Framley Parsonage (English Library) [Paperback]

In this fourth novel of the Barsetshire Chronicles Trollope entertwines two main storylines. The first centers on Mark Robarts who has recently, and at an uncommonly young age, become vicar at Framley. He has a doting wife and children, a loving patroness in Lady Framley, and a good friend in her son Lord Lufton. Things could not be going better for Mark Robarts it seems, but then he gets carried away by his success. He starts to mix in high circles and with politicians, and before he fully well realizes what's happening finds himself in debt to the scheming politician Sowerby, with financial and social ruin threatening. The second storyline is about Lucy Robarts, Marks' younger sister living with him at Framley parsonage. She's in trouble too: she has fallen in love with Lord Lufton and he with her, but Lady Lufton firmly opposes the match, and Lucy - out of a sense of pride - rejects Lord Lufton and says she will not take his hand unless his mother asks her to accept it.

This may not seem much to write more than 500 pages about, but Trollope does so brilliantly and keeps you engaged throughout. As always he concentrates on the inner life of his characters, and their thoughts and feelings are described in great detail. As often with Trollope too, you have the feeling from the very start that in the end all will turn out well for Lucy and Mark, but this too (strangely so perhaps) doesn't in the least diminish one's appetite for reading on. 'Framley Parsonage' is mainly a reflection on the qualities of a gentleman, and the changing perception of such in Victorian times where birth and rank still counted for a lot, coupled with a growing belief that it is first and foremost moral standing and behaviour that really makes a gentleman.

I found 'Framley Parsonage' a very absorbing read, superb in its depiction of country life in Victorian times. Definitely the sort of book where you cannot help but read on, simultaneously anxious that the end is drawing ever nearer. Luckily there's still two novels to go in the series, and I immediately started the fifth novel ('The small house at Allington').

The fourth of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, Framley Parsonage (1861) is a gentle novel filled with memorable characters, including many characters who from The Warden, Barchester Towers, and Dr. Thorne. Mark Robarts, a young vicar with a devoted wife, has a comfortable situation at Framley Parsonage on the estate of the indomitable Lady Lufton. Her son, now Lord Lufton, had been a friend of Mark Robarts at school, and it was their friendship which resulted in Mark's position. Mark, though conscientious in his duties and grateful for his situation, is ambitious, however, anxious to expand his horizons beyond Framley.

Lady Lufton, who rules with an iron hand, is appalled when Mark decides to spend a weekend with a "fast" crowd, one which he believes can advance his career. Young and naïve, he becomes the dupe of an aristocratic "con-man," an MP named Nathaniel Sowerby, who persuades him to help him out of a financial jam by signing a note for five hundred pounds (more than half Robarts's yearly salary), allowing Sowerby to draw funds on Robarts's name. Though Sowerby swears he will resolve the problem within weeks, he needs an additional four hundred pounds when the note comes due.

In the meantime, Robarts's sister Lucy arrives at Framley Parsonage upon the death of their father. Lucy, a sweet ingénue in mourning, soon comes to the attention of Lord Lufton, who is fascinated by her naivete, a marked contrast with the women he has known to date. Though Lady Lufton has much more "significant" matrimonial prospects in mind for her son, the courtship begins, and though Lucy declines Lord Lufton's initial proposal, she remains in love with him. As Robarts's financial miseries become more pressing, and as Lucy's misery at having turned down Lord Lufton increases, the scene is set for a final showdown.

Numerous peripheral characters, many of them known to readers of the series, add to the drama of the primary action. The implacable dowager Lady Lufton, wishing to maintain her family's social position, staunchly opposes the Duke's relationship with Lucy Robarts, pushing Griselda Grantly, daughter of Archbishop Grantly, as the Duke's suitor. The competition between the (Archdeacon) Grantlys and the (Bishop) Proudies for suitors for their daughters adds great comic relief to the story, and the internecine manipulations among the clergy provide gentle satire in a novel which seems to be remarkably domestic in its focus.

Trollope provides a full picture of Victorian life, representing many aspects of society, and though his view of the clergy has in earlier novels been a bit jaded, he is sympathetic to many of its representatives in this novel, seeing them as humans, rather than as types. A sweet novel, part love story and part social commentary, Framley Parsonage is a charming novel, memorable for its characters and picture of Victorian England. Mary Whipple

Not necessarily the best Trollope book (a number are more accomplished technically) but the one which to me is the most typically Trollopian and comforting. Basically two stories run together - the story of a clergyman who gets his fingers burnt when hob-nobbing with politicians, and a romance involving his sister-in-law, this mixes familiar characters from Barsetshire with new ones to form a satisfying whole that naturally turns out right at the end - for in Trollope the virtuous are generally rewarded.