From the transcriber's note: "In 1882 Ireland was in the midst of great troubles, including boycotts and the near breakdown of law and order. In May of that year Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly-appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Burke, a prominent civil servant, were assassinated in Dublin. The news stirred Trollope, despite his poor health, to travel to Ireland to see for himself the state of things. Upon his return to England he began writing The Landleaguers. He made a second journey to Ireland in August, 1882, to seek more material for his book. He returned to England exhausted, but he continued writing. He had almost completed the book when he suffered a stroke on November 3, 1882. He never recovered, and he died on December 6. Trollope's second son, Henry, arranged for publication of the almost finished novel. The reader should note Henry Trollope's preface to Volume I and Postscript at the end of the book. Readers familiar with Trollope's early Irish novels will be struck, as they read The Landleaguers, by his bitterness at what was happening in Ireland in 1881 and 1882." - Summary by Delphine Lettau and Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.
