New-York tribune., 1906-12-14
ANTHONY TROLLOPE.
"reminiscences of the NoUelist By an
Old Friend.


past. In paper published in the current
number of "The FortnightIy Review" he has
set forth many entertaining "reminiscences be-
ginning with characteristic quotation. What
am, or used to be rider to hounds" said
Irollope to him in 1879. that l have always
been as writer OF novels" Whatever has
oeen best in me-" he added, "has come out in
my novels and in my cross-country work The
quintessence of my life has divided itself be-
tween the two" Mr. Escott says that seeing
the place at which he wanted to arrive TrolIope
made for II, whether in the hunting field on
paper, or in conversation. Sometimes on the
field he landed in ditch. whereupon he picked
himself up and pressed on as If nothing had
happened. so, if 1 at all know myself" he
said. lit is with my stories. They are as much
a part Of me my limbs. I may now and
then be brought TO a check with them. but for
a moment only, and Il all comes right"
Trollope's mind, are told was so consti-
tuted that the opinion which once possessed it,
sooner, perhaps, than he himself knew, or rather
1t may be, cared to know crystalzed into
conviction, and a conviction was to Trollope
thing for which to live or die Froude said that
in his book on the West Indies and the Span
ish Main Trollope has described himself in
his account of the instantaneous luxuriance
OF tropical vegetation: he has, that IS scarcely
Abi iiitu Gil impression Wnen II blossoms forth
into an article OF faith" Escott adds that the
novelist preserved his mental elasticity and
vigor by fitting at windmilIs and vociferating
that to describe the golden mean as the chosen
abode of truth was a contradiction in terms;
hyperbole was made to balance hyperboIe; the
genuine honesty OF the man showed itself in
the breathless rush from one extravaganza to
Its opposite. Stiff in opinion, he believed in
special Providence which kept him from being
IN the wrong He once told Escott that acci-
dent decided the special line to be taken by
him a writer
About the middle Of the nineteenth century. there
pounding the question whether beneficed clergy
senteeism from his flock The ecclesiastic who had
feelineiv defended The newsnan a[saSheI co1tra ana
drsgged its slow length along and came to a natu-
dsputation began rather than ended the matter. Il
was case OF conscience after my own heart. II
and ana varied experience opened up vista OF char
real success, was the result. IF you ask me as to
The originsls OF Bishop Froudie, Mrs. Proude, and
tween the imperious wife and the submissive hus-
took human nature croziered and cassocked bv
way Of striking out fresh line. Prelates with
OF mich the same experience nIs +af ti
or happiness. their personal dscomforts, their
lights and their triumphs, TO circumstances not
Of their country neighbors OF the middle aged
az tSd Ab@15 Wf b IN T6ms tn6y s meet o daIy
with no special experience of insight into eccle-
than George Eliots OF cathedral gossip and sca9-
dals Trolope more truthfully and pointedy than
aected in his novels the inner life OF the English
AS for his literary methods, they be given in
s wTp wh dP r0 ePed e to 6y h fn
Liking, as have always done, extended area,
nara of if rms ' tro,,b % m @ or, ceh[raI
is tn ha IN
development Of a single character
That Trollope combined so much social enjoy
ment with ceaseiess industry was due, Mr.. Es-
colt says. TO his manner and hours of getting
through his work Almost 10 the last he was
seated I'm his study between 4 and ; a m. It is
noted that by a happy accident he discovered
quite late in his course the help TO be derived
from dictation MY niece" he said, shortly after
that young lady became his amanuensis. SIS down
as soon as am; we get so excited over our writ
ing that quite dread 10 hear IT is II o'clock"
(his breakfast hour. One of the novelists help
ers, it is recalled, his longtime friend Mil
lais The drawings made by the artist for
novels We're the result Of long talks
between the two I'VE did not" as the novelist
said to Mr Escott, merely discuss the posture
most becoming for Lily Dale or Lucy Robarts,
nor the exact incident in the story best
lending Itself to illustration. Our conversations
covered Nilc NIiOtt Siouitu hl ditTlbuJcS FlfSL
healthily characteristic of the blameless sweet
hearts, wives or mothers OF English gentlemen"
Mr. Escott notes that though Trollope left few
political portraits at first hand he has hit off
rather cleverly certain angles Of a few public
men. Plantagenet Palser recalls the Mr.. Chi
chester Fortescue who died Lord CarlingfOrd;
Lord Chiltern resembles the Lord Harrington Of
that period; and Mr.. King Harman, a pict-
uresque Parliamentary figure, sat for the por-
trait of Phneas Finn
AS we turn MI Escott's pleasant pages. what
visions arise of delightful hours spent Troll
lopes novels, He who knows them not has
wasted his opportunities for joy and comfort
They have been somewhat obscured in recent
years by a food of fiction immeasuraby be-
meath them, but that obscurity cannot last, for
they are genuine studies Of genuine character
and have Il vitality neglect can destroy They
are enough to preserve their authors name
though he did not write the book which he had
not seriously begun when death came 10 him:
BuIwer-Lytton himself did not magnify his lit
erary apostleship more earnestly than was done
by the chrOnicler OF Barset. \ few years older
h4b when end ame oop h5d no
sooner garnered the laurels and gold, first secured
history oGP Of the English % novel IL rom Sir Philip Sid
neys Arcadia in the sixteenth century, TO his
only few weeks before his death, TO the present
mTte gss ssa D epeS &c dfSeG Of night
have been demurred to as heterOdoX, but think
the work might have had its usefulness for most
who have much TO do with pen and ink If Che
continued q novelist wishes his characters TO be
real and live, he must first live with them him
self From Tom Jones TO David Copperfield no
writer has found any other way" That among
ofber things, may explain why the subordinate
- racters of TrolOpes later novels are more ar
tsticaly drawn than the central personages in the
ro,1ances OF cathedral life with their GrantIeys
an5 StanhOpes, diversified by the grotesque pro-
6Ies of posing adventuresses.
DINNER.
From, The Louisville Courier-Journal.