Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was the third son of a barrister, who
ruined his family by giving up the law for farming, and an
industrious mother. After attending Winchester and Harrow, Trollope
scraped into the General Post Office, London, in 1834, where he
worked for seven years. In 1841 he was transferred to Ireland as a
surveyor's clerk, and in 1844 married and settled at Clonmel. His
first two novels were devoted to Irish life; his third, La Vendée,
was historical. All were failures.
After a distinguished career in the GPO, for which he invented the
pillar box and travelled extensively abroad, Trollope resigned in
1867, earning his living from writing instead. He led an extensive
social life, from which he drew material for his many social and
political novels.
The idea for The Warden (1855), the first of the six Barsetshire
novels, came from a visit to Salisbury Close; with it came the
characters whose fortunes were explored through the succeeding
volumes, of which Doctor Thorne is the third.
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