TROLLOPE, ANTHONY (1815-1882).—­Novelist, s. of Thomas Anthony T., a barrister who ruined himself by speculation, and of Frances T. (q.v.), a well-known writer, was b. in London, and ed. at Harrow and Winchester.  His childhood was an unhappy one, owing to his father’s misfortunes.  After a short time in Belgium he obtained an appointment in the Post Office, in which he rose to a responsible position.  His first three novels had little success; but in 1855 he found his line, and in The Warden produced the first of his Barsetshire series.  It was followed by Barchester Towers (1857), Doctor Thorne (1858), Framley Parsonage (1861), The Small House at Allington (1864), and The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867), which deal with the society of a small cathedral city.  Other novels are Orley Farm, Can you forgive Her?, Ralph the Heir, The Claverings, Phineas Finn, He knew he was Right, and The Golden Lion of Grandpre.  In all he wrote about 50 novels, besides books about the West Indies, North America, Australia, and South Africa, a translation of Caesar, and monographs on Cicero and Thackeray.  His novels are light of touch, pleasant, amusing, and thoroughly healthy.  They make no attempt to sound the depths of character or either to propound or solve problems.  Outside of fiction his work was generally superficial and unsatisfactory.  But he had the merit of providing a whole generation with wholesome amusement, and enjoyed a great deal of popularity.  He is said to have received L70,000 for his writings.

TROLLOPE, MRS. FRANCES (MILTON) (1780-1863).—­Novelist and miscellaneous writer, b. at Stapleton near Bristol, m. in 1809 Thomas A.T., a barrister, who fell into financial misfortune.  She then in 1827 went with her family to Cincinnati, where the efforts which she made to support herself were unsuccessful.  On her return to England, however, she brought herself into notice by publishing Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832), in which she gave a very unfavourable and grossly exaggerated account of the subject; and a novel, The Refugee in America, pursued it on similar lines.  Next came The Abbess and Belgium and Western Germany, and other works of the same kind on Paris and the Parisians, and Vienna and the Austrians followed.  Thereafter she continued to pour forth novels and books on miscellaneous subjects, writing in all over 100 vols.  Though possessed of considerable powers of observation and a sharp and caustic wit, such an output was fatal to permanent literary success, and none of her books are now read.  She spent the last 20 years of her life at Florence, where she d. in 1863.  Her third s. was Anthony T., the well-known novelist (q.v.).  Her eldest s., Thomas Adolphus, wrote The Girlhood of Catherine de Medici, a History of Florence, and Life of Pius IX., and some novels.