Орли Фарм: Энтони Троллоп романы

1861–1862 novel by Anthony Trollope

Orley Farm is a novel written in the realist mode by Anthony Trollope (1815–82), and illustrated by the Pre Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais (1829–96). It was first published in monthly shilling parts by the London publisher Chapman and Hall. Although this novel appeared to have undersold (possibly because the shilling part was being overshadowed by magazines, such as The Cornhill, that offered a variety of stories and poems in each issue), Orley Farm became Trollope's personal favourite. George Orwell said the book contained "one of the most brilliant descriptions of a lawsuit in English fiction." The house in the book was based on a farm in Harrow once owned by the Trollope family. The real life farm became a school, which was originally supposed to be the feeder school to Harrow School. It was renamed Orley Farm School after the novel, with Trollope's permission.

Orley Farm was written between July 1860 and June 1861. The novel was first published in monthly shilling parts by the London publisher Chapman and Hall from March 1861 to October 1862, with forty wood engraving illustrations by John Everett Millais. Each part comprised two illustrations that were situated at the front, and two to three chapters that followed. The first volume, also published by Chapman and Hall, appeared in December 1861, before the novel's serialisation was completed. A darker theme, also seen in Trollope's other books such as Castle Richmond and Framley Parsonage, is that the changing Victorian world often brought anguish and disillusionment to those who had started out with great advantages. Another theme, which recurs often throughout Trollope's works, is the threat of the loss of a house.

Trollope has made a few comments over the background and his regard to Orley Farm. In Book IX of his autobiography, Trollope says, "The plot of Orley Farm is probably the best I have ever made; but it has the fault of declaring itself, and thus coming to an end too early in the book." He continues by admitting, "When Lady Mason tells Sir Peregrine that she did forge the will, the plot of Orley Farm has unraveled itself; – and this she does in the middle of the tale."