Later Short Stories (World's Classics)

Trollope's later stories, covering the period from 1866 to his death in 1882, offer a series of snapshots of the writer in his maturity and in the later, darker phases of his career. Having started as a short-story writer in 1859 Trollope had by now mastered the techniques of the form, and he liked to vary his massive full-length fictions with well-crafted short pieces. The stories collected here (which, with the companion volume Early Short Stories make up a full set) show a writer of extraordinary range, in subject matter, narrative device, and tone. They include the hilarious "Father Giles of Ballymoy" (a recollection of the author's youthful adventures in Ireland), "The Telegraph Girl" (an exposition of Trollope's surprisingly enlightened views on women's employment), and "The Adventures of Fred Pickering", one of a number of stories concerned with the woes of 19th-century authorship. Many of the settings are far flung, reflecting Trollope's indomitable appetite for tourism in his later years, but the collection concludes closer to home with "The Two Heroines of Plumpington", his last Barchester chronicle.