Domestic Manners of the Americans

Fanny Trollope set sail for America with hopes of joining a Utopian community of emancipated slaves, taking with her three of her children and a young French artist, leaving behind her son Anthony, growing debts, and a husband going slowly mad from mercury poisoning. This book describes her misfortunes, and is a satirical account of a nation.

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When Fanny Trollope set sail for America in 1827 with hopes of joining a Utopian community of emancipated slaves, she took with her three of her children and a young French artist, leaving behind her son Anthony, growing debts and a husband going slowly mad from mercury poisoning. But what followed was a tragicomedy of illness, scandal and failed business ventures. Nevertheless, on her return to England Fanny turned her misfortunes into a remarkable book. A masterpiece of nineteenth-century travel-writing, Domestic Manners of the Americans is a vivid and hugely witty satirical account of a nation and was a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic.