Frances Milton Trollope

Frances Milton Trollope (1779.1863), mother of novelist Anthony Trollope, revolutionized travel writing with bold sociocultural critiques. Born in Bristol, she began her literary career at 53 after a disastrous American sojourn that inspired her infamous Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832). Her Parisian works, written during self-imposed European exile, merge investigative rigor with polemical wit. Observing urban and political transformations, she influenced both social reformers and 19th-century realist authors. Despite accusations of bias, her analyses of France and Italy remain key references for historians studying European national identities.