Edinburgh University Press Anthony Trollope's Late Style: Victorian Liberalism and Literary Form (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture) (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture Eup)

Henry James famously dismissed the works which constitute Anthony Trollope's ultimate compositions for their 'fatal dryness of texture' and 'mechanical movement'. Taking its cue from James's observations while challenging his assessment, this study examines the full stylistic range of the novels and biographies which Trollope wrote upon his return from Australia in 1872. It charts the many literary forms which Trollope explored in his final decade, from allegory, satire, and parody, through poignancy, the classics, and paraphrasis, to character, bathos, and fantasy. Blending literary criticism with intellectual history and Frankfurt School theory, Frederik Van Dam shows how Trollope's creation of this new, impersonal aesthetic was driven by a desire to intervene in contemporary debates on topics such suburban sociability and marginalist economics, colonialism and national sovereignty, educational and jurisprudential reforms. Anthony Trollope's Late Style thus argues that if we want to understand the development of Trollope's political views, we must pay close attention to the literary language in which these views were performed. The image of Trollope emerging from this analysis is that of a stylistic visionary and a political radical. Review Van Dam's book is remarkably inclusive, quoting liberally from Trollope's works and a wide range of critics and often containing lengthy footnotes that function as miniature scholarly essays. In this way, Van Dam's own style...reveals the sociable and egalitarian instincts that he attributes to the later Trollope. --MATTHEW SUSSMAN,The University of Sydney for Review of English Studies, Vol. 67, No. 282 From the Back Cover Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture Series editor: Julian Wolfreys Drawing on provocative research, volumes in the series provide timely revisions of the nineteenth-century's literature and culture Anthony Trollope's Late Style Frederik Van Dam 'Frederik Van Dam's Anthony Trollope's Late Style establishes its author as a brilliant leading expert globally on Anthony Trollope. It is far more than just an analysis of Trollope's late style and presents wonderfully detailed readings of the author's late works (1875 and onwards). It is a superb book in every way.' J. Hillis Miller, UCI Distinguished Research Professor, University of California at Irvine Explores the relation between Anthony Trollope's stylistic innovations and Victorian liberalism Henry James famously dismissed Anthony Trollope's ultimate compositions for their 'fatal dryness of texture' and 'mechanical movement'. Taking its cue from James's observations while challenging his assessment, this study suggests that the peculiar aesthetic of Trollope's late novels was born out of his growing doubt about the viability of liberalism in a world increasingly marked by global capitalism. Anthony Trollope's Late Style shows how in his late novels Trollope experiments with a multitude of literary conventions in order to articulate a form of subjectivity in which the individual element has been erased. Key Features - Examines the writings from the last decade of Trollope's life that have received only scant critical attention, including his novellas and The Life of Cicero - Presents a panorama of Victorian intellectual debates on topics such as colonialism, marginalist economics, nationalism, the classics, pedagogy, legal reform, and urban sociability - Pays attention to the style of a major Victorian novelist often regarded as formally uninteresting - Reveals the radical politics behind Anthony Trollope's artistic praxis Frederik Van Dam is a postdoctoral research fellow in English literature at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO). He has written widely on the relationship between literature and intellectual discourse in the nineteenth century. His current research focuses on the impact of British diplomacy on the rhetoric of nineteenth