[Gutenberg 25579] • Ralph the Heir

• Two of British author Anthony Trollope’s bestselling novels are in this Kindle eBook: Ralph The Heir & The Claverings (both fully hyper-linked for ease of reference)

Ralph The Heir

Squire Gregory Newton has an illegitimate son (Ralph), but his estate will be left to his nephew and heir (also named Ralph), who is a spendthrift. Before that happens, however, the Squire is killed. Meanwhile, there is a Parliamentary election in Percycross, a riding with a tradition of buying and selling votes.

The Claverings (1867)

This is the story of Harry Clavering, a young man jilted by his fiancée who is in need of a profession and a wife. It is also the tale of a young woman who made a marriage of convenience and must abide the consequences. Harry is the only son of Reverend Henry Clavering, a wealthy clergyman and uncle of the affluent baronet Sir Hugh Clavering. Harry's father urges him to make the church his profession but is his heart in it?

About The Author

Victorian-era novelist Anthony Trollope (1815 –1882) was best-known for his novels known as the “Chronicles of Barsetshire”, involving the imaginary county of Barsetshire. He wrote about topical matters including political, social, and gender issues. His father was a barrister and he was educated in privileged, public schools Harrow School and Winchester but he had limited means and relied on his imagination to escape.

His mother had success as a writer, but his father gave up the law for farming and eventually fled to Belgium to avoid arrest. In Belgium, Anthony Trollope was offered a commission in an Austrian cavalry regiment and learned French and German, but instead returned to London to work at the Post Office. He volunteered to worked in Ireland and redeemed himself as a public servant. His salary and travel allowance went much further in Ireland than they had in London, and he enjoyed a small measure of prosperity. It was in Ireland that Trollope met Rose Heseltine, the daughter of a Rotherham bank manager, and they married.

At the time of his marriage, he wrote The Macdermots of Ballycloran, his first novel, and wrote during long train trips around Ireland while working for the post office. As a result, many of his earliest novels have Ireland as their backdrop, reflecting his life there during the great famine. (The Macdermots of Ballycloran, The Landleaguers, and Castle Richmond). The Kellys and the O'Kellys (1848) is a humorous comparison of the romantic pursuits of the landed gentry (Francis O'Kelly, Lord Ballindine) and his Catholic tenant (Martin Kelly).

In 1851, Trollope was sent to England for work, travelling throughout Great Britain on horseback and train. He visited Salisbury Cathedral where, according to his autobiography, he conceived the plot of The Warden, the first of the six Barsetshire novels. Barchester Towers, the second Barsetshire novel, was a success and he received an advance payment of £100.

George Murray Smith and William Makepeace Thackeray, who were starting a magazine, offered £1000 for a novel, which led to Trollope writing “Framley Parsonage”, setting it near Barchester. It proved enormously successful and his position in literary society was solidified.

Trollope eventually resigned from the Post Office, hoping to be elected to the House of Commons, and stood as a Liberal candidate in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He finished as the last of four candidates amid cries of corruption. The Percycross election in Ralph the Heir was closely based on the Beverley campaign.

Trollope died in London in 1882, and is buried in a north London, near the grave of fellow author Wilkie Collins.