The Small House at Allington

Anthony Trollope

Jan 1991 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie, Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her for the aristocratic Lady Alexandrina. Although crushed by his faithlessness, Lily still believes she is bound to her unworthy former fiancé for life and therefore condemned to remain single after his betrayal. And when a more deserving suitor pays his addresses, she is unable to see past her feelings for Crosbie. Written when Trollope was at the height of his popularity, The Small House at Allington (1864) contains his most admired heroine in Lily Dale - a young woman of independent spirit who nonetheless longs to be loved - and is a moving dramatization of the ways in which personal dilemmas are affected by social pressures.

About the author

Anthony Trollope (1815-82) was one of the most widely enjoyed and prolific novelists of the nineteenth century. His books include the great Chronicles of Barsetshire, of which Barchester Towers is the second volume. Trollope worked for the Post Office for much of his adult life, combining postal and literary business as he travelled around the British Empire. He has been credited with the creation of the distinctive British pillar box.