Our archdeacon was worldly-who among us is not so? But nevertheless we all do so.When we confess that we are all sinners, we confess that we all long after naughty things. It is no doubt very wrong to long after a naughty thing. Such thought-provoking statements are not unique to Eustace Diamonds we can find them in every Trollope novel: It is seldom that a bad person expects to be accounted good. More pages bring more of these wise asides:īut then it is so hard to decide what is fair. Three pages later comes another general statement: "There are people who can be wise within a certain margin, but beyond that commit great imprudences." Yes, I think again, I've known timorous souls who suddenly can go whole hog on risky bets. For example, on page seven of The Eustace Diamonds, which I'm reading for the fifth time, he inserts this thought into his exposition: "Man is never strong enough to take unmixed delight in good." I read that and wonder, is it true that we humans think of something troubling even when we hear good news? Yes, I answer, I agree with you, Mr. How does Trollope win my friendship? He interlaces his storytelling with a flow of general statements that I agree with about human nature. Why do I love Trollope-and note that I say "Trollope," not "Trollope's novels"-so much?įor three principal reasons: because he makes a concerted and successful effort to be my friend, because he creates people and places I can see and believe in, and because he writes English prose with extraordinary clarity and grace. Perhaps I love Balzac just as much, but Trollope has a slight edge because I read him in my mother tongue but can only read Balzac in translation. My favorite writer is the great English realist, Anthony Trollope, author of fifty-plus novels that include the six Barsetshire novels and the six Paliser novels, which, taken together, create the longest connected narrative in the English language. What does matter is that something in the style, the subject, or the subtleties of one or another writer so matches your own passions and quirks that you fall in love with that writer, and year after year you keep returning to enjoy his or her cordial company. Milne, Philip Roth or Stephen King whom you love matters little. Yours may be Daniel Defoe or Charles Dickens, Vladimir Nabokov or Ogden Nash, Agatha Christie or Anton Chekhov, F. All avid readers have their own favorite writers.
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