An Autobiography of Anthony TrollopeDodd, Mead, 1922 - 319 pages |
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able altogether amusement Anthony Trollope asked Banagher Barchester Towers became become boys brother called career Castle Richmond certainly CHAPTER character commenced Cornhill Cornhill Magazine critic Doctor Thorne doubt duty early editor England English Eustace Diamonds father feeling felt Fortnightly Framley Parsonage G. H. Lewes gentleman girl give given hand Harrow heard honesty House at Allington hunting idle Ireland Irish John Merivale knew known labour Lady learned letters literary lived London look magazine married matter Messrs mind mother nature never Nina Balatka novel novelist Orley Farm perhaps Phineas Finn Phineas Redux Plantagenet Palliser plot political Post Office probably published readers received regard remember sent speak story tell Thackeray things thought Three Clerks told trouble truth volume week wife words writing written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 195 - Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge. It blossoms through the year ! And depend on it, Mrs. Malaprop, that they who are so fond of handling the leaves will long for the fruit at last.
Page 236 - All those I think who have lived as literary men, — working daily as literary labourers, — will agree with me that three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write. But then he should so have trained himself that he shall be able to work continuously during those three hours, — so have tutored his mind that it shall not be necessary for him to sit nibbling his pen, and gazing at the wall before him, till he shall have found the words with which he wants to express his ideas.
Page 206 - There should be no episodes in a novel. Every sentence, every word, through all those pages, should tend to the telling of the story. Such episodes distract the attention of the reader, and always do so disagreeably. Who has not felt this to be the case even with The Curious Impertinent and with the History of the Man of the Hill.
Page 104 - I was writing was or was not wanted with speed — I have allotted myself so many pages a week. The average number has' been about 40. It has been placed as low as 20, and has risen to 112. And as a page is an ambiguous term, my page has been made to contain 250 words ; and as words, if not watched, will have a tendency to straggle, I have had every word counted as I went.
Page 104 - I have written, so that if at any time I have slipped into idleness for a day or two, the record of that idleness has been there, staring me in the face, and demanding of me increased labour, so that the deficiency might be supplied.
Page 11 - 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 126 - 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 120 - 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 307 - I began a novel, to the writing of which I was instigated by what I conceived to be the commercial profligacy of the age. Whether the world does or does not become more wicked as years go on, is a question which probably has disturbed the minds of thinkers since the world began to think. That men have become less cruel, less violent, less selfish, less brutal, there can be no doubt; - but have they become less honest?
Page 118 - ... expression of my opinion. They who had the ordering of me very often did not know the work as I knew it, — could not tell as I could what would be the effect of this or that change. When carrying out instructions which I knew should not have been given, I never scrupled to point out the fatuity of the improper order in the strongest language that I could decently employ. I have revelled in these official correspondences, and look back to some of them as the greatest delights of my life. But...