Although chiefly set in the west of Ireland rather than his fictional Barsetshire or the parliamentary world of his Palliser novels, Anthony Trollope’s second novel is more recognizably Trollopian than his first. Written in 1846-7 and published in June 1848 just a year after The Macdermots of Ballycloran, it is largely a double-plotted novel of manners which, while it is not devoid of darker elements, is much less intensely tragic. Two parallel courtships are played out at contrasting levels of Irish society, one between Frank O’Kelly (Lord Ballindine) and Fanny Wyndham, and the other between Martin Kelly and Anty Lynch. Obstacles arise to hinder the smooth passage of romance; characters must endure, mature, reform and learn t…
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Citation: Siddle, Yvonne. "The Kellys and O'Kellys; or Landlords and Tenants". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 September 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=454, accessed 07 October 2024.]