Product Description

Barchester Towers in half the time

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31900 in Books
• Published on: 1983-11-24
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Synopsis
Set in mid-Victorian England, this novel follows the fight for ascendancy among the clergy and dependents of a great English cathedral.

About the Author
Author of a remarkable output of 47 novels (of which many are published in the WC series), travel books, biographies and collections of short stories. Novels include the 'Palliser' as well as the Barsetshire series.

Customer Reviews

"The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums."
(4.5 stars) Anthony Trollope does, indeed, fill the ending of this delightful social satire with all the "sweetmeats" any reader could desire. Between the introduction and conclusion are so many moments of wry humor, genuine thoughtfulness, and satisfying come-uppances, however, that the extra sweetness at the end is a bonus. In this second of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, published in 1857, Trollope continues the story of Mr. Septimus Harding, the gentle and unambitious clergyman who, in The Warden (1855), resigned his appointment as warden of Hiram's Hospital for the poor and became the vicar of a small church, living frugally above a chemist's shop. His daughter Eleanor, who married reformer John Bolt at the end of The Warden, is now a widow with a small son--and considerable inheritance.

Ecclesiastical controversies, many of them linked to the desire for power within the small world of the church hierarchy, still exist in Barchester, and the arrival of Mr. Slope, as chaplain to Bishop Proudie, signals fireworks. Slope, one of Trollope's most unforgettable characters, is one of the slimiest, most sycophantic, and manipulative clergyman ever to appear in English literature, and before long, he is controlling the bishop, clashing with the bishop's wife (who regards herself as co-bishop), using the unfilled wardenship of the hospital as a bargaining tool with Mr. Harding and Eleanor, alienating and even outfoxing Archdeacon Grantly, and seeking a wife with a large fortune.

Far more complex than The Warden, the novel has more fully developed characters acting from more realistic motivations. Victorian England, as we see it here, is a multileveled society which does not allow for much upward mobility, and the entrenched clergy regards itself as second only to the aristocracy. The human foibles, the back-biting, the selfishness, and the one-upsmanship which Trollope includes in his depiction of all levels of society are particularly ironic in the case of the godly churchmen, and the honest and straightforward Mr. Harding is a counterweight to them throughout the novel.

Several courtships and marriages are presented so unromantically here that it is difficult even to imagine the concept of sexuality, but the novel is witty and clever, and Trollope shows his continued development as a satirist. Not a writer of "sensation," like Wilkie Collins, or of social criticism, like Dickens, Trollope has his own quiet style, and his wry observations about his world may resonate with the present reader more than either of those other giants. n Mary Whipple

Delightful, a book to read and re-read
"Barchester Towers" is the second novel of Trollope's Barchester-chronicles and though it's perhaps best it is by no means necessary to have read the first novel in the series ("The Warden) before reading "Barchester Towers".

I immensely enjoyed this book. It may seem wellnigh impossible to write an engaging novel about a set of clericals in a fictional cathedral-town, but Trollope does exactly that and does it very well too. When the Bishop of Barchester dies contenders from all around begin to campaign, and when the new Bishop is installed that's only the beginning of a lot of scheming (worthy of present-day politicians) between his followers and opponents, which Trollope interweaves with the plotting of several suitors for the hand of a well-off widow.

All of the characters are finely portrayed (some of them are quite unforgettable), and there's a delightfully subtle humour throughout the book. I'm terribly glad I finally got around to reading some of Trollope's work, and will definitely not stop here. The world Trollope's characters inhibit seems (and is off course) ages ago and how and why his characters behave the way they do may therefore seem quaint at times, but personal advancement, love and courtship are as relevant today as they were then, which makes "Barchester Towers" a very satisfying read.

Wonderful


This was the first Trollope's novel that I had ever read and since then or maybe because of it I became a faithful fan of Mr Trollope. I have read all the series of Barset. In my opinion although not so well known as others English writers, Trollope is one of the best of this period. I like him a lot better than Dickens for instance. Like Austen he speaks about people and about the normal everyday things that happens to normal people and like Austen he created real alive characters, not perfect, not absolutely good or bad but human beings, and so much lovable because of it. You learn to love as much the nice people in this novel as the less worthy people because Trollope makes you to know them so well. They become just like your family, you have to love them in spite of their faults or just more because of them.

The bishop for instance ... How can you learn to love so much this weak and rather contemptible character? Well, you do love him because Trollope makes you feel that he is lovable in spite of everything. He makes you feel tenderness about him. Even Mrs Proudie, such absolutely repellent character, she is described with so much humour and so much life that you have to enjoy her and like her. The same you can say of the wonderful Mr Slope so masterful portrayed. I think that I almost like better these characters than the "good" ones. With the exception of course of Mr Harding that is the grand-father anyone would love to have.

Of course we can find that the way Trollope writes is in many ways old fashioned. Now, we are not used to have the writer including his own personal opinion about the characters... but even that, I have learn to love it, just as a characteristic of himself. Just as his characters, not perfect, but because of this even more lovable.

When I finished this book I didn't stop until I read all the five books about Barset. I wasn't disappointed. I couldn't had enough of Barset and its people. A whole world for you to enjoy it.