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'The best practitioner of Australian crime fiction' - Sydney Morning Herald; 'The Malone stories come alive through their setting... Cleary's writing is seamless and his plots imaginative and mature' - Miami Herald
--This text refers to the
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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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Barchester revisited
A blast from my academic past. I first read this book as a a student some 35 years ago and came across it as I was browsing the Kindle lists. What a delight to revisit it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by avidread
Fireside reading
This is a beautiful book for sitting with by a warm fire in the evening while the modern world is bustling away outside. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Pedantic Peter
Pygmy spites of the village spire
Tennyson's aphorism could have been written for this novel, a tale of the clash between rival Church of England hierarchies, when the comfortably established conservative clergy... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Molly Marsden
Barchester Towers
Another really enjoyable read from Anthony Trollope. He is excellent at characterisation. We find many delights in every corner of the book, goodies and baddies to love, hate,... Read more
Published 11 months ago by jacqueline
As in the Bisto commercial.........Ahh, Trollope!
I can't add a great deal to the intelligent and well-written reviews which have gone before, except to say that within this novel lies my most favourite passage of narrative. Read more
Published 13 months ago by R. Faulkner
A very enjoyable soap opera
In The Warden, Trollope set up kindly and aging Reverend Harding against John Bold, his own future son in law, in defending his entitlement to the income of the Wardenship of the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Brownbear101
Politics in the cathedral close
This is a wonderful Victorian tale of power struggles in the cathedral close of Barchester. The opening chapter is as scene-setting and ironical as the famous beginning to Sense... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
Wonderful
I had this book on my shelf and left it unread for many years before deciding to give it a whirl. I cannot explain why except that I am lazy and when I pick up a book to read,... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Victoria Twead
Comical and astute chronicler of his times
The second of Trollope's Barsetshire novels, following 'The Warden,' both familiar from the excellent TV dramatisation of the 1980s. Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2010 by Martin White
One of the very very best ...
Do, do read this book! Dickens and Thackeray may offer more obvious spice in their portrayals of folly and wickedness. Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2009 by bookelephant
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