Elizabeth’s Reviews > An Autobiography: And Other Writings > Status Update

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. 😂