Richard Cobbold's The History of Margaret Catchpole is a novelised account of the life of the woman who had once been a servant to the Cobbold family. Cobbold represents Catchpole as a tomboyish girl, daughter of a rural farm worker in Suffolk who becomes a particularly skilled horse rider.
London : Oxford University Press , 1907'Scarcely out of print since the early 1870s, For the Term of His Natural Life has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life. The main focus of this great convict novel is the complex interaction between those in power and those who suffer, made meaningful because of its hero's struggle against his wrongful imprisonment. Elements of romance, incidents of family life and passages of scenic description both relieve and give emphasis to the tragedy that forms its heart.' (Publication summary : Penguin Books 2009)
London : Oxford University Press , 1952Dick Marston narrates the events of his and his brother Jim's association with notorious bushranger Captain Starlight.
London : Oxford University Press , 1949'Trollope's only Australian novel, Harry Heathcote of Gangoil deals with the problems facing a young sheepfarmer, or 'squatter' (modeled after Trollope's son Frederic) in outback Australia. Using conventions of the Christmas story established by Dickens in the late 1840s, the novel shows Harry Heathcote thwarting the envious ex-convict neighbors who harbor his disgruntled former employees and who attempt to set fire to his pastures. Trollope draws heavily on his knowledge of the social and economic conditions of bush life acquired during a year-long visit to Australia in 1871-2. This story by Trollope reflects the author's readiness to diverge from the familiar paths that were most congenial to him and to his readership.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (1981 Arno edition).
Oxford : Oxford University Press , 1992