A Bibliography of the First Editions of the Works of Anthony Trollope

Compiled by Margaret Lavington With Notes Drawn Chiefly From His Autobiography and From Information Kindly Given by His Son, Henry M. Trollope

1847

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. 345; Vol. II., pp. 382; Vol. III., pp. 743 (sic). [This figure is plainly a misprint for 437, as the preceding page is numbered 436.]

The plot, which Trollope considered to be as good as any he ever made, of this book, was conceived during a walk with his friend, John Merivale, around the village of Drumsna, Co. Leitrim, in the course of which they came upon the modern ruins of a country-house, as described in Chapter I. It was begun in September 1843, and finished a year after his marriage, which took place in June 1844. His mother, Mrs. Frances Trollope the novelist, arranged for its publication with Mr. Newby, who neither paid the author anything nor rendered an account of the sales which were presumably very small. The sum of £48, 6s. 9d. mentioned in the Autobiography as received for this book was probably therefore in respect of the new edition of 1859. Mr. Henry Merivale Trollope kindly informs me that another copy of the first edition in his possession contains a new and different title-page, as though the publisher, seeing that another novel had been issued, hoped to help the sale of his remaining copies by the additional words, “Author of The Kellys and the O’Kellys.” The book is in all other respects the same. This later title-page reads as follows:

1848

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. 298; Vol. II., pp. 298; Vol. III., pp. 285.

For this book Colburn agreed to pay the author half profits, but actually incurred a loss which amounted to £63, 10s. 1½d. Only 375 copies were printed, and 140 sold. The sum of £123, 19s. 5d., recorded as received for this work, was therefore probably in respect of later editions. The influence of a friend obtained a short notice in the Times to the effect that the book was like a leg of mutton, substantial, but a little coarse, but before this notice appeared Trollope had made up his mind never to ask for, or deplore, criticism; never to thank a critic for praise, or quarrel with him for censure. To this rule he adhered with absolute strictness, and recommended it to all young authors.

1850

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. iv (preface pp. iii-iv), 320; Vol. II., pp. 330; Vol. III., pp. 313.

According to the agreement for this book Trollope was to receive £20 down; £30 when Colburn had sold 350 copies; and £50 more should he sell 450 within six months. The £20 was received, but no more, so that the sales were presumably no larger than before. No reviews of it seem ever to have met Trollope’s eye.

1855

THE | WARDEN. | By | Anthony Trollope. | London: | Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. | 1855. |

Small 8vo. In One Volume: pp. iv, 336.

Conceived while wandering around Salisbury Cathedral during his work in establishing rural posts, The Warden was begun by Trollope at Tenbury in Worcestershire on July 29, 1852, and finished in Ireland in the autumn of the following year. This was the first book of the series of novels of which Barchester was the central site. He received a cheque for £9, 8s. 8d. at the end of 1855, and £10, 15s. 1d. a year later. A thousand copies were printed, and of these about 300 were converted into another form five or six years later, and sold as belonging to a cheap edition.

A review in the Times rebuked the author for indulging in personalities in the matter of one Tom Towers, introduced by him as a contributor to the Jupiter. But though Trollope had certainly thus alluded to the Times, he was at that period entirely ignorant of the personnel of its staff.

1857

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. 305; Vol. II., p. 299; Vol. III., pp. iv, 321.

Written chiefly in railway trains while investigating the rural postal system of England, Barchester Towers was the second of the series dealing with the bishops, deans, and archdeacon of Barchester. It was published by Longman, after a refusal on the author’s part to curtail the work, on the half-profit system, with the payment of £100 in advance from the half-profits. Writing in 1876, Trollope records a small yearly income from this and the preceding book, The Warden, making together at that date a total of £727, 11s. 3d.

1858

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. iv, 340; Vol. II., pp. iv, 322; Vol. III., pp. iv, 334.

An autobiographical interest marks this book, for the story of how Trollope was admitted into the Secretary’s office of the General Post Office in 1834 by Henry and Clayton Freeling, the sons of Sir Francis, is told in the opening chapters under the guise of Charley Tudor’s admittance into the Internal Navigation Office. The whole scheme of competitive examination is deplored, and its supporters, Sir Charles Trevelyan and Sir Stafford Northcote (afterwards Lord Iddesleigh) appear respectively as Sir Gregory Hardlines and Sir Warwick West End. The book gave official offence.

As Longman was not prepared to buy it outright, Trollope took it to Bentley, who paid him £250 for all rights.

1858

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. iv, 305; Vol. II. pp. iv, 323; Vol. III., pp. iv, 340.

The plot of this book was sketched for Trollope by his brother, Thomas Adolphus, whom he was visiting in Florence in 1857. This was the only occasion on which he had recourse to other brains for the thread of a story. While writing it in Dublin early in 1858, he was asked to go to Egypt to arrange a postal treaty with the Pasha. He sold his book, when passing through London, to Chapman and Hall for £400, Bentley refusing to give more than £300; and finished it in Egypt, writing his allotted number of pages every day, even during sea-sickness on the terribly rough voyage to Alexandria.

By the sales, he judged this to be his most popular book.

1859

8vo. In One Volume: pp. iv, 395. With coloured map.

When Trollope was asked to go to the West Indies to reconstruct the whole of its postal system, he proposed this book to Chapman and Hall, asking £250 for the single volume. The contract was made without difficulty, and he returned with the completed work. His view of the relative position of white men and black was upheld by three articles in the Times, which made the fortune of the book. Trollope regarded it as the best he had ever written.

1859

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. iv. 335; Vol. II., pp. iv. 344; Vol. III., pp. iv. 331.

Begun the day after finishing Doctor Thorne, this book was written under very vagrant circumstances at Alexandria, Malta, Gibraltar, Glasgow, at sea, and finished in Jamaica. It was sold to Chapman and Hall for £400, but never attained the popularity of Doctor Thorne.

Trollope says that he never heard it well spoken of.

1860

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. vi, 303; Vol. II., pp. iv, 300; Vol. III., pp. vi, 289.

Declined by George Smith in November 1859 for the Cornhill Magazine, which was to appear for the first time some eight weeks hence, on the ground that it was an Irish story, this book was published later by Chapman & Hall, as originally intended, after Framley Parsonage had been running in the Cornhill. This was the only occasion on which Trollope had two different novels in his mind at the same time. He asked and obtained £600 for it on the success of The West Indies.

1861

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. 333; Vol. II., pp. 318; Vol. III., pp. 330.

There are two illustrations in each volume, the list being on page iv. (unnumbered) of Vol. I.

Messrs. Smith & Elder, having offered Trollope £1000 for the copyright of a three-volume novel to appear serially in their new venture, the Cornhill, declined Castle Richmond on account of its Irish character, but begged him to frame some other story, suggesting the Church as a theme peculiar to his powers. He thereupon fell back on his old Barchester friends and wrote a tale that became increasingly popular as it proceeded. Framley Parsonage appeared in the Cornhill from January 1860 to April 1861. The author himself doubted the possibility of making a character more life-like than Lucy Robarts.

1861

Small 8vo. In One Volume: pp. 312.

This is the First Series; for the Second, see under 1863.

Contents

La Mère Bauche. Republished from Harper’s New York Magazine.
The O’Conors of Castle Conor. From the same.
John Bull on the Guadalquivir. From Cassell’s Family Paper.
Miss Sarah Jack, of Spanish Town, Jamaica. From the same.
The Courtship of Susan Bell. From Harper’s New York Magazine.
Relics of General Chassé. From the same.
An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids. From Cassell’s Family Paper.
The Château of Prince Polignac. From the same.

Some of these stories reflect Trollope’s own adventures. The second is based on his early days in Ireland, and the third on the chief incident in a journey to Seville.

1862

8vo. Vol. I., pp. viii, 320; Vol. II., pp. viii, 320. Each volume contains twenty illustrations.

Completed before he started for America in 1861, this appeared in twenty shilling numbers, and Trollope obtained £3135. While rating the plot highly he thought it declared itself too soon. Of the illustrations by Millais he wrote: “I have never known a set of illustrations so carefully true, as are these, to the conceptions of the writer of the book illustrated. I say that as a writer. As a lover of art I will add that I know no book graced with more exquisite pictures.” The drawing of Orley Farm itself, in the frontispiece, depicts in reality the farmhouse at Harrow in which the Trollope family lived during the author’s boyhood.

1862

8vo. Vol. I., pp. viii.; folding map, 467; Vol. II., pp. viii, 494 (Appendices A, B, and C, pp. 467-494.)

On the outbreak of the War of Secession in 1861 Trollope applied for nine months’ leave of absence from the Post Office and visited America, writing as he went from State to State. It is interesting to note that, contrary to the very strong feeling in England in favour of the South, he felt with and prophesied the victory of the North. The book met the demand of the moment; second and third editions were published in the same year, and Trollope received £1250.

1863

Small 8vo. In One Volume: pp. 371.

Contents.

1. Aaron Trow.
2. Mrs. General Talboys.
3. The Parson’s Daughter of Oxney Colne.
4. George Walker at Suez.
5. The Mistletoe Bough.
6. Returning Home.
7. A Ride Across Palestine.
8. The House of Heine Brothers in Munich.
9. The Man who kept his Money in a Box.

Republished from various periodicals.

For the first of this series see under 1861. For these two books and (probably) for Lotta Schmidt, virtually one of the same series, though the title was discontinued, Trollope received a total sum of £1830. The tales reflect much of his own experiences.

1863

Small 8vo. Vol I., pp. iv, 319; Vol. II., pp. iv, 310.

Written at the request of Dr. Norman Macleod for Good Words, Rachel Ray was partly printed by him, and then returned with profuse apologies as unsuitable—as Trollope had predicted it would be. It therefore appeared in ordinary volume form. A later and cheaper edition contained one illustration by Millais. Trollope received a total of £1645.

1864

Octavo. Vol. I., pp. 312; Vol. II., pp. 316.

Vol. I. contains ten illustrations; Vol. II., eight.

On the conclusion of The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson, this far more popular work appeared serially in the Cornhill from September 1862 to April 1864. Published in book form in 1864, it ran into a third edition within the year, and Trollope received a sum of £3000. Sir Raffle Buffle, a hero of the Civil Service, was intended to represent a type, not a man; but the man for the picture was soon chosen. Trollope, however, had never seen, and never did see, the supposed prototype.

1864

8vo. Vol. I., pp. vi, 320; Vol. II., pp. vi, 320.

This story was partly formed on a comedy, The Noble Jilt, written by Trollope in 1850 and refused by George Bartley, the actor-manager. It became very dear to the author as the first of a series that continued with Phineas Finn, Phineas Redux, and The Prime Minister. Can You Forgive Her? appeared in twenty shilling numbers from August 1863, and Trollope received £3525.

Each volume contains twenty illustrations. Those in the first volume were by “Phiz” (Hablot K. Browne), but Frederick Chapman, the publisher, considered them so bad and incongruous that the remainder were made by a Miss Taylor.

1865

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. vi, 312; Vol. II., pp. vi, 313.

Issued in ordinary volume form in the early spring of 1865, Miss Mackenzie was written with the desire to prove love an unessential element in a novel, but the attempt broke down before the conclusion. It brought the author £1300.

1865

Small 8vo. In One Volume: pp. 115.

Contents.

The Man who Hunts and doesn’t Like it.
The Man who Hunts and does Like it.
The Lady who Rides to Hounds.
The Hunting Farmer.
The Man who Hunts and never Jumps.
The Hunting Parson.
The Master of Hounds.
How to Ride to Hounds.

1866

Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. iv, 284; Vol. II., pp. iv, 308; Vol. III., pp. iv, 276.

This was the first serial to appear in the new Fortnightly Review, established by Trollope and others in May 1865, under the editorship of G. H. Lewes. It brought in a sum of £1757.

1866

Small 8vo. In One Volume: pp. 112.

Contents

The Family that Goes Abroad because it’s the Thing to Do.
The Man who Travels Alone.
The Unprotected Female Tourist.
The United Englishmen who Travel for Fun.
The Art Tourist.
The Tourist in Search of Knowledge.
The Alpine Club Man.
Tourists who Don’t Like their Travels.

1866

Small 8vo. In One Volume: pp. 130.

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