Advanced conservative liberalism: party and principle in Trollope's parliamentary novels

Craig, David

Abstract

When, on 17 November 1868, Anthony Trollope came bottom of the poll at Beverley in Yorkshire, his cherished ambition to become a Liberal MP was at an end. He had advocated the key elements of the liberal program – Irish Church disestablishment and national education – but this mattered little in a notoriously corrupt borough which was shortly to be stripped of its representation (Tingay). He later explained in his Autobiography (1883) that since he was deprived of a parliamentary seat, he instead used characters in his fiction “for the expression of my political or social convictions . . . they have served me as safety-valves by which to deliver my soul” (112–13). This reflection starkly conveys the sense of a man literally bursting with opinions, but it sits oddly with the common view of critics that Trollope's parliamentary novels depicted political life primarily in social terms; that unlike Disraeli he was not especially interested in exploring issues and testing convictions; and that he had “very few political ideas” (Brantlinger 209).

Citation

Craig, D. (2010). Advanced conservative liberalism: party and principle in Trollope's parliamentary novels. Victorian Literature and Culture, 38(2), 355-371. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1060150310000033

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Sep 7, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 12, 2012
• Journal: Victorian Literature and Culture
• Print ISSN: 1060-1503
• Electronic ISSN: 1470-1553
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 38
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 355-371
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s1060150310000033