The Last Chronicle of Barset

1815

Battle of Waterloo Lord George Gordon Byron,
Hebrew Melodies

Anthony Trollope born 24 April at 16 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, the fourth son of Thomas and Frances Trollope. Family moves shortly after to Harrow-on-the-Hill

1823

Attends Harrow as a day-boy (–1825)

1825

First public steam railway opened Sir Walter Scott,
The Betrothed
and
The Talisman

Sent as a boarder to a private school in Sunbury, Middlesex

1827

Greek War of Independence won in the battle of Navarino

Sent to school at Winchester College. His mother sets sail for the USA on 4 November with three of her children

1830

George IV dies; his brother ascends the throne as William IV William Cobbett,
Rural Rides

Removed from Winchester. Sent again to Harrow until 1834

1832

Controversial First Reform Act extends the right to vote to approximately one man in five Frances Trollope,
Domestic Manners of the Americans

1834

Slavery abolished in the British Empire. Poor Law Act introduces workhouses to England Edward Bulwer-Lytton,
The Last Days of Pompeii

Trollope family migrates to Bruges to escape creditors. Anthony returns to London to take up a junior clerkship in the General Post Office

1835

Halley's Comet appears. ‘Railway mania' in Britain Robert Browning,
Paracelsus

His father dies in Bruges

1840

Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Penny Post introduced Charles Dickens,
The Old Curiosity Shop
(–1841)

Dangerously ill in May and June

1841

Thomas Carlyle,
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History

Appointed Postal Surveyor's Clerk for Central District of Ireland. Moves to Banagher, King's County (now Co. Offaly)

1843

John Ruskin,
Modern Painters
(vol. I)

Begins to write his first novel,
The Macdermots of Ballycloran

1844

Daniel O'Connell, campaigner for Catholic Emancipation, imprisoned for conspiracy; later released William Thackeray,
The Luck of Barry Lyndon

Marries Rose Heseltine in June. Transferred to Clonmel, Co. Tipperary

1846

Famine rages in Ireland. Repeal of the Corn Laws Dickens,
Dombey and Son
(–1848)

First son, Henry Merivale, born in March

1847

Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre
. Emily Brontë,
Wuthering Heights

A second son, Frederic James Anthony, born in September
The Macdermots of Ballycloran

1848

Revolution in France; re-establishment of the Republic. The ‘Cabbage Patch Rebellion' in Tipperary fails

Trollopes move to Mallow, Co. Cork
The Kellys and the O'Kellys

1850

Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
In Memoriam

La Vendée
. Writes
The Noble Jilt
, a play and the source of his later novel
Can You Forgive Her?

1851

The Great Exhibition Herman Melville,
Moby Dick

Sent to survey and reorganize postal system in southwest England and Wales (–1852)

1852

First pillar box in the British Isles introduced in St Helier, Jersey, on Trollope's recommendation

1853

Thackeray,
The Newcombes
(–1855)

Moves to Belfast to take post as Acting Surveyor for the Post Office

1854

Britain becomes involved in the Crimean War (–1856)

Appointed Surveyor of the Northern District of Ireland

1855

David Livingstone discovers Victoria Falls, Zambia (Zimbabwe) Dickens,
Little Dorrit
(–1857)

Moves to Donnybrook, Co. Dublin
The Warden
. Writes
The New Zealander
(published 1972)

1857

Indian Mutiny (–1858) Thomas Hughes,
Tom Brown's Schooldays

Barchester Towers

1858

Irish Republican Brotherhood founded in Dublin George Eliot,
Scenes of Clerical Life

Travels to Egypt, England and the West Indies on postal business
Doctor Thorne

1859

Charles Darwin,
On the Origin of Species
Leaves

Ireland to settle in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, after being appointed Surveyor of the Eastern District of England
The Bertrams
and
The West Indies and the Spanish Main

1860

Dickens,
Great Expectations
(–1861)

Framley Parsonage
(–1861, his first serialized fiction) and
Castle Richmond

1861

American Civil War (–1865) John Stuart Mill,
Utilitarianism
. Mrs Beeton,
Book of Household Management

Travels to USA to research a travel book
Orley Farm
(–1862)

1862

Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Last Poems

Elected to the Garrick Club
The Small House at Allington
(–1864) and
North America

1863

His mother dies in Florence
Rachel Ray

1864

Elizabeth Gaskell,
Wives and Daughters
(–1866)

Elected to the Athenaeum Club
Can You Forgive Her?
(–1865)

1865

Abraham Lincoln assassinated Lewis Carroll,
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Fortnightly Review
founded by Trollope (among others)
Miss Mackenzie, The Belton Estate
(–1866)

1866

Eliot,
Felix Holt the Radical

The Claverings
(–1867),
Nina Balatka
(–1867) and
The Last Chronicle of Barset
(–1867)

1867

Second Reform Act extends the franchise further, enlarging the electorate to almost two million Algernon Charles Swinburne,
A Song of Italy

Resigns from the GPO and assumes editorship of
St Paul's Magazine Phineas Finn
(–1869)

1868

Last public execution in London Wilkie Collins,
The Moonstone

Visits the USA on a postal mission; returns to England to stand unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate for Beverley, Yorkshire
He Knew He Was Right
(–1869)

1869

Suez Canal opened Richard Doddridge Blackmore,
Lorna Doone

The Vicar of Bullhampton
(–1870)

1870

Married Women's Property Act passed Dickens,
The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Resigns editorship of
St Paul's Magazine Ralph the Heir
(–1871),
Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite
, and a translation of
The Commentaries of Caesar

1871

Eliot,
Middlemarch
(–1872)

Gives up house at Waltham Cross and sails to Australia with Rose to visit his son Frederic
The Eustace Diamonds
(–1873)

1872

Thomas Hardy,
Under the Greenwood Tree
and
A Pair of Blue Eyes
(–1873)

Travels in Australia and New Zealand and returns to England via the USA
The Golden Lion of Granpere

1873

Mill,
Autobiography

Settles in Montagu Square, London
Lady Anna
(–1874),
Phineas Redux
(–1874);
Australia and New Zealand
and
Harry Heathcote of Gangoil: A Tale of Australian Bush Life

1874

The first Impressionist Exhibition in Paris Hardy,
Far From the Madding Crowd

The Way We Live Now
(–1875)

1875

Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone

Travels to Australia, via Brindisi, Suez and Ceylon Begins writing
An Autobiography
on his return.
The Prime Minister
(–1876)

1876

Mark Twain,
Tom Sawyer

Finishes writing
An Autobiography. The American Senator
(–1877)

1877

Henry James,
The American

Visits South Africa
Is He Popenjoy?
(–1878)

1878

Hardy,
The Return of the Native

Sails to Iceland
John Caldigate
(–1879),
The Lady of Launay, An Eye for an Eye
(–1879) and
South Africa

1879

George Meredith,
The Egoist

Cousin Henry, The Duke's Children
(–1880) and
Thackeray

1880

Greenwich Mean Time made the legal standard in Britain. First Anglo-Boer War (–1881) Benjamin Disraeli,
Endymion

Settles in South Harting, W. Sussex
Dr Wortle's School
and
The Life of Cicero

1881

In Ireland, Parnell is arrested for conspiracy and the Land League is outlawed Robert Louis Stevenson,
Treasure Island
(–1882)

Ayala's Angel, The Fixed Period
(–1882) and
Marion Fay
(–1882)

1882

Phoenix Park murders in Dublin

Visits Ireland twice to research a new Irish novel, and returns to spend the winter in London. Dies on 6 December
Kept in the Dark, Mr Scarborough's Family
(–1883) and
The Landleaguers
(–1883, unfinished)

1883

An Autobiography
is published under the supervision of Trollope's son Henry

1884

An Old Man's Love

1923

The Noble Jilt

1927

London Tradesmen
(reprinted from the
Pall Mall Gazette
, 1880)

1972

The New Zealander