An Autobiography, Volume 1William Blackwood and Sons, 1883 - Authors, English |
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afterwards Allington altogether amusement Anthony Trollope asked Banagher Barchester Barchester Towers became boys brother Bruges called career Castle Richmond certainly CHAPTER character Civil Service commenced Cornhill Magazine criticism dinner Doctor Thorne doubt duty early Edward Chapman elder England English father feeling felt Framley Parsonage Freeling gentleman hand Harrow Harrow School heard hunting idle Ireland Irish John Merivale knew known labour lady learned letter literary lived London look married Martin's le Grand matter mind mother nature never novel occasion Orley Farm perhaps Plantagenet Palliser plot Post Office probably published Rachel Ray readers received regarded remember sent shilling sister story tell Thackeray things thought Three Clerks tion told Tom Towers took travelling Trollope troubles truth volume Warden wife Winchester wish word writing written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 184 - I am like the pastrycook, and don't care for tarts, but prefer bread and cheese; but the public love the tarts (luckily for us), and we must bake and sell them. There was quite an excitement in my family one evening when Paterfamilias (who goes to sleep on a novel almost always when he tries it after dinner) came up-stairs into the drawing-room wide awake and calling for the second volume of The Three Clerks. I hope the Cornhill Magazine will have as pleasant a story. And the Chapmans, if they are...
Page 16 - What right had a wretched farmer's boy, reeking from a dunghill, to sit next to the sons of peers, — or much worse still, next to the sons of big tradesmen who had made their ten thousand a-year? The indignities I endured are not to be described. As I look back it seems to me that all hands were turned against me, — those of masters as well as boys. I was allowed to join in no plays. Nor did I learn anything, — for I was taught nothing.
Page 94 - As to the plot itself, I do not know that I ever made one so good, — or, at any rate, one so susceptible of pathos. I am aware that I broke down in the telling, not having yet studied the art. Nevertheless, The Macdermots is a good novel, and worth reading by any one who wishes to understand what Irish life was before the potato disease, the famine, and the Encumbered Estates Bill.
Page 193 - Have you ever read the novels of Anthony Trollope? They precisely suit my taste; solid and substantial, written on the strength of beef and through the inspiration of ale, and just as real as if some giant had hewn a great lump out of the earth and put it under a glass case, with all its inhabitants going about their daily business, and not suspecting that they were made a show of.
Page 169 - A novel should give a picture of common life enlivened by humour and sweetened by pathos. To make that picture worthy of attention, the canvas should be crowded with real portraits, not of individuals known to the world or to the author, but of created personages impregnated with traits of character which are known.
Page 194 - If I could do this, then I thought I might succeed in impregnating the mind of the novel-reader with a feeling that honesty is the best policy ; that truth prevails while falsehood fails : that a girl will be loved as she is pure, and sweet, and unselfish ; that a man will be honoured as he is true, and honest, and brave of heart ; that things meanly done are ugly and odious, and things nobly done beautiful and gracious.
Page 24 - When I left Harrow I was all but nineteen, and I had at first gone there at seven. During the whole of those twelve years no attempt had been made to teach me anything but Latin and Greek, and very little attempt to teach me those languages.
Page 13 - I suffered horribly! I could make no stand against it. I had no friend to whom I could pour out my sorrows. I was big, and awkward, and ugly, and, I have no doubt, skulked about in a most unattractive manner. Of course I was ill-dressed and dirty. But, ah! how well I remember all the agonies of my young heart...
Page 218 - The book I wrote was very much longer than that on the West Indies, but was also written almost without a note. It contained much information, and, with many inaccuracies, was a true book. But it was not well done. It is tedious and confused, and will hardly, I think, be of future value to those who wish to make themselves acquainted with the United States.
Page 98 - I have never consulted a friend as to a plot, or spoken to any one of the work I have been doing. My first manuscript I gave up to my mother, agreeing with her that it would be as well that she should not look at it before she gave it to a publisher. I knew that she did not give me credit for the sort of cleverness necessary for such work. I could see in the faces and hear in the voices of those of my friends who were around me at the house in Cumberland — my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law,...