Fanny Trollope: A Remarkable Life - Hardcover

Ransom, Teresa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312126182 ISBN 13: 9780312126186

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995

Synopsis

Traces the life of nineteenth century author Fanny Trollope, the mother of Anthony Trollope, who began her successful career at the age of fifty-three when she began writing to support her family

About this title

Reviews

Anthony Trollope's mother was the famous member of the family during most of his lifetime. Fanny Milton Trollope was a prolific and popular Regency writer who produced 41 books in 24 years in an effort to support her beleaguered family. She began writing at age 53 while supporting six children, four of whom would die of tuberculosis. Fanny was a powerhouse of energy who surrounded herself with coteries, assemblies, balls, and masquerades. Drawing upon her own observations, Trollope's works ranged from travel books to romances, gothic novels, and a detective story. Her most popular efforts were satirical novels of domestic manners in which she attacked myriad societal offenses, including child labor, slavery, women's rights, workhouses, and, alas, book reviewers. The latter reviled her work, mistaking candor for vulgarity. Teresa Ransom, one of Fanny's distant relatives, has used family memoirs, autobiographies, and contemporary letters to document the life and career of an early feminist who produced not only a world-famous son but literary heroines as deliciously rebellious as herself. Patricia Hassler

Better known today as the mother of writer Anthony Trollope, the clever, indefatigable, and resourceful Frances Milton Trollope (1779-1863) was a popular and controversial writer in England and America in her day, producing 40 books in 115 volumes after the age of 53. In this biography, Ransom, an indirect descendant of the Trollope family, focuses on Trollope as a writer of travel books; social, cultural, and moral satires; Gothic novels; romances; and a murder mystery. Ransom draws upon previous scholarship, particularly Helen Heineman's Mrs. Trollope (1979), her own research of primary materials, reading of Trollope's writings, and travels following the trail of Fanny in Europe. Ransom provides a new perspective on the influences of Fanny and her writings on her son and his writings. This biography is an interesting, well-written, vivid account that should revive general interest in and encourage further literary scholarship on Frances Trollope as a writer.?Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312126182
• ISBN 13: 9780312126186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 236