It is as if Trollope had tried his hand at becoming a disciple of Dickens and then withdrew, not because the results were uninspiring but because he was attracted to other, far less inhabited territory. Trollope himself viewed The Three Clerks as 'certainly the best novel I had as yet written' (Autobiography 111). . . .It is very witty indeed, remarkably autobiographical, ethically and morally puristic; it is centred in London, reaches toward very drastic action and extreme solutions; it employs parody as a basic principle; it is didactic. In all these ways it is uncharacteristic. — James Kincaid

Introductory material

Characterization

Political and economic history

Literary Relations


Last modified 23 April 2016