The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Landleaguers, by Anthony Trollope

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Title: The Landleaguers

Author: Anthony Trollope

Release Date: December 4, 2009 [eBook #30606]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LANDLEAGUERS***

E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau and Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.

Transcriber's note:

In 1834, at age 19, Anthony Trollope became a junior clerk
in the British postal service. He did not get on well with
his superiors, and his career looked like a dead end. In
1841 he accepted an assignment in Ireland as an inspector,
remaining there for ten years. It was there that his civil
service career began to flourish. It was there, also, that
he began writing novels.

Several of Trollope's early novels were set in Ireland,
including _The Macdermots of Ballycloran_, his first
published novel, and _Castle Richmond_. Readers of those
early Irish novels can easily perceive Trollope's great
affection for and sympathy with the Irish people,
especially the poor.

In 1882 Ireland was in the midst of great troubles,
including boycotts and the near breakdown of law and
order. In May of that year Lord Frederick Cavendish, the
newly-appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas
Burke, a prominent civil servant, were assassinated in
Dublin. The news stirred Trollope, despite his poor
health, to travel to Ireland to see for himself the state
of things. Upon his return to England he began writing
_The Landleaguers_. He made a second journey to Ireland
in August, 1882, to seek more material for his book. He
returned to England exhausted, but he continued writing.
He had almost completed the book when he suffered a stroke
on November 3, 1882. He never recovered, and he died on
December 6.

Trollope's second son, Henry, arranged for publication of
the almost finished novel. The reader should note Henry
Trollope's preface to Volume I and Postscript at the end
of the book.

Readers familiar with Trollope's early Irish novels
will be struck, as they read _The Landlea