A Ride Across Palestine

Originally published in The London Review in 1861, A Ride Across Palestine is a short story by Anthony Trollope. Our narrator, the somewhat mysterious Mr Jones, is travelling through the Holy Land and lamenting his lack of a companion. When a young Mr John Smith requests to accompany him on his travels, having also been suffering with loneliness, Mr Smith gladly accepts. Over the course of their journey the pair become close, though all is not as it seems. Dealing with the topics of gender stereotypes and gender expectations of the time, this is a thrilling short story of deception and disguise.

Anthony Trollope (1815 – 1882) was a Victorian writer and author of 47 novels. He also wrote an autobiography, short stories and plays, travel articles, reviews and lectures. A prolific writer, he made no secret of the fact that money was his motivation for writing – an admission which raised eyebrows among his literary contemporaries at the time. The amount of works Trollope authored are testament to his belief in hard work. His first successful novel was The Warden followed by its sequel, Barchester Towers. The Chronicles of Barsetshire are perhaps his most well-known series of novels, though many of his works have been adapted for TV and radio, starring many familiar faces such as Alan Rickman, David Tennant, Bill Nighy and Tom Hollander. Alongside his literary career, Trollope also worked for some time for the Post Office and is credited with the introduction of the iconic post box to Britain. A memorial to Anthony Trollope was unveiled in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey in 1993.