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Trollope on compact disc

Contemporary Review, Nov, 1996 by Richard Mullen

One of the literary phenomenons of the last two decades has been the amazing popularity of Anthony Trollope. Of course at Contemporary Review we have always looked on him as one of our founders since we incorporated the Fortnightly Review, of which he was the principal instigator, into the Contemporary. John Major is only the most prominent of Trollope's devoted admirers. Contrary to the oft-expressed view, Trollope has never been out of popularity since his death in 1882. Critics, as is their wont, may have ignored and academics, as is their custom, may have sneered but the ordinary reader - those who read for pleasure and personal enlightenment - never deserted him. Throughout the dark days of the Second World War, his countrymen often turned to his books for relief. He was the favourite novelist of Field Marshall Montgomery. And when Somerset Maugham was asked to draw up a list of books to help Americans to understand the national character of their ally, the first title on that list was Trollope's Barchester Towers.

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One important object that Trollope's readers lacked was a definitive set of his novels. Towards the end of his life, he did arrange for a publisher to bring out a collected edition of his six Barsetshire novels - those marvellous chronicles of life among the clergy and gentry in that fictional English county which, as he justifiably boasted, he had 'added to the map of England.' For more than a century after Trollope's death his readers had to seek out the rapidly declining stock of Victorian editions of the novels or to read them in the elegant though miniature blue volumes of the 'Oxford World Classics' with its tiny print and occasionally defective text.

In 1987 this began to change with the formation of the Trollope Society, which set out to produce a definitive edition of all Trollope's novels. This project is now at the half-way stage and the Trollope Society has gone from strength to strength. It is now the largest literary society with about 4000 members, mainly in Britain and the United States. The success of this Society and its publishing is almost totally due to the vision and drive of one man: John Letts.

He has now done another great service for all who cherish the writings of Anthony Trollope. He has arranged a superb selection of twenty-three passages from Trollope's novels. He has linked these together with well chosen segments from Trollope's own Autobiography as well as most effective linking narratives by himself. This is not strictly speaking a recorded life of Trollope in the traditional BBC 'dramatised documentary' form. This CD set My Life and Works by Anthony Trollope is designed not so much to introduce listeners to the author's life, but rather to remind them of the stately beauty of his writing.

Trollope is not often thought of as a great stylist. He was often dismissive about style, frequently using the homely metaphor that style was merely the 'vehicle' a writer used to take his 'wares' to the market. Yet in a letter to his son he said that 'many a literary artist so conceals his art that readers do not know that there is much art.' In Trollope's case this concealment was long aided by the tiny print in so many popular editions of his books. These two compact discs remind the listener better than anything yet published of the manly elegance of Trollope's style. The reason they do that is simple to understand: an experienced Victorian novelist knew that many of the first readers of his novel would not actually be reading it, but rather listening to it. For it was the custom in so many Victorian homes for one member of the family - often paterfamilias himself - to read aloud from the latest modern novel. The poet Edward FitzGerald gave the best account of how a listener can react as he described in one of his inimitable letters the effect of listening to a boy reading Trollope: 'This is Sunday night: 10PM. And what is the Evening service which I have been listening to, the Eustace Diamonds? . . . I really give the best proof I can of the interest I take in Trollope's Novels by constantly breaking out into Argument with the Reader (who never replies) about what is said and done by People in the several Novels. I say 'No, no! She must have known she was lying!'

This gives us the clue as to why John Letts's selection of Trollope works so well. Take, for instance, the passage from the Eustace Diamonds. On the CD it is most effectively read by Prunella Scales and as one listens, one shouts out, or at least murmurs, just as FitzGerald did more than a century ago at the web of Lady Eustace's lies.

Prunella Scales is just one of the dazzling assembly of actors and actresses, some of the most eminent names on the British stage, who read the passages. Timothy West, who has done so many tapes of Trollope's novels, brings his own mellow but authoritative voice to read the selections from Trollope's Autobiography. Appropriately, Timothy West's son Sam West (who is carrying on his parents' acting traditions) reads from the Small House at Allington, a novel that drew heavily on the young Trollope's own life.

Trollope on compact disc

Contemporary Review, Nov, 1996 by Richard Mullen

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