The Refugee in America was published by Whittaker, Treacher in 1832, appearing in the same year as Domestic Manners of the Americans — Trollope thus launched her literary career with both a travel book and a novel based on the same material. The novel follows Lord and Lady Dorvelle, an English aristocratic family driven to America by political persecution, who must navigate the democratic society that Trollope had found so distressing during her own residence there.
The novel allowed Trollope to explore themes she could not fully develop in the non-fiction format of Domestic Manners: the psychological impact of social displacement, the clash between aristocratic and democratic values, the particular difficulties faced by cultivated people in a culture that distrusts cultivation. The Dorvelles’ encounters with American vulgarity, religious enthusiasm, and commercial obsession mirror Trollope’s own experiences, but the fictional framework allows for dramatic conflict and emotional resolution.
As a first novel, The Refugee in America is workmanlike rather than brilliant — Trollope’s plotting is sometimes clumsy, and the resolution is contrived — but it demonstrates the social intelligence and sharp observation that would characterize her subsequent fiction. Its historical interest is considerable: it represents one of the first fictional treatments of the culture clash between European aristocracy and American democracy, a subject that would later occupy writers from Dickens to Henry James.
Collecting The Refugee in America
First edition (Whittaker, Treacher, London, 1832): Three volumes, cloth boards.
Market values:
- First edition (3 vols): $300–$700
- Later reprints: $50–$100