Sunday 6 December 2009

On this day...









Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, died in 1882 at the age of 67. A Post Office worker for thirty three years, Trollope's life ambition was to become a member of the House of Commons. Unfortunately, this aspiration was left unrealised, and his biggest social improvement was the invention of the red, street-corner letter box. Following a strict schedule of starting at 5:30, and writing 250 words every quarter of an hour, Trollope was one of the most prolific writers of the era, publishing 47 novels; more than double the output of Charles Dickens. Although criticised, Trollope had many admirers; Nathaniel Hawthorne saying of his novels, ' They precisely suit my taste; solid, substantial, written on strength of beef and through inspiration of ale'. George Eliot was also noted as saying she would not have written 'Middlemarch', were it not for Trollope. His best known work, is 'The Chronicles of Barsetshire'.

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