How the "Mastiffs" Went to Iceland

by Anthony Trollope

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46 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1878

About the author

Anthony Trollope became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works, known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire; he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.

Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...

Reviews

[Mbuye · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘How the ‘Mastiffs’ Went to Iceland,’(1898) is the first travel book by Trollope that I'd come across and I fell upon it with delight. I loved my copy, because, apart from Trollope's own acerbic comments about himself, his mount, the company on board, and the places and people from the Outer Hebrides to Iceland, it carried the line drawings by the great ornithologist-illustrator, Jemima Wedderburn Blackburn, one of the company aboard the vessel, who Trollope describes as ‘Our Artist’ on board. Her pictures are sharp and clear, but more than anything, they are full of fun and satire. (He modestly calls himself ‘Our Chronicler’). Trollope's frequent references to these illustrations convey the impression that they are accurate as well.

This is not just an ordinary travelogue, but almost a social and political commentary as well, from subjects ranging from the difficulty of obtaining daily necessities including bread, on remote islands far from the mainland or not on busy sea routes, to educational levels, postal services (Trollope's day job was in the Post Office, first as Clerk, and later as Post Office Surveyor in Ireland), and even banking services, notoriously absent in Reykjavik. He also makes a note of farming customs, and housing with roofing of turf. Among the common health problems are “scurvy, cutaneous diseases, and even leprosy.” About himself, he acknowledges ruefully that as the heaviest man in the party, any pony provided for him would have been inadequate, but the brute allocated to him was unique in its inadequacies.

There is a bit of tourist snobbery thrown as well, and some scorn, as he describes the shopping in Iceland: “for Reykjavik has jewellers’ shops. Old silver ornaments, silvered belts and filigree work, all of which had probably come some years ago from Denmark, and some of which had possibly come from Birmingham, was there for sale.” About the famous hot springs of Iceland, Trollope assured us that they were greatly inferior to the geysers of New Zealand; but that they were not bad, despite their inferiority!

Trollope's comments about their local hosts, the ladies of the company, the hospitality he had both from his host on board the Mastiff, as well as the local people and the official dignitaries both the small islands and the bustling town are sprinkled with astute observations and his kindlier humour, and of course, the drawings sometimes reflect the humour of the situations which continually crop up with tourists unfamiliar with the language of habits of new countries. One does wonder how different everything would be, if the identical trip were to be performed today. There wouldn't be a shortage of bread or rope, for sure, and there would be an abundance of supermarkets. The Geysers might be stopped up with plastic litter… but that is for a latter-day Trollope to worry about.

[Karl Radl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthony Trollope's travelogue of his nineteenth century visit to the Faroe Islands and Iceland which recounts very similar observations to George Lincoln Rockwell's 'This Time the World' and Savitri Devi's 'Gold in the Furnace' in the 1940s about both the people and the culture.

Refreshing reading precisely because it shows you how the Scandinavians had barely changed in centuries and were still very much the Vikings their ancestors were.

[Avid Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully snide. Well worth an evening.