Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198662106 ISBN 13: 9780198662105

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1999

Synopsis

The author of forty-seven novels, plus travel books, biographies, essays, and critical works, Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was the most prolific of the great Victorian writers. Now The Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope brings together thirty-six leading scholars who provide an accessible, authoritative, and wide-ranging reference work on this important literary figure.
Here, in more than 500 A-Z entries, readers will find a wealth of information on Trollope's life, his works, and the historical and social context in which he lived. Trollope's writing career spanned almost half a century and his circle of friends reads like a who's who of Victorian England--and it's all captured here. The contributors offer illuminating essays on Trollope's major works--including the famed Barsetshire Novels and Paliser Novels--as well as on the many lesser known but no less accomplished books. The volume also examines Trollope's personal life, offering fresh information on such well documented aspects as his work at the Post Office and his famous circle of friends. Moreover, the contributors provide the most recent findings on aspects of Trollope's career only recently addressed by scholars: his work as a biographer and journalist, the importance of his extensive travels abroad, and the astonishing reappraisal of his work over the last few decades. And the Companion includes a chronology of Trollope's life, a family tree, maps, a thematic overview, and an extensive bibliography.
Packed with information based on the most current research, this attractively illustrated volume provides an unparalleled guide to one of the great nineteenth-century writers. It belongs on the shelf of everyone who loves English literature.

About this title

About the Author

R.C. Terry is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia. He is the author of Anthony Trollope: The Artist in Hiding and Victorian Popular Fiction 1860-1880.

Reviews

With the same comprehensive treatment provided by Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens [RBB O 1 99], this volume covers an author whose reputation has been steadily ascending over recent years.

Through a career that spanned nearly half a century, Trollope brought to his readers a humor, a gentle yet pointed insight, and a sense of scope uncommon in the Victorian era. He also had a huge circle of friends. Editor Terry (emeritus, Univ. of Victoria, and author of several Trollope books) provides an excellent guide to Trollope's large universe. In more than 500 alphabetical listings (in eight subject areas), 36 Trollope scholars profile his private and public life, his life as a writer, his characters, locations, and associations, and his literary and social contexts. Particularly noteworthy are their discussions of--and annotated entries about--each of Trollope's 47 novels, characters, and locations. They also track the change in Trollope's critical reception from his time to our own; a growing number of critics now see Trollope not just as the genial chronicler of a lost era but as a writer who tackled the controversial issues of his time--such as sexuality, feminism, and colonialism (all of which are addressed in this volume). The work is nicely rounded out with illustrations and photographs, a chronology, a family tree, and a detailed bibliography. This well-conceived volume is recommended for large public libraries and all academic libraries.
-Neal Wyatt, Chesterfield Cty. P.L., Richmond, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198662106
• ISBN 13: 9780198662105
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 648
• Editor: Terry R. C.