From the commencement of my success as a writer . . . I had always felt an injustice in literary affairs which had never afflicted me or even suggested itself to me while I was unsuccessful. It seemed to me that a name once earned carried with it too much favour . . . The injustice which struck me did not consist in that which was withheld from me, but in that which was given to me. I felt that aspirants coming up below me might do work as good as mine, and probably much better work, and yet fail to have it appreciated. In order to test this, I determined to be such an aspirant myself, and to begin a course of novels anonymously, in order that I might see whether I could succeed in obtaining a second identity,--whether as I had made one mark by such literary ability as I possessed, I might succeed in doing so again. [1] Why did Trollope start his "new" career with a novel whose central theme was a subject of distaste at best--more likely revulsion--to the vast majority of the reading public? Perhaps the nature of the novel itself led him to consider publishing it anonymously, although we know he was not averse to controversial subjects. In his first book, _The Macdermots of Ballycloran_, which he thought had the best plot of all his novels, the principal female character is seduced by a scoundrel and dies giving birth to an illegitimate child. Certainly _Nina_ was well-suited for the experiment because of it's different setting and subject matter. Perhaps further to disguise his authorship, Trollope wrote _Nina_ in a style of prose that reads almost like a translation from a foreign language. The experiment did not last long enough to test Trollope's hypothesis. Mr. Hutton, critic for the _Spectator_, recognized Trollope as the author and so stated in his review. Trollope did not deny the accusation. One cannot discuss _Nina Balatka_ without addressing the question, was Trollope himself anti-semitic? A careful reading of his works does not provide a clear answer. Jews appear in some of his books and are referred to in others, often as disreputable characters or money-lenders. They are seldom mentioned by his Christian characters with respect, probably realistically reflecting the sentiments of the classes he wrote about. Some of his greatest villains in his later novels--Melmotte in _The Way We Live Now_ (1875) and Lopez in _The Prime Minister_ (1876)--are rumored to be Jewish, but Trollope never unequivocally identifies them as Jewish. Perhaps his Christian characters expect them to be Jewish because they are foreigners and villains.