Major Works Challenge: Anthony Trollope.

Anthony Trollope.

One of my new authors of 2012 was Anthony Trollope, who I immediately loved from reading He Knew He Was Right. It occurred to me some time ago it would be wonderful to focus on his major works on completing my Dickens Challenge, however I ruled it out because, well, he's written over forty novels! Since then, I've been deciding between Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, but never felt any particular draw to any of them. But, Anthony Trollope...

Since I started this blog, I've focused on one author's 'major' works, which has more or less resulted in reading all the novels, however "major" means just that, not all, therefore I've decided to select the most famous or influential of Trollope's novels and, for now, leave out the lesser known. I really don't know quite why this didn't occur to me before, but now it has I'm rather excited to officially make Anthony Trollope my 'focus' author for 2013, along with, of course, Émile Zola and his Rougon Macquart series. Because focussing on Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf meant reading around fifteen to twenty novels, I've decided to pick around the same amount for Mr. Trollope. The most obvious are the 'Chronicles of Barsetshire' and the 'Palliser Novels', and the other novels are categorised by the Trollope Society as the 'comic novels', the 'Irish novels', the 'overseas novels', and the 'dramatic novels'. So, I'll aim to read both the Barsetshire and the Palliser novels, a few from the 'dramatic novels' as they seem to me to be the most well-known, then one from the remaining categories (to be decided, or, should I say, depending on what I find at a reasonable price!). Finally, I would want to read his autobiography. With the previous 'major works' challenge, I've finished in December, however this was a coincidence more than anything, so I don't have a definite end date in mind. 

So, without further ado, here are the books I've selected:

Anthony Trollope: An Autobiography

The Chronicles of Barsetshire

• The Warden (read summer '12)
  
• Barsetshire Towers
• Doctor Thorne
• Framley Parsonage
• The Small House at Allington
• The Last Chronicle of Barset

The Palliser Novels

• Can You Forgive Her?
• Phineas Finn
• The Eustace Diamonds
• Phineas Redux
• The Prime Minister
• The Duke's Children

Dramatic Novels

• The Way We Live Now
• Is He Popenjoy?

Comic Novels

• To be decided

Overseas Novels

• To be decided

Irish Novels

• To be decided

As I say, it may well be the case that more titles will be added in the final four categories as I come across them, but I do intend to read both of the Dramatic Novels I've selected, plus one from the final three.

I'm looking forward to this! And I shall start after Christmas: I'm still working through Samuel Pepy, Bill Bryson's From Home, and The Second Sex, but after, I shall begin with Barsetshire Towers.