SOURCE: "Mr. Trollope's Shorter Tales," in The Spectator, Vol. 55, No. 2805, April 1, 1882, p. 443.

In the following assessment of Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices, and Other Tales, the anonymous reviewer praises Trollope for the "diagnostic of the true significance of various little nuances of social manners," which he conducts in his stories.

Mr. Trollope is always amusing, but he is never more amusing than in his shorter tales, when he makes them turn, as he so often does, on his curiously microscopic knowledge of those little social tactics and manœuvres by which so many important positions are gained or lost, though no one but social microscopists like Mr. Trollope appreciate their significance. In this new volume of tales, [Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices and Other Stories], Mr. Trollope is at his best, though in one of them, the farcical story of the mustard-plaster applied by a lady...