Domestic Manners of the Americans

Frances Trollope, mother of the great Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, wrote more than 40 books in her lifetime, including provocative, landmark novels dealing with important social issues. Today, however, she's best known for her witty, entertaining, and controversial account of American life and culture — Domestic Manners of the Americans. First published in 1832, this travel classic presents a lively portrait of early nineteenth-century America as observed by a woman of rare intelligence and keen perception. Mrs. Trollope left no stone unturned, commenting on American dress, food, speech, politics, manners, customs, the landscape, architecture, and more — often critically, occasionally admiringly, but always with considerable insight and fine literary flair. Of her, Mark Twain observed: "Of all the tourists I like Dam Trollope best, she found a 'civilization' here which you, reader, could not have endured; and which you would not have regarded as civilization at all. Mrs. Trollope spoke of this civilization in plain terms — plain and unsugared, but honest and without malice, and without hate." An immediate bestseller on its first publication, the book remains one of the most popular of all American travel accounts.