Status Updates From An Autobiography: And Other...

ok he’s losing me slightly let’s pick it up babes

ok this is actually lowkey interesting i didn’t expect it to be

In Trollope’s essay on the history of the English novel: “I remember myself to have been unable to leave my chair during the whole night when I was reading that awful book, the ‘Mysteries of Udolpho’, alone, amidst the gloom of a dark room…I did not dare stir from my chair…so the unsnuffed candles burned themselves out; and I remained sleepless—and, at last, sleeping—in my chair” (240-241).

Except I think he has misread Emma. 😂

No wonder it was natural for me to move from Austen to Trollope in my early 20s. Both Trollope and his contemporary and modern admirers recognize that he was working in the tradition of Austen’s realism. Trollope himself loved Austen’s novels. 😊

Finished the autobiography and now onto Trollope’s other writings!

“Our first work in settling there was to place upon new shelves the books which I had collected around myself at Waltham…At the present moment I own about 5000 volumes, and they are dearer to me even than the horses which are going, or than the wine in the cellar…” (218).

I knew I liked him! 😂 He also knows how much work it is to move books. 😳

Trollope does not like American mosquitos. 😂

“I look upon this string of characters…as the best work of my life. Taking him altogether, I think that Plantagenet Palliser stands more firmly on the ground than any other personage I have created” (117).

“Who will read Can You Forgive Her?, Phineas Finn, Phineas Redux, and The Prime Minister consecutively, in order that they may understand the characters of the Duke of Omnium, of Plantagenet Palliser, and of Lady Glencora? Who will even know that they should be so read?” (117).

Actually everyone, Trollope. 😂 No worries.

I had no idea that Trollope traveled so much! He was in the United States during the Civil War and had dinner with Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Seward. Fascinating!