While at
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, she won the Newdigate Prize for a 250-line poem in blank verse titled, "Julia, Daughter of Claudius". The poem was published soon after by
Basil Blackwell. Her first novel,
Appius and Virginia, was published by
Martin Secker in 1932. Taking its title from
the play by
John Webster, the book told of an experiment undertaken by an English spinster, Virginia Hutton, to raise an orangutan she names Appius as a human. She trains Appius to sit up, eat like a human, and spends years attempting to get him to speak, read, and write. Trevelyan takes the reader into the minds of both Virginia and Appius, revealing the failure of both to understand the other in any meaningful way. In his review for
The Spectator,
L. A. G. Strong called it, "A work by a new author which is exciting both in promise and achievement. Miss Trevelyan has made a brilliant debut."
Appius and Virginia was Trevelyan's only book to be published in the United States as well as the United Kingdom. Her second novel,
Hot-House, was published by Martin Secker in 1933. The book drew heavily on her experiences at Oxford, showing an undergraduate, Mina Cook, and her relationships while a student at the fictional "Queen Anne's College." Reviewing the book in the
Daily Mail,
Compton Mackenzie wrote, "The whole thing is extremely well done, and by the time I had finished with it the atmosphere of damp heat had made me feel like an overfed
gloxinia." In 1934, Martin Secker published
As It Was in the Beginning, which took place entirely in the mind of a woman lying in a care home in the last few days before her death. Trevelyan takes the reader back through the woman's life, in memories, to the moment of her birth.
The Times Literary Supplement review called it, "a book which is almost unreadable in its intensity, but which compels one to go on reading in spite of almost physical discomfort, by the admiration one feels for the author's ingenuity and her uncanny insight into human beings."
A War Without a Hero (1935), her longest novel, was her last to be published by Martin Secker. Its reviews were mostly critical. In the
Manchester Guardian, one reviewer wrote, "The use of a modern technique by which unspoken thoughts are shot on to the page in machine-gun sentences generally beginning with the verb does not suffice to make the mutual attraction of the young people credible.... Miss Trevelyan leaves one reader unconvinced." Her next three novels were published by
Victor Gollancz.
Two Thousand Million Man-Power, published in 1937, showed the influence of
John Dos Passos, as Trevelyan interwove headlines from newspaper stories, radio bulletins, and newsreels into the story of a London couple, Katherine and Robert, as they go through courtship and early marriage while dealing with financial worries, unemployment, and social standing. Reviewing the book for
The Guardian,
Wilfrid Gibson wrote, "The theme of the book is the grip of the modern machine which whirls us all in its soul-destroying revolutions."
Theme with Variations and ''William's Wife'' were both published in 1938. The first was Trevelyan's most experimental work, weaving the narratives of three very different Londoners, none of whom ever encounter the other and all of whom come to tragic ends. In her review for
The Times Literary Supplement,
Leonora Eyles wrote, "There is pity in this book and something of horror: it is as though the author had looked on human nature and turned away with a mixture of disgust and compassion from what she has seen. But, as always, Miss Trevelyan's genius and her sincerity make her book one that the reader cannot lay aside." ''William's Wife
followed a housemaid, Jane Atkins, from the day of her wedding to William Chirp, a greengrocer whose miserly control distorts her attitude and behavior and eventually lead her to live as a recluse gleaning her food from the waste of London markets. Writing in The Times Literary Supplement'',
Eyles proclaimed that, "Miss Trevelyan's scope of human experience makes her one of the most important novelists of our day, and there are signs in this last book that she is choosing from among more human and usual types for her characters than she has done before." Her last novel,
Trance by Appointment, was published by
George G. Harrap and Co. in 1939. It told the story of a lower-class girl, Jean, who has visions, which leads her to work as a
fortune teller and then marriage to an
astrologer who gradually corrupts her powers. Reviewing the book for
The Listener, Edwin Muir wrote, "It is a sordid, pitiable little story, told with that cruel attention to detail which characterises Miss Trevelyan's art.... [I]t is very circumscribed; but every touch is genuine, and that itself gives the book distinction." ==Legacy==