ANTHONY TROLLOPE ADAPTED

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 449, 30 January 1948, Page 10

ANTHONY TROLLOPE ADAPTED

"Orley Farm" is New 2YD Serial

longest and most absorbing novels that Anthony Trollope ever wrote, was recently made into a radio serial by the BBC. Beginning on February 3 and continuing for the next 12 weeks, Orley Farm will be heard fyom 2YD on Tuesdays at 8.0 pm. It was produced by the BBC’s Assistant Director of Drama, Howard Rose. who was also responsible FARM, one of the

for the World Theatre production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, broadcast by the National stations last year. As readers’ of Anthony Trollope will know, Orley Farm is the story of a law case and the events that lead up to it, and almost to the end of the book

everyone is kept on tenterhooks as to | which way the verdict will go in the trial | of the heroine, Lady Mason. It all begins when Sir Joseph Mason dies and leaves Orley Farm to Lucius, a son by his second marriage, rather than to his eld-: est child, Although the will is disputed, Lady Mason and Lucius remain in possession for 20 years, until an expelled tenant, Mr. Dockwrath, who is also a shady lawyer, makes further investigations, and Lady Mason is tried for forgery. She engages as defence counsel a Mr. Chaffanbrass, an _ excellently drawn type of bullying cross-examiner, and although the suspense and excitement which the trial scenes arouse have made the book particularly suitable for dramatic treatment, its chief appeal still lies in the character-portrayal of people

like Chaffanbrass rather than in situation and incident, It should be remembered, too, that when Trollope wrote /these trial scenes he didn’t know as much about legal procedure as he should have, and consequently the book contains certain technical errors. When, however, the BBC adaptors found they couldn’t correct these errors without making considerable alterations to the story itself, they decided that after all the play’s the thing, and left everything as it was. So if legal experts detect any flaws in procedure, they will know it was Trollope himself who was at fault, and not the BBC. Incidentally, Trollope had other claims to distinction besides his ability to write novels. He held a high position in London’s General Post Office, and was reputedly responsible for having pillarboxes painted red. He also had a literary mother, Francés, whose book Domestic Manners of the Americans aroused the ire of every patriotic Yankee back in the 1830’s, and is still acidly remembered to-day. When his fame as a writer was at its peak, Trollope dismayed a large section of his readers by writing a most revealing Autobiography which explained in a cold-blooded way how he came to write his books (he used to get up about 4 o’clock in the morning for two solid hours of writing before going to work at the Post Office), He also listed the profits his novels brought him, and it is interesting to learn that the best of them, The Warden and Barchester Towers, together brought in less than £750, while he received most (£3,525) for a book that is seldom read to-day-Can You Forgive Her? Apparently Orley Farm has always been pretty popular, for in his lifetime Trollope made £3,135 out of it.