First published in 1874, ‘Lady Anna’ was written in its entirety by Anthony Trollope during a lengthy voyage to Australia to visit his son Frederic, who had emigrated there. Our heroine Lady Anna is the daughter of the old Earl Lovel and her incredibly ambitious mother, Josephine Murray. A union without love, shortly after the wedding the Earl revealed that he already had a wife, making the marriage invalid and casting doubt over Anna’s inheritance and future. When the Earl dies, the legitimacy of his claims are investigated and what follows is a tale of broken engagements, insatiable ambition and true love.
Anthony Trollope (1815 – 1882) was a Victorian writer and author of 47 novels. He also wrote an autobiography, short stories and plays, travel articles, reviews and lectures. A prolific writer, he made no secret of the fact that money was his motivation for writing – an admission which raised eyebrows among his literary contemporaries at the time. The amount of works Trollope authored are testament to his belief in hard work. His first successful novel was The Warden followed by its sequel, Barchester Towers. The Chronicles of Barsetshire are perhaps his most well-known series of novels, though many of his works have been adapted for TV and radio, starring many familiar faces such as Alan Rickman, David Tennant, Bill Nighy and Tom Hollander. Alongside his literary career, Trollope also worked for some time for the Post Office and is credited with the introduction of the iconic post box to Britain. A memorial to Anthony Trollope was unveiled in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey in 1993.
