Title: “Love Shall be Lord of All”: Love and Marriage in Anthony Trollope’s Lady Anna

Abstract: In his novel Lady Anna, Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope deconstructs traditional class notions through a love triangle among Anna (earl’s daughter), Daniel (a tailor), and Frederic (earl’s heir). An analysis of the novel from both the story and discourse levels reveals that the novelist complicates romantic choices through intricate issues of property inheritance, thereby exposing the evolving notions of marriage: “marriage for affect” triumphs over “marriage for interest.” In addition, the novelist dexterously chooses dual voices and utilizes an authorial narrator to invite readers to encode and decode the novel. These narrative devices help the new gentleman Daniel gain recognition from both fictional characters and readers in real life. Through the love story of Anna and Daniel overcoming class barriers and numerous other obstacles, Trollope conveys the humanist ideal that “love shall be lord of all,” making the novel a forward-looking declaration of marital ethics in Victorian literature.

Keywords: Anthony Trollope, Lady Anna, writing of love and marriage

Authors: Ni Hu, Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang, China; Sufen Wu, Lecturer, School of Foreign Languages, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2025.03.010