Anthony Trollope: A Critical Study

by A.O.J. Cockshut

Tight, clean, feels brand new. owner name ffep. Old price sticker on front. Private library. We ship daily from Wisconsin.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

Reviews

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early and still impressive--and, more significantly, perhaps, eminently readable--study of Trollope's fiction. Cockshut is perhaps occasionally eccentric in the books he chooses to focus on, though I probably to share, generally, his preference for later Trollope, but he is always insightful, even if his views are occasionally dated. He ignores entirely several of Trollope's books, but that is inevitable in even a fairly substantial study, given how prolific Trollope was, and I rarely found myself thinking the book would have benefited from more consideration of one of the more overlooked texts. Cockshut begins with chapters focusing on Trollope in historical context and on general concerns that run through Trollope's book--family relationships, inheritance, the gradations of rank, politics etc.--which allows him to bring in briefly many of the books he does not later discuss in greater detail. The books on which he does focus--The Eustace Diamonds, An Eye for an Eye, The Way We Live Now, Dr Wortle's School, Kept in the Dark, and Mr. Scarborough's Family (only the latter of two I have not read)--are generally ones I admire, as well. Recommended to anyone who pines for the days when literary criticism was written so that anyone with a basic education and an interest in the subject could understand it; if there is any specialized jargon here, it has become so thoroughly absorbed into common usage that it is now invisible. Cockshut, like Tollope, wrote to be understood by a wide audience, and he succeeded.

[Phil Atteberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book in a library discard bin. Since I am a Trollope enthusiast and remember coming across A.O.J. Cockshut's name a few times in graduate school, I brought the book home and read it.

Trollope is difficult to write about--and difficult to read about--because the volume of his work is so massive. Almost no reader has read enough of Trollope to assess fairly a critical study of his work. (He wrote about 50 novels; I've read about half of them.)

All of that being said, I will risk disagreeing (at least in part) with Cockshut's main point. He says that the shape of Trollope's career is a "progress toward pessimism" which resulted in his later works being superior to his earlier ones even though they were less popular. There is some truth in that, but to me, Trollope never loses a comic, satirical spirit, even in his later novels. Trollope's late work does not darken to the degree that Dickens' does, for example. However, I have not read all of Trollope's late novels. Maybe if I had I would change my mind.

I did enjoy parts of this book a lot. The chapter on the ups and downs of Trollope's literary reputation from his late life through the mid 20th century is interesting and informative. All in all, I performed a good deed by rescuing this book from the dumpster.