The Eustace Diamonds
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Authors: Anthony Trollope
THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
was born in London in 1815 and died in 1882. His father was a barrister who went bankrupt and the family was maintained by his mother, Frances, who resourcefully in later life became a bestselling writer. His education was disjointed and his childhood generally seems to have been an unhappy one.
Trollope enjoyed considerable acclaim as a novelist during his lifetime, publishing over forty novels and many short stories, at the same time following a notable career as a civil servant in the Post Office.
The Warden
(1855), the first of his novels to achieve success, was succeeded by the sequence of âBarsetshire' novels,
Barchester Towers
(1857),
Doctor Thorne
(1858),
Framley Parsonage
(1861),
The Small House at Allington
(1864) and
The Last Chronicle of Barset
(1867). This series, regarded by some as Trollope's masterpiece, demonstrates his imaginative grasp of the great preoccupation of eighteenth â and nineteenth â century English novels â property â and features a gallery of recurring characters, including, among others, Archdeacon Grantly, the worldly cleric, the immortal Mrs Proudie and the saintly warden, Septimus Harding. Almost equally popular were the six Palliser novels, comprising
Can You Forgive Her?
(1865),
Phineas Finn
(1869),
The Eustace Diamonds
(1873),
Phineas Redux
(1874),
The Prime Minister
(1876) and
The Duke's Children
(1880). Among his other novels are
He Knew He Was Right
(1869) and
The Way We Live Now
(1875), each regarded by some as among the greatest of nineteenth-century fiction.
JOHN SUTHERLAND
has also edited Wilkie Collins's
Armadale
, William Thackeray's
The History of Henry Esmond
and Anthony Trollope's
Phineas Finn
and
Rachel Ray
for Penguin Classics. He is now Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English at University
College London. His other publications include
The Longman Companion to English Literature, Mrs Humphry Ward
and
Is Heathcliff a Murderer?
, a collection of puzzle-pieces on Victorian fiction.
STEPHEN GILL
is a Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and a Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College. Author of
William Wordsworth: A Life
and
Wordsworth and the Victorians
, he has edited Wordsworth's poetry and numerous Victorian novels, including Elizabeth Gaskell's
Mary Barton
, Charles Dickens's
Our Mutual Friend
and George Eliot's
Adam Bede
, all for Penguin Classics.
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
With an Introduction and Notes by
JOHN SUTHERLAND
and
STEPHEN GILL
REVISED EDITION
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London
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First published 1873
Published in the Penguin English Library 1969
Reprinted in Penguin Classics 1986
Revised edition published 2004
5
Introduction and Notes copyright © Stephen Gill and John Sutherland, 1969
Revised Introduction, Further Reading and revised Notes copyright © John Sutherland, 2004
All rights reserved
The moral right of the editors have been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
EISBN: 978â0â141â90761â1
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 (â1825)
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. âRailway 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
(â1841)
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
(â1848)
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 âCabbage 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 (â1852)
1852
First pillar box in the British Isles introduced in St Helier, Jersey, on Trollope's recommendation
1853
Thackeray,
The Newcomes
(â1855)
Moves to Belfast to take post as Acting Surveyor for the Post Office
1854
Britain becomes involved in the Crimean War (â1856) Appointed Surveyor of the Northern District of Ireland
1855
David Livingstone discovers Victoria Falls, Zambia (Zimbabwe) Dickens,
Little Dorrit
(â1857)
Moves to Donnybrook, Co. Dublin
The Warden.
Writes
The New Zealander
(published 1972)
1857
Indian Mutiny (â1858)
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
(â1861)
Framley Parsonage
(â1861, his first serialized fiction) and
Castle Richmond
1861
American Civil War (â1865)
John Stuart Mill,
Utilitarianism.
Mrs Beeton,
Book of Household Management
Travels to USA to research a travel book
Orley Farm
(â1862)
1862
Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Last Poems
Elected to the Garrick Club
The Small House at Allington
(â1864) and
North America
1863
His mother dies in Florence
Rachel Ray
1864
Elizabeth Gaskell,
Wives and Daughters
(â1866)
Elected to the Athenaeum Club
Can You Forgive Her?
(â1865)
1865
Abraham Lincoln assassinated
Lewis Carroll,
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Fortnightly Review
founded by Trollope (among others)
Miss Mackenzie, The Belton Estate
(â1866)
1866
Eliot,
Felix Holt the Radical
The Claverings
(â1867),
Nina Balatka
(â1867) and
The Last Chronicle of Barset
(â1867)
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
(â1869)
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
(â1869)
1869
Suez Canal opened
Richard Doddridge Blackmore,
Lorna Doone
The Vicar of Bullhampton
(â1870)
1870
Married Women's Property Act passed
Dickens,
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Resigns editorship of
St Paul's Magazine
Ralph the Heir
(â1871), Sir
Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite
, and a translation of
The Commentaries of Caesar
1871
Eliot,
Middlemarch
(â1872)
Gives up house at Waltham Cross and sails to Australia with Rose to visit his son Frederic
The Eustace Diamonds
(â1873)
1872
Thomas Hardy,
Under the Greenwood Tree
and
A Pair of Blue Eyes
(â1873)
Travels in Australia and New Zealand and returns to England via the USA
The Golden Lion of Granpere
1873
Mill,
Autobiography