceive of no contentment of which toil is not to be the immediate parent.
- Letter to G W Rusden dated June 8, 1876, published in The Letters of Anthony Trollope (1983), p. 691.
- I judge a man by his actions with men, much more than by his declarations Godwards – When I find him to be envious, carping, spiteful, hating the successes of others, and complaining that the world has never done enough for him, I am apt to doubt whether his humility before God will atone for his want of manliness.
- Letter to G W Rusden dated June 8, 1876.
- There are words which a man cannot resist from a woman, even though he knows them to be false.
- Is He Popenjoy?, ch. 18 (1878)
- The man who worships mere wealth is a snob.
- Thackeray, ch. 2. (1879)
- I hold that gentleman to be the best dressed whose dress no one observes. I am not sure but that the same may be said of an author's written language.
- Thackeray, ch. 9.
- Needless to deny that the normal London plumber is a dishonest man. We do not even allow ourselves to think so. That question, as to the dishonesty of mankind generally, is one that disturbs us greatly;— whether a man in all grades of life will by degrees train his honesty to suit his own book, so that the course of life which he shall bring himself to regard as soundly honest shall, if known to his neighbours, subject him to their reproof. We own to a doubt whether the honesty of a bishop would shine bright as the morning star to the submissive ladies who now worship him, if the theory of life upon which he lives were understood by them in all its bearings.
- The Plumber (1880)
- He could find no cure for his grief; but he did know that continued occupation would relieve him, and therefore he occupied himself continually.
- The Life of Cicero (1880)
- A man's mind will very generally refuse to make itself up until it be driven and compelled by emergency.
- Ayala's Angel, Ch. 41 (1881)
- There are worse things than a lie... I have found... that it may be well to choose one sin in order that another may be shunned.
- Doctor Wortle's School (1881) Ch. 6
The Warden (1855)
- The Rev. Septimus Harding was, a few years since, a beneficed clergyman residing in the cathedral town of _____; let us call it Barchester. Were we to name Wells or Salisbury, Exeter, Hereford, or Gloucester, it might be presumed that something personal was intended; and as this tale will refer mainly to the cathedral dignitaries of the of the town in question, we are anxious that no personality may be suspected.
- Ch. 1, first lines
- He was not so anxious to prove himself right, as to be so.
- Ch. 3
- The tenth Muse who now governs the periodical press.
- Ch. 14
Barchester Towers (1857)
- In the latter days of July in the year 185-, a most important question was for ten days hourly asked in the cathedral city of Barchester, and answered every hour in various ways— Who was to be the new Bishop?
- First lines
- There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilised and free countries, than the neccessity of listening to sermons.
- Ch. 6
- She well knew the great architectural secret of decorating her constructions, and never descended to construct a decoration.
- Ch. 9
- There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.
- Ch. 20
- This derives from an expression attributed to Euclid.
- There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.
- Ch. 20
- There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.
- Ch. 27
- Don't let love interfere with your appetite. It never does with mine.
- Ch. 38
- The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums.
- Ch. 53
Doctor Thorne (1858)
- Before the reader is introduced to the modest country medical practitioner who is to be the chief personage of the following tale, it will be well that he should be made acquainted with some particulars as to the locality in which, and the neighbours among whom, our doctor followed his profession.
- First lines
- One of her instructors in fashion had given her to understand that curls were not the thing. "They'll always pass muster," Miss Dunstable had replied, "when they are done up with bank notes."
- Ch. 16
- There is no road to wealth so easy and respectable as that of matrimony.
- Ch. 18
- In these days a man is nobody unless his biography is kept so far posted up that it may be ready for the national breakfast-table on the morning after his demise.
- Ch. 25
Framley Parsonage (1861)
- When young Mark Robarts was leaving college, his father might well declare that all men began to say all good things to him, and to extol his fortune in that he had a son blessed with so excellent a disposition.
- Ch. 1, first lines
- It is a remarkable thing with reference to men who are distressed for money...they never seem at a loss for small sums, or deny themselves those luxuries which small sums purchase. Cabs, dinners, wine, theatres, and new gloves are always at the command of men who are drowned in pecuniary embarrassments, whereas those who don't owe a shilling are so frequently obliged to go without them!
- A man's own dinner is to himself so important that he cannot bring himself to believe that it is a matter utterly indifferent to every one else.
- Ch. 10
- I cannot hold with those who wish to put down the insignificant chatter of the world.
- Ch. 10
- I would recommend all men in choosing a profession to avoid any that may require an apology at every turn; either an apology or else a somewhat violent assertion of right.
- Ch. 15
- That girls should not marry for money we are all agreed. A lady who can sell herself for a title or an estate, for an income or a set of family diamonds, treats herself as a farmer teats his sheep and oxen— makes hardly more of herself, of her own inner self, in which are comprised a mind and a soul, than the poor wretch of her own sex who earns her bread in the lowest state of degradation.
- Ch. 21
- It is easy to love one's enemy when one is making fine speeches; but so difficult to do so in the actual everyday work of life.
- Ch. 23
- But who ever yet was offered a secret and declined it?
- Ch. 26
Orley Farm (1862)
- It is not true that a rose by any other name will smell as sweet. Were it true, I should call this story "The Great Orley Farm Case." But who would ask for the ninth number of a serial work burthened with so very uncouth an appellation? Thence, and therefore,— Orley Farm.
- Ch. 1, first lines.
- There is nothing perhaps so generally consoling to a man as a well-established grievance; a feeling of having been injured, on which his mind can brood from hour to hour, allowing him to plead his own cause in his own court, within his own heart,— and always to plead it successfully.
- Ch. 8
- Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that is comes early.
- Ch. 49
North America (1862)
- I know no place at which an Englishman may drop down suddenly among a pleasanter circle of acquaintance, or find himself with a more clever set of men, than he can do at Boston.
- Ch. 2
- If you cross the Atlantic with an American lady you invariably fall in love with her before the journey is over. Travel with the same woman in a railway car for twelve hours, and you will have written her down in your own mind in quite other language than that of love.
- Ch. 11
- Speaking of New York as a traveller I have two faults to find with it. In the first place there is nothing to see; and in the second place there is no mode of getting about to see anything.
- Ch. 14
- Every man worships the dollar, and is down before his shrine from morning to night... Other men, the world over, worship regularly at the shrine with matins and vespers, nones and complines, and whatever other daily services may be known to the religious houses; but the New Yorker is always on his knees.
- Ch. 14
- I have sometimes thought that there is no being so venomous, so bloodthirsty as a professed philanthropist.
- Ch. 16
- Taken altogether, Washington as a city is most unsatisfactory, and falls more grievously short of the thing attempted than any other of the great undertakings of which I have seen anything in the United States.
- Ch. 21
The Small House at Allington (1864)
- Of course there was a Great House at Allington. How otherwise should there have been a Small House?
- Ch. 1, first lines
- I doubt whether any girl would be satisfied with her lover's mind if she knew the whole of it.
- Ch. 4
- It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.
- Ch. 14
- Above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you very much at your own reckoning.
- Ch. 32
The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867)
- "I can never bring myself to believe it, John," said Mary Walker, the pretty daughter of Mr. George Walker, attorney, of Silverbridge.
- First lines
- She understood how much louder a cock can crow in his own farmyard than elsewhere.
- Vol. I, ch. 17
- Always remember, Mr. Robarts, that when you go into an attorney's office door, you will have to pay for it, first or last.
- Vol. I, ch. 20
- The best way to be thankful is to use the goods the gods provide you.
- Vol. I, ch. 32
- It is a comfortable feeling to know that you stand on your own ground. Land is about the only thing that can't fly away.
- Vol. II, ch. 58
- It's dogged as does it. It's not thinking about it.
- Vol. II, ch. 61
- Nothing reopens the springs of love so fully as absemce, and no absence so thoroughly as that which must needs be endless.
- Vol. II, ch. 67
Phineas Finn (1869)
- It has been the great fault of our politicians that they have all wanted to do something.
- Ch. 13
- There is such a difference between life and theory.
- Ch. 40
- She knew how to allure by denying, and to make the gift rich by delaying it.
- Ch. 57
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pressandjournal.co.uk
Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:36:13 GMT+00:00
Aberdeen Press and Journal The Scotland B cap has built up two years of frustration after feeling he had not been given a chance by Rovers manager Paul Trollope following his switch ... Yogi's going for Gow as Darryl rolls in The Sun
niftyrictus.blogspot.com
JMM
Wed, 26 May 2010 22:23:00 GM
The Warden was my first . Trollope. . It was--as its recommender explained to me--like a warm cup of tea. It wasn't very intense, but it was sort of soothing in its mild way, and I could see . Trollope. turning into a calming pre-bedtime ...
Why is Anthony Trollope still widely read?
Q. He often spoke to the reader, and often expressed Victorian values of duty and earnestness, traits which many say are unappealing to the modern reader. Yet his 47 novels (3 times as many as Dickens wrote) are all still widely read.
Asked by Robert R - Sat Jul 7 02:12:38 2007 - - 5 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Many things are unappealing and still read -- for instance stories about war. Just because the Victorian values may not be currently en vogue doesn't mean they aren't still interesting from an historical perspective. He was a very fine author. Writers such as Thackeray and George Eliot and Collins admired and befriended Trollope. He was in fine company and I see no reason why his books should be any more unappealing to modern readers than any other Victorian era book would be. Pax - C
Answered by Persiphone_Hellecat - Sat Jul 7 03:45:03 2007
Q. He often spoke to the reader, and often expressed Victorian values of duty and earnestness, traits which many say are unappealing to the modern reader. Yet his 47 novels (3 times as many as Dickens wrote) are all still widely read.
Asked by Robert R - Sat Jul 7 02:12:38 2007 - - 5 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Many things are unappealing and still read -- for instance stories about war. Just because the Victorian values may not be currently en vogue doesn't mean they aren't still interesting from an historical perspective. He was a very fine author. Writers such as Thackeray and George Eliot and Collins admired and befriended Trollope. He was in fine company and I see no reason why his books should be any more unappealing to modern readers than any other Victorian era book would be. Pax - C
Answered by Persiphone_Hellecat - Sat Jul 7 03:45:03 2007
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