Anthony Trollope

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A solitary English traveller enlists a bashful companion who calls himself John Smith and they journey together through Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Jordan and Jericho, the younger man becoming confiding about personal sorrow. At Jaffa the companion is revealed to be Miss Julia Weston in male disguise when her uncle Sir William appears; the uncle takes her away by steamer, leaving the narrator ashamed and regretful for having been deceived.

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Fred Neville, heir (and then Earl) of Scroope, falls in love with Kate O'Hara, an Irish girl of doubtful parentage; torn between his family’s duty and his promise to Kate, he vows not to make her Countess and seeks compromises. When he returns resolved to refuse the marriage, Mrs O'Hara, in a fury of vengeance, thrusts him from the Cliffs of Moher; she is declared mad and confined, Kate is ruined and removed, and the Scroope household is left shattered.

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He argues that authors must rely on conscience and decorum—neither soliciting praise nor squabbling with critics, but taking praise and censure dispassionately.
He recounts a disciplined, prolific career—Waltham Cross routine, resignation from the Post Office to edit St. Paul's, postal missions to America, travels in Australia, and the steady production of many novels that yielded comfortable though not extravagant returns.
He adds reflections on politics (as an "advanced Conservative‑Liberal"), failed parliamentary attempts (Beverley), his private life and hunting, and concludes that persevering industry, not inspiration, is his chief literary virtue.

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Mr Whittlestaff takes the orphaned Mary Lawrie into his home, falls in love and obtains her promise, but her former sweetheart John Gordon returns from the Kimberley diamond-fields wealthy and presses his claim.
After long agonies of duty and pride—amid household intrigues (Mrs Baggett and Sergeant Baggett) and side- romances (Montagu Blake and Kattie Forrester)—Whittlestaff nobly yields Mary to Gordon, who marries her, while Whittlestaff and Mrs Baggett settle their fates at Croker's Hall.

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Tom Tringle, frantic over Ayala, strikes Colonel Stubbs in the street and is rescued from the police by Stubbs, whereupon his father sends him abroad. Ayala, after wavering, is courted into accepting Colonel Jonathan Stubbs at Stalham (while Gertrude marries Captain Batsby, Lucy marries Isadore Hamel, and Imogene marries Frank Houston). The tale closes with Ayala and Stubbs wed and Tom departing on his long tour.