By the sales, he judged this to be his most popular book.
1859
THE | WEST INDIES | AND THE | SPANISH MAIN. | By Anthony Trollope, | Author of “Barchester Towers,” “Doctor Thorne,” | “The Bertrams,” etc. | London: | Chapman & Hall, 193, Piccadilly. | 1859. | [The right of translation is reserved.]
8vo. In One Volume: pp. iv, 395. With coloured map.
When Trollope was asked to go to the West Indies to reconstruct the whole of its postal system, he proposed this book to Chapman and Hall, asking £250 for the single volume. The contract was made without difficulty, and he returned with the completed work. His view of the relative position of white men and black was upheld by three articles in the Times, which made the fortune of the book. Trollope regarded it as the best he had ever written.
1859
THE BERTRAMS. | A Novel. | By Anthony Trollope, | Author of “Barchester Towers,” “Doctor Thorne,” etc. | In Three Volumes. | London: | Chapman & Hall, 193 Piccadilly. | 1859. | [The right of Translation is reserved.]
Small 8vo. Vol. I., pp. iv. 335; Vol. II., pp. iv. 344; Vol. III., pp. iv. 331.
Begun the day after finishing Doctor Thorne, this book was written under very vagrant circumstances at Alexandria, Malta, Gibraltar, Glasgow, at sea, and finished in Jamaica. It was sold to Chapman and Hall for £400, but never attained the popularity of Doctor Thorne.
Trollope says that he never heard it well spoken of.