Product Description

Barchester Towers, Trollope's most popular novel, is the second of the six Chronicles of Barsetshire. The Chronicles follow the intrigues of ambition and love in the cathedral town of Barchester. Trollope was of course interested in the Church, that pillar of Victorian society - in its susceptibility to corruption, hypocrisy, and blinkered conservatism - but the Barsetshire novels are no more `ecclesiastical' than his Palliser novels are `political'. It is the behaviour of the individuals within a power structure that interests him. In this novel Trollope continues the story of Mr Harding and his daughter Eleanor, adding to his cast of characters that oily symbol of progress Mr Slope, the hen-pecked Dr Proudie, and the amiable and breezy Stanhope family. The central questions of this moral comedy - Who will be warden? Who will be dean? Who will marry Eleanor? - are skilfully handled with that subtlety of ironic observation that has won Trollope such a wide and appreciative readership.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #198087 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 388 pages

About the Author
John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London. He is the editor of numerous works in World's Classics and is Associate Editor of the Oxford Popular Fiction series.

Sutherland's latest book, Is Heathcliff a Murderer?, in which he investigates 34 puzzles in nineteenth-century fiction, is to be published in World's Classics in April 1996.

Customer Reviews

Barchester Towers - one of Trollope's best
Barchester Towers is the second book in the Barchester Chronicles series. A new bishop is appointed, Dr Proudie, with a wife who dominates him, and a scheming chaplain (Mr Slope) who rapidly earns the dislike of all of the existing clergy in the town. Mrs Proudie and Mr Slope battle for control of the Bishop's actions, largely over the appointment of the warden for Hiram's Hospital. Mr Harding, the former warden, waits to find out if he will get his old position back. His daughter Eleanor is now a wealthy widow, and her family become convinced that the detestable Mr Slope is courting her and that she is responding to his charms.

Trollope often warns his readers what to expect, so nothing that happens in the novel comes as a great surprise, but somehow, reading it is still a joy. I couldn't put this book down because the characters are so involving, and Trollope's easy to read style and his humourous observations make the book a pleasure to read. If you like a book where the unexpected often happens, this probably isn't for you. If you're a fan of Jane Austen though (another author famous for her subtle observations about her characters), then you will probably find this a worthwhile read.

Return to Barsetshire
Following The Warden, we return in a longer book to the fictional world of Barchester, and the intrigues festering within the ecclesiastical community. The new Bishop, Mr Proudie and his fearsome wife, have moved into the city, with their chaplain, the oily Mr Slope. The wardenship of the hospital is to be given, but there is much debate as to whether it should be given to its previous occupant, the delightful Mr Harding, or to the deserving, if weak, Mr Quiverful, an impecunious gentleman with fifteen children and a determined wife. The main subplot is Mr Slope's inept wooing of the widow, Mrs Bold (Mr Harding's virtuous and sensible daughter), and the feeling of her friends that she should have nothing to do with him.

What marks Trollope as a great original is the way he takes the reader into his confidence - he has no time for the writer who is mysterious as to the outcome: we have no doubt as to the happy outcome for Mrs Bold, but the interest is in how the denouement is reached. And in seeing how many men can make fools of themselves with the Countess Neroni. This superb novel has a variety of well-drawn supporting characters, and the reader will find himself living their dramas with them. The other author who comes most to mind is Austen, but Trollope has a wider cast of characters. The strong women characters are drawn from Trollope's own family: his mother, Frances, herself a noted novelist, was a strong-willed woman who kept their family together in the face of her husband's impecunious habits. This is rightly regarded as one of Trollope's many masterpieces, and is a firm favourite with Trollopians. After reading it, I can easily see why.

Monstrous villany!
There are three reasons why Barchester Towers stands out as one of the finest of all Victorian novels: Mr Slope, Mrs Proudie and the Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni, fabulous individual characters all! Of course, like all excellently drawn characters, they need a decent stage on which to perform and Trollope's tale of clerical shabby beaviour regarding the appointment of the warden at Hiram's Hospital, and the various plays for the hand of the demurely lovely Eleanor Bold, provide a fabulous backdrop. Mr Slope would walk away with the title of oiliest character in English lterature: he slides furtively beside Eleanor as he attempts to gain her hand in marriage (and her income); he moves with silent greasy ease between the respective cases of Mr Quiverful and Mr Harding as they vie for the position of warden in Hiram's Hospital and he fawns shamelessly upon the bishop and the bishop's wife, Mrs Proudie, playing one off against the other as the situation demands. Everything he does is purely for his own benefit and no sychophantic act is too demeaning or shameful. The character of Mrs Proudie has been well documented, surely one of the most icily fearsome women in literature, a masterful portrayal of sustained closet ferocity. But perhaps the greatest character of the three is the Signora Madeline, a lady who is carried everywhere due to a hip injury and who reclines at parties holding court on a large sofa surrounded by the adoring husbands of other women. Any male who comes with ten yards of her falls head over heels in love and proceeds to make a complete idiot of himself, professing undying devotion regardless of his own marital status or position in life. If I could actually meet a character from a novel it might well be her (but then again, perhaps by saying that, I'm only making an idiot of myself.....). Fabulous creature!

In short Barchester Towers is a book to curl up with of a winter's evening, a book to cherish and to live with over a few weeks. Cosy and comfortable but not without a definite edge when it comes to social observation. Within its pages you will, I promise you, meet characters you'll never forget.