Trollope?

The critical view of Trollope is that he has not aged well, and was never much of a novelist to start with, lacking much talent other than logorrhea. His books were huge sellers in the Victorian Era, and some other writers even praised him. But he has not weathered well with time with critics.

Nevertheless, he is still very widely read for a guy who wrote 150 years ago. He’s nearly as widely read as Dickens. And his modern day fans love him to bits.

So what’s the verdict? Does he suck or is he cool?

Please follow and like us:
error3
fb-share-icon20
20
fb-share-icon20

5 thoughts on “Trollope?”

  1. Three English novels are often cited as the greatest 19 Century English novel, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, Dickens’ Bleak House, and George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Personally I’d go for Vanity Fair out of the three because it’s funnier…or Dickens in a less dark mood than in Bleak House, Pickwick Papers, say. But my favourite 19th Century novel is George Eliot’s Mill On the Floss. If you haven’t read it Robert don’t miss out! And it’s not 900 pages long…

  2. I’ve never troubled to read Trollope. His social canvas is narrower. It’s the English upper middle classes. Apparently he is an accomplished social satirist and not at all dull. Dickens’ novels have a broad human canvas, from the lumpenproletariat to the aristocracy. Would you recommend Moby Dick, by Melville, while we’re speaking about the 19th Century novel? I once read a wonderful short story by Melville. Bartleby. I shall never forget it. As powerful as any short fiction by Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky….

  3. Melville, yes. Without a doubt. Moby Dick is the closest thing to the American Ulysses. There’s nothing like it. It was experimental before it was cool to be experimental. It’s a novel that attempts to cover everything in human experience, and well nigh succeeds. But it’s no easy reading. Harder than Tolstoy for sure and pretty much tossing aside all the conventions of the novel.

    Trollope? I’ve heard he was good actually. Haven’t had much of an inkling to read him though. And I’ve heard excellent things about George Eliot, although her subject matter doesn’t interest me much personally. As for Thackery, never read him either, but who can’t love Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon?

Leave a Reply to Robert Lindsay Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)