TROLLOPE, Anthony.

£3,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Small House at Allington. First edition in book form, following serialization in Cornhill Magazine from September 1862 to April 1864. The fifth novel in the Barsetshire series, this title introduced the popular character of Lily Dale, and her unsuccessful suitor, Johnny Eames, "a partial self-portrait" of the author (ODNB).Lily Dale quickly became one of Trollope's best-loved characters among the public and is often described as the author's favourite heroine. Trollope's admiration for her, however, was somewhat tempered by a hint of irritation: "Lily Dale, one of the characters which readers of my novels have liked the best. In the love with which she has been greeted I have hardly joined with much enthusiasm, feeling that she is somewhat of a French prig... I have been continually honoured with letters, the purport of which has always been to beg me to marry Lily Dale to Johnny Eames. Had I done so, however, Lily would never have so endeared herself to these people" (Trollope, p. 155). This was Trollope's third novel to be illustrated by John Everett Millais (1829-1896), after Framley Parsonage and Orley Farm. Millais was a successful painter and book illustrator, founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. After providing the drawings for Phineas Finn (1867-1869), Millais "more or less refused to do any more illustrations - because, no doubt, he was becoming more and more well-paid and fashionable as a portrait painter … [Nevertheless,] in his biography Trollope writes

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