Trollope for the 21st Century: He Knew He Was Right
The recognition among current literary critics of Trollope’s greatness rests, to some degree, on the discovery that he is not the conventional-minded, conservative, deferential, ‘dull’ writer he seemed to earlier generations. Among his later novels, He Knew He Was Right is particularly rewarding. In...
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| Publicado no: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cve, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
| Publicado em: |
Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens
2026
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| Acesso em linha: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Resumo: | The recognition among current literary critics of Trollope’s greatness rests, to some degree, on the discovery that he is not the conventional-minded, conservative, deferential, ‘dull’ writer he seemed to earlier generations. Among his later novels, He Knew He Was Right is particularly rewarding. In its multi-layered depiction of nineteenth-century England in the midst of change, the book stands alongside Middlemarch (whose author, George Eliot, acknowledged Trollope’s influence on her). Both writers focus on individual egos learning to adapt to a larger social unit, but Trollope is less judgmental than Eliot: he allows for more independence of mind in his female characters; and he is more tolerant of characters who stray beyond the conventionalities. In He Knew He Was Right he allows for a tragic potential in human beings that is more Shakespearean than Victorian; yet he also draws on a knowledge of (in his words) ‘the perversity of the human mind’ which aligns him with current novelists such as Ian McEwan, J. M. Coetzee, and Philip Roth. |
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