The unofficial Trollope

by Bill Overton

The analysis is based upon an impressively detailed knowledge of the whole range of Trollope's writing. A wide range of reference is matched by a close reading of the function of narrative and character in some of Trollope's best known work. But problems begin with the question of what value to attributeto Trollopean doubleness once it has been discovered. . . . {Overton's} argument is advanced modestly, even sceptically, and that's not surprising because I don't think it can be sustained. . . . The Unofficial Trollope is a valuableaddition to critical studies of the novelist, but it approaches its subject with a kind of seriousness which fails to see that Trollope's novels were, mutatis mutandis, a Victorian version of Dallas.

212 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982