The Small House at Allington

Description

Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie, Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her for the aristocratic Lady Alexandrina. Although crushed by his faithlessness, Lily still believes she is bound to her unworthy former fiance for life and therefore condemned to remain single after his betrayal. And when a more deserving suitor pays his addresses, she is unable to see past her feelings for Crosbie. Written when Trollope was at the height of his popularity, The Small House at Allington (1864) contains his most admired heroine in Lily Dale a young woman of independent spirit who nonetheless longs to be loved and is a moving dramatization of the ways in which personal dilemmas are affected by social pressures.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE ( 1815-82) was born in London. His literary career began with the appearance of The Macdermots of Ballycloran in 1847, but not until his fourth novel, The Warden (1855), did he establish the manner and material by which he is best known. This, the first of the 'Barteshire' series, was followed by Barchester Towers (1857), Doctor Thorne (1858). Framley Parsonage (1861), and the Last Chronicle of Barest (1867). His second series, the Palliser series, comprises of Can You Forgive Her? (1864), Phineas Finn (1869), The Eustace Diamonds (1873), Phineas Redux (1876), The Prime Minister (1876) and The Duke's Children (1880).