As part of London Lit Weekend I visited King’s Place near King’s Cross to attend a talk on Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, entitled Trollope at 200. The talk comprised a number of academics and Trollope enthusiasts discussing the themes explored in the author’s work: writer and biographer Jonathan Keates, Oxford Professor of English Literature Helen Small, Emeritus Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London John Sutherland and Simon Grennan, scholar in the field of visual narratology and creator of a graphic adaptation of Dispossession.
I personally feel that Trollope is a very underrated author, so was pleased to attend this discussion. Members of the panel discussed their own experiences of Trollope, his role as a novelist “of the present”, his realism and naturalism, and his handling of dialogue. One panellist raised the question of Henry James’ debt to Trollope, which I had never considered although I am a fan of both authors. I left the talk with a determination to seek out those works by Trollope that I haven’t already read, and with a renewed appreciation of his work.