Fanny Trollope
BIOGRAPHIES
1. The Life and Adventures of a Clever Woman
2. A Remarkable Life
3. In Common Cause
FANNY TROLLOPE: The Life and Adventures of a Clever Woman
by Pamela Neville-Sington
Published by Penguin 1998
ISBN: 0-140-24333-X
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It is rare one finds a book of such
scholarly excellence which is, at the same time, easily accessible to the lay
reader. Whether the reader is looking to know more about Fanny Trollope or the
social and political context of her time s/he will not be disappointed.
The author shows an intimate knowledge of the published works of the Trollope
family and the list of acknowledgements for help in researching libraries and
archives in both Britain and America, is extensive.
At every stage of her life Fanny is shown within the context of the time and
we are given a real feeling of her network of friends and contacts. In Clifton
as a girl and young woman she inhabited the same world as Coleridge, Southey,
Wordsworth and Joseph Priestly. Later in Heckfield, Hampshire we are told of the
mutual contacts which she shared with Jane Austen. Much later, in Florence, we
are given the names of the great and famous who visited Villino Trollope.
Pamela Neville-Sington successfully achieves her aim of setting the balance
straight following the overshadowing of Fanny's success by her famous son
Anthony who gives a rather condescending portrait of his mother in his
autobiography. 'Anthony was Fanny's crowning achievement, yet his reputation has
eclipsed her memory. She herself was far more than the mother of a famous
novelist, and her own story is well worth telling'. (Pxiv)
Throughout the book the actual lives of the Trollopes are described by
quotations taken from the books which they wrote. They clearly drew heavily on
people and situations from real life to create their fictitious characters. Our
author uses this technique extensively so that at times one has to check as to
which is fact and which is fiction. Anthony might well have been critical of his
mother's accuracy and clear-sightedness but time after time we are shown how he
drew on the same situations and people for his plots. Our author's ability to
use the works of mother and sons to support biographical detail is an excellent
means of introducing us to their work in a contextual setting.
The list of thirty illustrations is also particularly good as the few novels
which have been re-published by Alan Sutton in the Pocket Classics series are
devoid of any original illustrations.
Beyond the enjoyment of this book as biography we are never far away from
important issues of the day, first in England but later America and then Europe.
The first half of the nineteenth century was a time of ferment. Many of the
events and people of that time which we can read about in history books are
brought alive through the life of Fanny Trollope. We learn indirectly the
problems caused through the controversy surrounding the 'Corn Laws'. We meet
ex-patriots, down on their luck, living in Belgium. In the1840s, Fanny dodges
her way about Europe, passing comment continually on the political instabilities
of the time. We watch her family decimated through the killer disease of
tuberculosis and get a glimpse of the limitations of the medicine of the day.
Religious developments crop up throughout the book as they effect those close to
Fanny. Finally we are given a real feel for the limitations of the modes of
transport at that time. It must be remembered though that however poor the
family was, enough money could always be scraped together for travelling. The
contrast in the cost of living between Britain and mainland Europe is shown to
make the transport charges well worth paying.
This is a highly recommended book and a must for all those who are interested
in knowing more about Fanny Trollope and her family and also for readers wishing
to get a feel for the social and political world of England and Europe in the
first half of the nineteenth century. 
FANNY TROLLOPE - A REMARKABLE LIFE
by Teresa Ransom
Publisher - Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd -1995
ISBN 0-7509-1269-3 paperback
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to purchase.
Teresa Ransom has given us an excellent researched biography of this
extraordinary woman who was born in a small village near Bristol in 1779. The
book is well foot-noted, contains a useful bibliography, a family tree and a
chronological list of all her published works. Sadly for us many of the books
are no longer in print. On reading this biography one wonders why it is that
this remarkable woman is not celebrated with 'Trollope Societies' as is her son
Anthony. Her prolific output of 115 volumes in twenty-five years is even more
impressive considering that her first book was not written until she was
fifty-three and then under severe family pressures.
Fanny Trollope was born Frances Milton in 1779 to a Revd. William Milton who
concerned himself more with inventions than his duties as an Anglican vicar.
However, it must be remembered that the Anglican Evangelical Revival did not
become a central focus of the Church of England until the nineteenth century.
Mrs Milton died whilst Fanny and her brother and sister were still children. The
young family were allowed the freedom to explore their surroundings and the
library of Revd. Milton. Fanny, in particular, grew up into a woman who could
think for herself and enjoyed the art of robust conversation.
She eventually married Thomas Anthony Trollope, a barrister, when she was
thirty and he was thirty-five. Although the first few years of marriage were
happy, Thomas Anthony gradually developed severe headaches and a volatile
temper, probably due to to his ongoing use of calomel. Eventually all those who
came into contact with him suffered from his violent mood swings. His family
were brought to financial penury and rescued only by the energies of Fanny. By
the age of fifty-three, when Fanny's first book was published, she had borne
seven children, five of whom still lived. Four years in America might have been
a disaster but for the fact that writing down observations started her off on a
long and prolific writing career beginning with Domestic Manners of the
Americans in 1834. During the following eighteen months she wrote three more
books whilst nursing three members of her family who were dying. Henry her son
who had accompanied her on the American trip died at the age of 23. Thomas, her
husband, also died, a defeated and demoralised man. Finally she lost her
18-year-old daughter Emily who had also accompanied her on the American trip.
Unlike most of the female writers of the nineteenth century, Fanny Trollope
wrote because she needed the money for her family to survive. She wrote several
books each year until she was seventy-eight in spite of having to nurse and
watch her sick husband and some of her children die young. She would get up at
four in the morning in order to meet her deadlines whether in England or the
various countries on the continent to which she often escaped to avoid the cold
English winters.
Her books were very popular at the time of writing and she was probably one
of the most read authors of the time. This was partly because of the huge number
of novels and travel books which she churned out. However, many readers
considered her vulgar and coarse finding her books of social protest an
unsuitable topic for a woman to engage with. In many ways she invited this
criticism by making no distinction as to rank or class in her character analyses
which were often caricatures of acquaintances and people she had met on her
travels.
She was indeed a woman out of her time. She travelled, often alone, but
mostly with her son Thomas Adolphus as her chaperone. She was the breadwinner of
the Trollope family. When at last she did embark on her writing career she was a
middle-aged woman with a wealth of experience behind her. Brave enough to write
under her own name and brave enough to express on paper her shrewd observations
taken from years of experience. Being a child of an Anglican vicar and having
male relatives also in the Church Fanny was able to draw on her own experiences
when writing of the religious intrigues and disputes of the nineteenth century.
Perhaps that is why she appears to be the best candidate through which to
begin an exploration of religious ideas as expressed in the novels of female
writers in the nineteenth century.
IN COMMON CAUSE
The "Conservative" Frances Trollope
and the "Radical" Frances Wright
Author: Susan S. Kissell
Publisher: Bowling Green State University Popular Press - 1993
Paperback: ISBN 0-87972-617-2.
Hardback: ISBN 0-87972-614-4.
Susan Kissel, Professor of English
at Northern Kentucky University, has given us a feminist critique of two
important figures of the nineteenth century who have been sadly neglected
nowhere more so than in their countries of origin, Scotland and England.
She demonstrates how, for too long, labelling and stereotyping has lead us
into errors of judgment. Frances Wright and Frances Trollope are shown as very
different characters who nevertheless espoused and fought for common causes
which legitimised otherwise taboo subjects for those who followed in their
footsteps. Fanny Wright is shown as a rather lonely and isolated individual with
a philosophical and abstract frame of mind whereas Fanny Trollope is seen as
gregarious and a realist who expresses in her writing the need for social reform
as understood from personal experience and close observation.
The book is clearly set out and yet economically in only 158 pages
we encounter these two women as courageous campaigners for social justice
through an examination of their lives and works. Fanny Wright greatly influenced
the American Suffragists, writers and philosophers who followed. Fanny Trollope
was to influence important novelists who went on to criticise social injustices
and religious hypocrisy of the nineteenth century. Both women are shown to have
had immense influence on both genders on two continents. Most important of all
the author points out the continuing relevance of their ideas for society today:
"They have left us a legacy we can continue to ignore only at the price of
personal diminishment and cultural peril."
Both were out-of-step in speaking and writing against the cult of
'self' and 'individualism'. They saw the need for educated women in positions of
influence in order to bring about a just and equitable society where the
injustices of slavery and child labour would be abolished to name but two of the
many causes they espoused.
For those who wish to understand better the novels and travel
writings of Fanny Trollope, this book is essential reading. Through careful
analysis we are shown how, through the pattern of her plots, her young heroines
attempt to make good the errors of their fathers which have resulted in an
unjust society. She succeeds in creating role models, not only for women and
society in the nineteenth century, but also for women today who wish to lead a
humane life in today's materialistic world.