Frances Trollope 1979 – 1863
(nickname Fanny) (née Milton)
Writer
10 March 1779 – 6 October 1863
Some Key Achievements and Interests
1832 Domestic Manners of the Americans (2 vols). Written after her travels in America, this criticised the American’s boast of ‘equality’. The controversial work became a best seller.
She developed a reputation as a novelist of romantic fiction and social critique, writing acute commentary on issues of the day and experimenting with different genre. She sought, and did, gain a popular readership and secured an income for her family.
Novels that reflect social issues include:
1837 The Vicar of Wrexhill, which satirised Evangelicalism.
1840 Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy, which exposed child labour.
1843 Jessie Phillips A Tale of the Present Day which explored the plight of the ‘fallen’ woman and illegitimacy.
Issues
Her mother died when she was a child. Her father remarried but she did not have a good relationship with her stepmother and, with her sister, left home.
Her husband became more difficult the older he became.
Family finances, never strong, suffered greatly during the agricultural depression of the 1820.
Having to rely on the income from her writing to support her family influenced what she wrote. Her preference for travel writing had to give way to more lucrative novel writing.
A period in Cincinnati did not provide the answer to financial and family problems. Schemes resulted in bankruptcy and sickness. Only on her return to England and the success of Domestic Manners, did she turn family finances around, but only for a short period. The family were forced to flee to Belgium to escape the debtors’ prison when unable to settle debts. Returning to England after the death of her husband, she never settled and in 1843 she moved to Italy.
Her son Arthur died of tuberculosis aged 12. Other children died prematurely.
Her satirical wit was criticised as being ‘vulgar’ and came to tarnish her reputation.
When her son Anthony published an autobiography critical of his mother’s work, her work fell from fashion. The tendency subsequently was for her to be seen as Anthony’s mother and not in her own light and with regard to her influence on her son.
Connection to Bloomsbury
1803 Went with her sister to live with her brother in Bloomsbury.
1809 – c1815 Lived with her husband at 16 Keppel Street – see plaque there
Female networks
Fanny Wright, Isa Blagden, Mary Russell Mitford, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Some works
Her output included travel books, novels articles and poems. Many novels appeared in monthly instalments before being published as books.
1833 The Abbess
1834 Belgium and Western Germany in 1833
1836 Paris and the Parisians. (2 vols)
1836 Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, an anti-slavery novel
1838 Vienna and the Austrians (2 vols)
1839 The Widow Barnaby, with the sequels The Widow Married 1840, and The Barnabys in America 1843
1841 A Summer in Western France
1842 A Visit to Italy
1856 Fashionable Life
Further reading
Frances Trollope: a Maternal Feminist and Social Reformer (victorianweb.org)