The publication of Domestic Manners of the Americans in 1832 caused a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic. Part satire, part masterpiece of nineteenth-century travel writing, this perceptive and humorous book grew from Trollope's ill-fated attempt to escape growing debts and the oppressively black moods of her husband. When she left England in 1827 with three of her children and a young French artist, her destination was a utopian community in Tennessee, established to prepare slaves for eventual emancipation. Horrified by the primitive conditions she discovered there, Trollope quickly fled with her children to the booming frontier town of Cincinnati. After two miserable years she retreated to England, where she launched her remarkably successful literary career with this timeless and biting commentary on a society torn between high ideals and human frailties.
