The Warden, 02 Oct 2008
An indictment of what it is to be good, or to be seen to be good. Plenty of good characters whose motivations are dissected and laid bare by the authors gently mocking voice. A surprisingly modern novel, I loved this and look forward to the next one in the series.

A good old-fashioned story, 07 Jan 2008
I stumbled on Trollope's novels by sheer coincidence, until very recently he was to me what he apparently is to many: a largely forgotten Victorian novelist (one, however, who seems to be enjoying a well-earned revival lately). I decided to go about things in an orderly manner and start with his Barchester-chronicles of which 'The Warden' is the first novel.

And a delightful novel it is too! Contrary to what we've perhaps come to expect from a present-day 'good' novel nothing much really happens: Mr. Harding, an elderly priest and warden of an almshouse in (the fictional cathedral town) Barchester, suddenly finds himself in the eye of a public storm when a leading newspaper - instigated by his own future son-in-law - claims he is misappropriating funds meant for charity. What follows is the profound soul-searching of Mr. Harding as to whether or not he is guilty of such a fact.

'The Warden' throws you right back into an age with completely different mores and morals, and yet has a relevancy for our current day and age. Mr. Harding is - to our 21st century eyes - so utterly innocent, naive and well-meaning as to seem almost a dinosaur, but on the other hand you cannot help but think that the world would probably be better of if there were a few more Mr. Hardings around.

The writing is delightful, though what happens to Mr. Harding is not, and there is that undefinable something in Trollope's style and handling of the subject that draws you in and keeps you turning pages, sympathizing with Mr. Harding's plight (at least, that's what I felt) and wishing him well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will definitely continue with the next novel in the Barchester-chronicles.

No doom and gloom in this Victorian novel., 02 Nov 2004
Although its principal character, Mr Harding, the Warden of Barchester, suffers abject misery and extreme anxiety during most of this novel, the reader of "The Warden" will enjoy one of the happiest, richest and warmest experiences to be gained from the whole of English Literature.

Untypically short, yet three years in the making, "The Warden" has a simple structure that Trollope utlized again and again. Take a moral dilemma of some sort, one that provides endless pros and cons to be argued, one that possibly takes many hundreds of pages to resolve, explore is social, political and financial implications, and show how it touches the lives of characters not too unlike ourselves.

The dilemma here concerns the income of Septimus Harding, the Warden of Barchester. Under the terms of a will, dated 1434, twelve superannuated woolcarders were to be accommodated in an almshouse, receiving one shilling and fourpence per day. A residence was to be provided for a warden who was to receive the income from the remainder of the testator's property. Now, more than 400 years later, there seems to be an imbalance in these depositions. The almshouse inmates continue to receive only one shilling and fourpence, while the warden, living on the proceeds of some valuable properties, receives eight hundred pounds annually and the use of the warden's house.

The dilemma faces a young Barchester surgeon, John Bold. If he allows the imbalance to continue, the wishes of the original benefactor, he believes, are being nullified. If he succeeds in having the warden's comfortable living discontinued, he will lose forever the possibility of making the warden's daughter his wife. And so the issue is taken up, argued and publicized.

As Anthony Trollope reveals in his autobiography, this tiny novel was successful enough (it earned him twenty pounds) to lead him to consider writing more of the same, and he soon began "Barchester Towers".

English actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, brilliant as Archdeacon Grantly in a memorable TV adaptation of this novel, revisits Trollope's Barchester to provide a robust, opulent, complete and unabridged reading that no Trollope enthusiast should miss hearing.

The Warden - the introductory novel to a great series, 09 Jul 2003
The Warden follows the story of Mr Harding, a cleric who is warden of Hiram's Hospital, a charitable home for twelve men who are no longer able to work. A local man, John Bold, is campaigning against corruption in the Church of England. He challenges the high income that the warden receives from the hospital (as a result of increased profits over the years from the estate which supports it, the hospital has more income than the gentleman who set up the charity ever envisaged). He feels more of the money should go to the twelve men themselves. Mr Harding is a good man caught up in a scandal not of his own making, and wrestles with his conscience, his loyalty to the church, and the defensive stance taken by the Archdeacon, his son-in-law.

The Warden is the first, and certainly not the best book in the Barchester Chronicles series, but it does display Trollope's easy to read style of narration, and the subtle humour that underlies it. The storyline is perhaps a bit slower than in the later books, and some of the interesting characters have yet to appear. The series is written in such a way that you could probably pick up any of the books and enjoy them as a single novel. Having said that, I think you would miss something special if you don't read the whole series. It is the characters that he creates in their own unique setting that makes Trollope's work worth reading, and to follow their development through each book makes the whole series far more satisfying than just one book.

The other books in the series are Barchester Towers, Dr Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington and the Last Chronicle of Barset.

The Warden, 02 Oct 2008
An indictment of what it is to be good, or to be seen to be good. Plenty of good characters whose motivations are dissected and laid bare by the authors gently mocking voice. A surprisingly modern novel, I loved this and look forward to the next one in the series.

A good old-fashioned story, 07 Jan 2008
I stumbled on Trollope's novels by sheer coincidence, until very recently he was to me what he apparently is to many: a largely forgotten Victorian novelist (one, however, who seems to be enjoying a well-earned revival lately). I decided to go about things in an orderly manner and start with his Barchester-chronicles of which 'The Warden' is the first novel.

And a delightful novel it is too! Contrary to what we've perhaps come to expect from a present-day 'good' novel nothing much really happens: Mr. Harding, an elderly priest and warden of an almshouse in (the fictional cathedral town) Barchester, suddenly finds himself in the eye of a public storm when a leading newspaper - instigated by his own future son-in-law - claims he is misappropriating funds meant for charity. What follows is the profound soul-searching of Mr. Harding as to whether or not he is guilty of such a fact.

'The Warden' throws you right back into an age with completely different mores and morals, and yet has a relevancy for our current day and age. Mr. Harding is - to our 21st century eyes - so utterly innocent, naive and well-meaning as to seem almost a dinosaur, but on the other hand you cannot help but think that the world would probably be better of if there were a few more Mr. Hardings around.

The writing is delightful, though what happens to Mr. Harding is not, and there is that undefinable something in Trollope's style and handling of the subject that draws you in and keeps you turning pages, sympathizing with Mr. Harding's plight (at least, that's what I felt) and wishing him well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will definitely continue with the next novel in the Barchester-chronicles.

No doom and gloom in this Victorian novel., 02 Nov 2004
Although its principal character, Mr Harding, the Warden of Barchester, suffers abject misery and extreme anxiety during most of this novel, the reader of "The Warden" will enjoy one of the happiest, richest and warmest experiences to be gained from the whole of English Literature.

Untypically short, yet three years in the making, "The Warden" has a simple structure that Trollope utlized again and again. Take a moral dilemma of some sort, one that provides endless pros and cons to be argued, one that possibly takes many hundreds of pages to resolve, explore is social, political and financial implications, and show how it touches the lives of characters not too unlike ourselves.

The dilemma here concerns the income of Septimus Harding, the Warden of Barchester. Under the terms of a will, dated 1434, twelve superannuated woolcarders were to be accommodated in an almshouse, receiving one shilling and fourpence per day. A residence was to be provided for a warden who was to receive the income from the remainder of the testator's property. Now, more than 400 years later, there seems to be an imbalance in these depositions. The almshouse inmates continue to receive only one shilling and fourpence, while the warden, living on the proceeds of some valuable properties, receives eight hundred pounds annually and the use of the warden's house.

The dilemma faces a young Barchester surgeon, John Bold. If he allows the imbalance to continue, the wishes of the original benefactor, he believes, are being nullified. If he succeeds in having the warden's comfortable living discontinued, he will lose forever the possibility of making the warden's daughter his wife. And so the issue is taken up, argued and publicized.

As Anthony Trollope reveals in his autobiography, this tiny novel was successful enough (it earned him twenty pounds) to lead him to consider writing more of the same, and he soon began "Barchester Towers".

English actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, brilliant as Archdeacon Grantly in a memorable TV adaptation of this novel, revisits Trollope's Barchester to provide a robust, opulent, complete and unabridged reading that no Trollope enthusiast should miss hearing.

The Warden - the introductory novel to a great series, 09 Jul 2003
The Warden follows the story of Mr Harding, a cleric who is warden of Hiram's Hospital, a charitable home for twelve men who are no longer able to work. A local man, John Bold, is campaigning against corruption in the Church of England. He challenges the high income that the warden receives from the hospital (as a result of increased profits over the years from the estate which supports it, the hospital has more income than the gentleman who set up the charity ever envisaged). He feels more of the money should go to the twelve men themselves. Mr Harding is a good man caught up in a scandal not of his own making, and wrestles with his conscience, his loyalty to the church, and the defensive stance taken by the Archdeacon, his son-in-law.

The Warden is the first, and certainly not the best book in the Barchester Chronicles series, but it does display Trollope's easy to read style of narration, and the subtle humour that underlies it. The storyline is perhaps a bit slower than in the later books, and some of the interesting characters have yet to appear. The series is written in such a way that you could probably pick up any of the books and enjoy them as a single novel. Having said that, I think you would miss something special if you don't read the whole series. It is the characters that he creates in their own unique setting that makes Trollope's work worth reading, and to follow their development through each book makes the whole series far more satisfying than just one book.

The other books in the series are Barchester Towers, Dr Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington and the Last Chronicle of Barset.

"The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums.", 16 Feb 2008
(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, 07 Jan 2008
"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, 17 Apr 2007


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.


Return to Barsetshire, 04 Apr 2006
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!, 12 Mar 2006
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.

The Warden, 02 Oct 2008
An indictment of what it is to be good, or to be seen to be good. Plenty of good characters whose motivations are dissected and laid bare by the authors gently mocking voice. A surprisingly modern novel, I loved this and look forward to the next one in the series.

A good old-fashioned story, 07 Jan 2008
I stumbled on Trollope's novels by sheer coincidence, until very recently he was to me what he apparently is to many: a largely forgotten Victorian novelist (one, however, who seems to be enjoying a well-earned revival lately). I decided to go about things in an orderly manner and start with his Barchester-chronicles of which 'The Warden' is the first novel.

And a delightful novel it is too! Contrary to what we've perhaps come to expect from a present-day 'good' novel nothing much really happens: Mr. Harding, an elderly priest and warden of an almshouse in (the fictional cathedral town) Barchester, suddenly finds himself in the eye of a public storm when a leading newspaper - instigated by his own future son-in-law - claims he is misappropriating funds meant for charity. What follows is the profound soul-searching of Mr. Harding as to whether or not he is guilty of such a fact.

'The Warden' throws you right back into an age with completely different mores and morals, and yet has a relevancy for our current day and age. Mr. Harding is - to our 21st century eyes - so utterly innocent, naive and well-meaning as to seem almost a dinosaur, but on the other hand you cannot help but think that the world would probably be better of if there were a few more Mr. Hardings around.

The writing is delightful, though what happens to Mr. Harding is not, and there is that undefinable something in Trollope's style and handling of the subject that draws you in and keeps you turning pages, sympathizing with Mr. Harding's plight (at least, that's what I felt) and wishing him well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will definitely continue with the next novel in the Barchester-chronicles.

No doom and gloom in this Victorian novel., 02 Nov 2004
Although its principal character, Mr Harding, the Warden of Barchester, suffers abject misery and extreme anxiety during most of this novel, the reader of "The Warden" will enjoy one of the happiest, richest and warmest experiences to be gained from the whole of English Literature.

Untypically short, yet three years in the making, "The Warden" has a simple structure that Trollope utlized again and again. Take a moral dilemma of some sort, one that provides endless pros and cons to be argued, one that possibly takes many hundreds of pages to resolve, explore is social, political and financial implications, and show how it touches the lives of characters not too unlike ourselves.

The dilemma here concerns the income of Septimus Harding, the Warden of Barchester. Under the terms of a will, dated 1434, twelve superannuated woolcarders were to be accommodated in an almshouse, receiving one shilling and fourpence per day. A residence was to be provided for a warden who was to receive the income from the remainder of the testator's property. Now, more than 400 years later, there seems to be an imbalance in these depositions. The almshouse inmates continue to receive only one shilling and fourpence, while the warden, living on the proceeds of some valuable properties, receives eight hundred pounds annually and the use of the warden's house.

The dilemma faces a young Barchester surgeon, John Bold. If he allows the imbalance to continue, the wishes of the original benefactor, he believes, are being nullified. If he succeeds in having the warden's comfortable living discontinued, he will lose forever the possibility of making the warden's daughter his wife. And so the issue is taken up, argued and publicized.

As Anthony Trollope reveals in his autobiography, this tiny novel was successful enough (it earned him twenty pounds) to lead him to consider writing more of the same, and he soon began "Barchester Towers".

English actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, brilliant as Archdeacon Grantly in a memorable TV adaptation of this novel, revisits Trollope's Barchester to provide a robust, opulent, complete and unabridged reading that no Trollope enthusiast should miss hearing.

The Warden - the introductory novel to a great series, 09 Jul 2003
The Warden follows the story of Mr Harding, a cleric who is warden of Hiram's Hospital, a charitable home for twelve men who are no longer able to work. A local man, John Bold, is campaigning against corruption in the Church of England. He challenges the high income that the warden receives from the hospital (as a result of increased profits over the years from the estate which supports it, the hospital has more income than the gentleman who set up the charity ever envisaged). He feels more of the money should go to the twelve men themselves. Mr Harding is a good man caught up in a scandal not of his own making, and wrestles with his conscience, his loyalty to the church, and the defensive stance taken by the Archdeacon, his son-in-law.

The Warden is the first, and certainly not the best book in the Barchester Chronicles series, but it does display Trollope's easy to read style of narration, and the subtle humour that underlies it. The storyline is perhaps a bit slower than in the later books, and some of the interesting characters have yet to appear. The series is written in such a way that you could probably pick up any of the books and enjoy them as a single novel. Having said that, I think you would miss something special if you don't read the whole series. It is the characters that he creates in their own unique setting that makes Trollope's work worth reading, and to follow their development through each book makes the whole series far more satisfying than just one book.

The other books in the series are Barchester Towers, Dr Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington and the Last Chronicle of Barset.

"The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums.", 16 Feb 2008
(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, 07 Jan 2008
"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, 17 Apr 2007


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.


Return to Barsetshire, 04 Apr 2006
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!, 12 Mar 2006
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.

The way we live now, 18 Jan 2008
This is without a doubt the best book I have ever read. I am currently doing a degree in English and usually find the books dull and boring. I was dreading reading this as it seemed so big and daunting. However, after reading the first 3 chapters I was completely drawn into the Victorian world as depicted by Trollope. The character's are modern, exciting, sexy and dramatic. There is definitely someone in this book for everyone to relate to. My only problem now is deciding which of Trollope's books to read next!!!

"You need a special kind of man who understands the way we live now to lead you into that new world of peace and prosperity.", 18 Sep 2007
Often considered Trollope's greatest novel, this satire of British life, written in 1875, leaves no aspect of society unexamined. Through his large cast of characters, who represent many levels of society, Trollope examines the hypocrisies of class, at the same time that he often develops sympathy for these characters who are sometimes caught in crises not of their own making. Filling the novel with realistic details and providing vivid pictures of the various settings in which the characters find themselves, Trollope also creates a series of exceptionally vibrant characters who give life to this long and sometimes cynical portrait of those who move the country.

Lady Carbury, her innocent daughter Henrietta (Hetta), and her attractive but irresponsible son Felix are the family around which much of the action rotates. They are always in need of money and Lady Carbury writes pap novels to support the family (and Felix's drinking and gambling). In contrast to the Carburys, and just as important to the plot, are the Melmottes. Augustus Melmotte, who has come from Vienna under a cloud of financial suspicions, has acquired a huge estate for himself, his foreign wife, and his marriageable daughter. Boorish, but determined to become a leader of society, Melmotte provides moments of humor for the reader, though he is scorned by an aristocracy which is nevertheless beholden to him for his investments.

When Melmotte becomes the major investor in a plan to build a railway from California to Mexico, Paul Montague, a handsome engineer who has been working in America, arrives in town. A ward of Roger Carbury, cousin of Felix and Hetta, he soon finds himself in love with Hetta--and in competition with Roger for her hand. Felix courts the Melmottes' daughter for her fortune, and she falls in love with him while he dallies with a local domestic worker. Investors dash to buy shares in the Mexican railway, and their investments ending in the sticky hands of Melmotte, who has bigger plans.

Often addressing the reader directly, Trollope fills the novel with action and subplots which illustrate a wide variety of themes, often depicting his characters satirically to illustrate the social, political, and financial ills of the day. Ahead of his time for his depiction of the lively, intelligent woman whose role is defined (and limited) by her social and financial position, Trollope creates a number of resourceful women--and a number who are willing to do almost anything to marry a wealthy man. As is customary in Victorian novels, the good are rewarded here, and the evil are punished, but Trollope's characters, unlike those by Dickens, for example, usually control their own destinies. Broad in scope, thoughtful in construction, complete in its depiction of 1870s' England, filled with wonderful characters, and absolutely engrossing to read, The Way We Live Now is one of the great novels of the nineteenth century. Mary Whipple

Outsider defrauds City of Millions!, 21 Aug 1999
The story of Robert Maxwell, written half a century before Robert Maxell was born. Read it - the book is enjoyable, and the title is accurate, still.

Perhaps the greatest, bitterest satirical novel ever written, 24 Nov 1998
A brilliant satire of Victorian society, The Way We Live Now reads today as a strikingly modern novel. Almost all of the characters are horrible: Mrs. Carbury, a witless writer of romance novels; her wastrel gambler of a son; and the ruthless, vicious businessman Melmotte, a precursor of Rupert Murdoch. An indictment of his times that still holds power today, and a brilliant, hilarious satire.

The Way We STILL Live Now, 11 Apr 1998
Picture a world in which a shadowy entreprenour rubs shoulders with the great and powerful, while hard-driving yuppies stop at nothing to be associated with his schemes. Sounds like Ron Reagan's "Morning in America," doesn't it? Except it is Victorian London. The entreprenour is Auguste Melmotte. The yuppies are the scions of great and small families hurling themselves at his daughter, his phantasmagorical railway (between Salt Lake City and Vera Cruz yet!) company, and the hem of his cloak. And the book is Anthony Trollope's THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.

Like all of Trollope's books, this one is as well crafted as any by Eliot or Thackeray; yet the theme and handling are strikingly modern. I came to this book by way of the Barsetshire novels with their depiction of rural clergy. I should have read THE WAY WE LIVE NOW first.

Especially worth noting are the surprisingly full characterizations of Marie Melmotte, daughter of the financier, who is courted by her emotional inferiors, and Roger Carbury, a rural landowner who holds aloof from the fray and helps several of the others pick up the pieces from their lives.

The only negative is the book's anti-semitism, though it makes several attempts to lift itself from this charge.

The Warden, 02 Oct 2008
An indictment of what it is to be good, or to be seen to be good. Plenty of good characters whose motivations are dissected and laid bare by the authors gently mocking voice. A surprisingly modern novel, I loved this and look forward to the next one in the series.

A good old-fashioned story, 07 Jan 2008
I stumbled on Trollope's novels by sheer coincidence, until very recently he was to me what he apparently is to many: a largely forgotten Victorian novelist (one, however, who seems to be enjoying a well-earned revival lately). I decided to go about things in an orderly manner and start with his Barchester-chronicles of which 'The Warden' is the first novel.

And a delightful novel it is too! Contrary to what we've perhaps come to expect from a present-day 'good' novel nothing much really happens: Mr. Harding, an elderly priest and warden of an almshouse in (the fictional cathedral town) Barchester, suddenly finds himself in the eye of a public storm when a leading newspaper - instigated by his own future son-in-law - claims he is misappropriating funds meant for charity. What follows is the profound soul-searching of Mr. Harding as to whether or not he is guilty of such a fact.

'The Warden' throws you right back into an age with completely different mores and morals, and yet has a relevancy for our current day and age. Mr. Harding is - to our 21st century eyes - so utterly innocent, naive and well-meaning as to seem almost a dinosaur, but on the other hand you cannot help but think that the world would probably be better of if there were a few more Mr. Hardings around.

The writing is delightful, though what happens to Mr. Harding is not, and there is that undefinable something in Trollope's style and handling of the subject that draws you in and keeps you turning pages, sympathizing with Mr. Harding's plight (at least, that's what I felt) and wishing him well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will definitely continue with the next novel in the Barchester-chronicles.

No doom and gloom in this Victorian novel., 02 Nov 2004
Although its principal character, Mr Harding, the Warden of Barchester, suffers abject misery and extreme anxiety during most of this novel, the reader of "The Warden" will enjoy one of the happiest, richest and warmest experiences to be gained from the whole of English Literature.

Untypically short, yet three years in the making, "The Warden" has a simple structure that Trollope utlized again and again. Take a moral dilemma of some sort, one that provides endless pros and cons to be argued, one that possibly takes many hundreds of pages to resolve, explore is social, political and financial implications, and show how it touches the lives of characters not too unlike ourselves.

The dilemma here concerns the income of Septimus Harding, the Warden of Barchester. Under the terms of a will, dated 1434, twelve superannuated woolcarders were to be accommodated in an almshouse, receiving one shilling and fourpence per day. A residence was to be provided for a warden who was to receive the income from the remainder of the testator's property. Now, more than 400 years later, there seems to be an imbalance in these depositions. The almshouse inmates continue to receive only one shilling and fourpence, while the warden, living on the proceeds of some valuable properties, receives eight hundred pounds annually and the use of the warden's house.

The dilemma faces a young Barchester surgeon, John Bold. If he allows the imbalance to continue, the wishes of the original benefactor, he believes, are being nullified. If he succeeds in having the warden's comfortable living discontinued, he will lose forever the possibility of making the warden's daughter his wife. And so the issue is taken up, argued and publicized.

As Anthony Trollope reveals in his autobiography, this tiny novel was successful enough (it earned him twenty pounds) to lead him to consider writing more of the same, and he soon began "Barchester Towers".

English actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, brilliant as Archdeacon Grantly in a memorable TV adaptation of this novel, revisits Trollope's Barchester to provide a robust, opulent, complete and unabridged reading that no Trollope enthusiast should miss hearing.

The Warden - the introductory novel to a great series, 09 Jul 2003
The Warden follows the story of Mr Harding, a cleric who is warden of Hiram's Hospital, a charitable home for twelve men who are no longer able to work. A local man, John Bold, is campaigning against corruption in the Church of England. He challenges the high income that the warden receives from the hospital (as a result of increased profits over the years from the estate which supports it, the hospital has more income than the gentleman who set up the charity ever envisaged). He feels more of the money should go to the twelve men themselves. Mr Harding is a good man caught up in a scandal not of his own making, and wrestles with his conscience, his loyalty to the church, and the defensive stance taken by the Archdeacon, his son-in-law.

The Warden is the first, and certainly not the best book in the Barchester Chronicles series, but it does display Trollope's easy to read style of narration, and the subtle humour that underlies it. The storyline is perhaps a bit slower than in the later books, and some of the interesting characters have yet to appear. The series is written in such a way that you could probably pick up any of the books and enjoy them as a single novel. Having said that, I think you would miss something special if you don't read the whole series. It is the characters that he creates in their own unique setting that makes Trollope's work worth reading, and to follow their development through each book makes the whole series far more satisfying than just one book.

The other books in the series are Barchester Towers, Dr Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington and the Last Chronicle of Barset.

"The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums.", 16 Feb 2008
(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, 07 Jan 2008
"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, 17 Apr 2007


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.


Return to Barsetshire, 04 Apr 2006
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!, 12 Mar 2006
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.

The way we live now, 18 Jan 2008
This is without a doubt the best book I have ever read. I am currently doing a degree in English and usually find the books dull and boring. I was dreading reading this as it seemed so big and daunting. However, after reading the first 3 chapters I was completely drawn into the Victorian world as depicted by Trollope. The character's are modern, exciting, sexy and dramatic. There is definitely someone in this book for everyone to relate to. My only problem now is deciding which of Trollope's books to read next!!!

"You need a special kind of man who understands the way we live now to lead you into that new world of peace and prosperity.", 18 Sep 2007
Often considered Trollope's greatest novel, this satire of British life, written in 1875, leaves no aspect of society unexamined. Through his large cast of characters, who represent many levels of society, Trollope examines the hypocrisies of class, at the same time that he often develops sympathy for these characters who are sometimes caught in crises not of their own making. Filling the novel with realistic details and providing vivid pictures of the various settings in which the characters find themselves, Trollope also creates a series of exceptionally vibrant characters who give life to this long and sometimes cynical portrait of those who move the country.

Lady Carbury, her innocent daughter Henrietta (Hetta), and her attractive but irresponsible son Felix are the family around which much of the action rotates. They are always in need of money and Lady Carbury writes pap novels to support the family (and Felix's drinking and gambling). In contrast to the Carburys, and just as important to the plot, are the Melmottes. Augustus Melmotte, who has come from Vienna under a cloud of financial suspicions, has acquired a huge estate for himself, his foreign wife, and his marriageable daughter. Boorish, but determined to become a leader of society, Melmotte provides moments of humor for the reader, though he is scorned by an aristocracy which is nevertheless beholden to him for his investments.

When Melmotte becomes the major investor in a plan to build a railway from California to Mexico, Paul Montague, a handsome engineer who has been working in America, arrives in town. A ward of Roger Carbury, cousin of Felix and Hetta, he soon finds himself in love with Hetta--and in competition with Roger for her hand. Felix courts the Melmottes' daughter for her fortune, and she falls in love with him while he dallies with a local domestic worker. Investors dash to buy shares in the Mexican railway, and their investments ending in the sticky hands of Melmotte, who has bigger plans.

Often addressing the reader directly, Trollope fills the novel with action and subplots which illustrate a wide variety of themes, often depicting his characters satirically to illustrate the social, political, and financial ills of the day. Ahead of his time for his depiction of the lively, intelligent woman whose role is defined (and limited) by her social and financial position, Trollope creates a number of resourceful women--and a number who are willing to do almost anything to marry a wealthy man. As is customary in Victorian novels, the good are rewarded here, and the evil are punished, but Trollope's characters, unlike those by Dickens, for example, usually control their own destinies. Broad in scope, thoughtful in construction, complete in its depiction of 1870s' England, filled with wonderful characters, and absolutely engrossing to read, The Way We Live Now is one of the great novels of the nineteenth century. Mary Whipple

Outsider defrauds City of Millions!, 21 Aug 1999
The story of Robert Maxwell, written half a century before Robert Maxell was born. Read it - the book is enjoyable, and the title is accurate, still.

Perhaps the greatest, bitterest satirical novel ever written, 24 Nov 1998
A brilliant satire of Victorian society, The Way We Live Now reads today as a strikingly modern novel. Almost all of the characters are horrible: Mrs. Carbury, a witless writer of romance novels; her wastrel gambler of a son; and the ruthless, vicious businessman Melmotte, a precursor of Rupert Murdoch. An indictment of his times that still holds power today, and a brilliant, hilarious satire.

The Way We STILL Live Now, 11 Apr 1998
Picture a world in which a shadowy entreprenour rubs shoulders with the great and powerful, while hard-driving yuppies stop at nothing to be associated with his schemes. Sounds like Ron Reagan's "Morning in America," doesn't it? Except it is Victorian London. The entreprenour is Auguste Melmotte. The yuppies are the scions of great and small families hurling themselves at his daughter, his phantasmagorical railway (between Salt Lake City and Vera Cruz yet!) company, and the hem of his cloak. And the book is Anthony Trollope's THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.

Like all of Trollope's books, this one is as well crafted as any by Eliot or Thackeray; yet the theme and handling are strikingly modern. I came to this book by way of the Barsetshire novels with their depiction of rural clergy. I should have read THE WAY WE LIVE NOW first.

Especially worth noting are the surprisingly full characterizations of Marie Melmotte, daughter of the financier, who is courted by her emotional inferiors, and Roger Carbury, a rural landowner who holds aloof from the fray and helps several of the others pick up the pieces from their lives.

The only negative is the book's anti-semitism, though it makes several attempts to lift itself from this charge.

Love and money in Victorian times, 27 Mar 2008
'Dr. Thorne' is the third novel in Trollope's Barsetshire-series, and the first to steer away from Barchester city and the clergymen living there. The action is set in Greshambury, where Doctor Thorne is living with his 'niece' Mary, who is actually the illegitimate child of the doctor's deceased brother. Frank Gresham, son of the local squire, grew up with Mary and, now that he has come of age, is intent on marrying her. Frank's father however is virtually bankrupt, and to save the estate Frank is pushed on all sides marry 'money' and not some penniless orphan, however charming she may be...

Based on this simple plot Trollope tells a beautiful and captivating story. As always his main interest lies with the inner life of his characters, and he records their thoughts, feelings, changes of heart and emotions with infinite care and in great detail. Should Frank follow his heart and marry Mary? Or is that selfish and should he rather think of the reputation (and property) of his family and marry some rich heiress? And even though he has pledged himself to her, should perhaps Mary release Frank from their engagement since their marriage would only bring quarrels and financial ruin for the Gresham-family? With great affection for his characters and often subtle humour, Trollope investigates the implications and myriad aspects of each choice to be made.

'Dr. Thorne' gives one a glimpse into life 'as it was' for the landed gentry in Victorian times, and yet it is also very recognizable and relevant today (often I found myself thinking 'that's exactly how I would have felt'). I was very sorry to reach the end of this book, and afterwards immediately started in 'Framley Parsonage'!

"There is no road to wealth so easy and respectable as that of matrimony.",, 01 Mar 2008
(3.5 stars) The third in the Chronicles of Barsetshire, Dr. Thorne is not a satire like the mild satire of The Warden or the more pointed ecclesiastical satire of Barchester Towers. Instead, this novel is pure melodrama, the story of Mary Thorne, a girl of uncertain parentage. Mary, often in the company of the Gresham sisters, with whom she has been schooled, and is attracted to the Greshams' brother Frank.

The Greshams, of a high social level, own a dilapidated estate, and their increasing debts have left them owing many wealthy landowners and lenders. Their only hope is that Frank, who will inherit the estate, marry a wealthy woman who will solve their cash-flow problems by trading her wealth for his family's status. Frank, however, is in love with Mary. As Mary is increasingly ostracized because of her lack of high birth, she and Frank become increasingly in love. When the ailing Sir Roger Scratcherd decides to redo his will, the scene is set for a change of fortunes.

Though the earlier Barsetshire novels are highly satiric, casting wry glances at the church and its behavior, this novel is more realistic, accurately depicting the class divisions in England at the time and emphasizing their absurdities. These divisions are so ingrained in society that there is little hope for any change and even less for any recognition that they might be morally wrong. Mary Thorne is the perfect little lady, despite her lack of family "background," and she shows those more "elevated" than she that she is more a lady than they are. The novel follows standard plot lines, and there is little doubt, throughout, that the romantic complications will be resolved as the reader hopes. The good and honest characters of low birth are rewarded, and the snobs and their heirs are brought low.

Though Trollope is as good as always with his dialogue and his pointed observations, this novel lacks the punch of his earlier satires. The action and melodrama are predictable, and the ending is completely expected. Adding to the complexity of life in Barchester, this novel provides some new characters for this community (and series), and suggests new complications for future novels of the Barset Chronicles. n Mary Whipple


A Visit to the Good Doctor, 24 Apr 2006
For this, the third in the Barsetshire series after The Warden and Barchester Towers, Trollope takes us to East Barset, and the home of the eponymous Doctor Thorne. The Doctor is a kind and gentle man, good-hearted and generous, who thinks the world of his niece, Mary. She is in love with Frank, son of the impoverished local landowner, who reciprocates her love. The problem is that Mary is without a fortune, and Frank must marry money. How these difficulties are resolved forms the basis of the novel. Trollope had no time for the mysteries that often lay at the heart of Victorian fiction; he makes it clear just a few chapters in that Mary and Frank will end up happily married, and he is scornful of those writers for whom plot is more important than character - mentioning Mrs Radcliffe by name.

Doctor Thorne is a charming, witty book with much humour. One of Trollope's great strengths is his understanding of character, which leads him to create well-drawn, three-dimensional characters who have both good and bad, dark and light, in their characters. Few people in Trollope are either wholly good or wholly bad. Thus, the Doctor has to endeavour to preserve the lives of not one but two people whose deaths would benefit his niece greatly.

I felt when reading this novel that this is truly where Trollope's world fully develops. Although he wrote forty-seven novels and many other works, including the celebrated Autobiography, the quality never suffered. The reader fully lives with the characters and their milieu, and actually cares about the people, and that, finally, is what the purpose of reading should be.


A Barsetshire novel in Trollopes gently satirical style, 25 Feb 2001
This is the third of the Barsetshire novels and the first to leave behind the trials and tribulations of Hiram's Hospital. Typical of Trollope's subtle humour the first literary trick of this book is the title since the Doctor himself, though not exactly a minor character, is in many ways almost an overseer of the plot rather than the true hero of the story. That honour goes to his neice Mary, whose strange origin is the event that underlies the plot. So cleverly does Trollope bring us close to Mary and her plight that he has the reader practically wishing for the death of a character so that Mary's happiness might be secured. This book contains an array of interesting characters, as you would expect from Anthony Trollope, but is a little less complex than some of the "Palliser" and other novels.

The Warden, 02 Oct 2008
An indictment of what it is to be good, or to be seen to be good. Plenty of good characters whose motivations are dissected and laid bare by the authors gently mocking voice. A surprisingly modern novel, I loved this and look forward to the next one in the series.

A good old-fashioned story, 07 Jan 2008
I stumbled on Trollope's novels by sheer coincidence, until very recently he was to me what he apparently is to many: a largely forgotten Victorian novelist (one, however, who seems to be enjoying a well-earned revival lately). I decided to go about things in an orderly manner and start with his Barchester-chronicles of which 'The Warden' is the first novel.

And a delightful novel it is too! Contrary to what we've perhaps come to expect from a present-day 'good' novel nothing much really happens: Mr. Harding, an elderly priest and warden of an almshouse in (the fictional cathedral town) Barchester, suddenly finds himself in the eye of a public storm when a leading newspaper - instigated by his own future son-in-law - claims he is misappropriating funds meant for charity. What follows is the profound soul-searching of Mr. Harding as to whether or not he is guilty of such a fact.

'The Warden' throws you right back into an age with completely different mores and morals, and yet has a relevancy for our current day and age. Mr. Harding is - to our 21st century eyes - so utterly innocent, naive and well-meaning as to seem almost a dinosaur, but on the other hand you cannot help but think that the world would probably be better of if there were a few more Mr. Hardings around.

The writing is delightful, though what happens to Mr. Harding is not, and there is that undefinable something in Trollope's style and handling of the subject that draws you in and keeps you turning pages, sympathizing with Mr. Harding's plight (at least, that's what I felt) and wishing him well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will definitely continue with the next novel in the Barchester-chronicles.

No doom and gloom in this Victorian novel., 02 Nov 2004
Although its principal character, Mr Harding, the Warden of Barchester, suffers abject misery and extreme anxiety during most of this novel, the reader of "The Warden" will enjoy one of the happiest, richest and warmest experiences to be gained from the whole of English Literature.

Untypically short, yet three years in the making, "The Warden" has a simple structure that Trollope utlized again and again. Take a moral dilemma of some sort, one that provides endless pros and cons to be argued, one that possibly takes many hundreds of pages to resolve, explore is social, political and financial implications, and show how it touches the lives of characters not too unlike ourselves.

The dilemma here concerns the income of Septimus Harding, the Warden of Barchester. Under the terms of a will, dated 1434, twelve superannuated woolcarders were to be accommodated in an almshouse, receiving one shilling and fourpence per day. A residence was to be provided for a warden who was to receive the income from the remainder of the testator's property. Now, more than 400 years later, there seems to be an imbalance in these depositions. The almshouse inmates continue to receive only one shilling and fourpence, while the warden, living on the proceeds of some valuable properties, receives eight hundred pounds annually and the use of the warden's house.

The dilemma faces a young Barchester surgeon, John Bold. If he allows the imbalance to continue, the wishes of the original benefactor, he believes, are being nullified. If he succeeds in having the warden's comfortable living discontinued, he will lose forever the possibility of making the warden's daughter his wife. And so the issue is taken up, argued and publicized.

As Anthony Trollope reveals in his autobiography, this tiny novel was successful enough (it earned him twenty pounds) to lead him to consider writing more of the same, and he soon began "Barchester Towers".

English actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, brilliant as Archdeacon Grantly in a memorable TV adaptation of this novel, revisits Trollope's Barchester to provide a robust, opulent, complete and unabridged reading that no Trollope enthusiast should miss hearing.

The Warden - the introductory novel to a great series, 09 Jul 2003
The Warden follows the story of Mr Harding, a cleric who is warden of Hiram's Hospital, a charitable home for twelve men who are no longer able to work. A local man, John Bold, is campaigning against corruption in the Church of England. He challenges the high income that the warden receives from the hospital (as a result of increased profits over the years from the estate which supports it, the hospital has more income than the gentleman who set up the charity ever envisaged). He feels more of the money should go to the twelve men themselves. Mr Harding is a good man caught up in a scandal not of his own making, and wrestles with his conscience, his loyalty to the church, and the defensive stance taken by the Archdeacon, his son-in-law.

The Warden is the first, and certainly not the best book in the Barchester Chronicles series, but it does display Trollope's easy to read style of narration, and the subtle humour that underlies it. The storyline is perhaps a bit slower than in the later books, and some of the interesting characters have yet to appear. The series is written in such a way that you could probably pick up any of the books and enjoy them as a single novel. Having said that, I think you would miss something special if you don't read the whole series. It is the characters that he creates in their own unique setting that makes Trollope's work worth reading, and to follow their development through each book makes the whole series far more satisfying than just one book.

The other books in the series are Barchester Towers, Dr Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington and the Last Chronicle of Barset.

"The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums.", 16 Feb 2008
(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, 07 Jan 2008
"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, 17 Apr 2007


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.


Return to Barsetshire, 04 Apr 2006
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!, 12 Mar 2006
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.

The way we live now, 18 Jan 2008
This is without a doubt the best book I have ever read. I am currently doing a degree in English and usually find the books dull and boring. I was dreading reading this as it seemed so big and daunting. However, after reading the first 3 chapters I was completely drawn into the Victorian world as depicted by Trollope. The character's are modern, exciting, sexy and dramatic. There is definitely someone in this book for everyone to relate to. My only problem now is deciding which of Trollope's books to read next!!!

"You need a special kind of man who understands the way we live now to lead you into that new world of peace and prosperity.", 18 Sep 2007
Often considered Trollope's greatest novel, this satire of British life, written in 1875, leaves no aspect of society unexamined. Through his large cast of characters, who represent many levels of society, Trollope examines the hypocrisies of class, at the same time that he often develops sympathy for these characters who are sometimes caught in crises not of their own making. Filling the novel with realistic details and providing vivid pictures of the various settings in which the characters find themselves, Trollope also creates a series of exceptionally vibrant characters who give life to this long and sometimes cynical portrait of those who move the country.

Lady Carbury, her innocent daughter Henrietta (Hetta), and her attractive but irresponsible son Felix are the family around which much of the action rotates. They are always in need of money and Lady Carbury writes pap novels to support the family (and Felix's drinking and gambling). In contrast to the Carburys, and just as important to the plot, are the Melmottes. Augustus Melmotte, who has come from Vienna under a cloud of financial suspicions, has acquired a huge estate for himself, his foreign wife, and his marriageable daughter. Boorish, but determined to become a leader of society, Melmotte provides moments of humor for the reader, though he is scorned by an aristocracy which is nevertheless beholden to him for his investments.

When Melmotte becomes the major investor in a plan to build a railway from California to Mexico, Paul Montague, a handsome engineer who has been working in America, arrives in town. A ward of Roger Carbury, cousin of Felix and Hetta, he soon finds himself in love with Hetta--and in competition with Roger for her hand. Felix courts the Melmottes' daughter for her fortune, and she falls in love with him while he dallies with a local domestic worker. Investors dash to buy shares in the Mexican railway, and their investments ending in the sticky hands of Melmotte, who has bigger plans.

Often addressing the reader directly, Trollope fills the novel with action and subplots which illustrate a wide variety of themes, often depicting his characters satirically to illustrate the social, political, and financial ills of the day. Ahead of his time for his depiction of the lively, intelligent woman whose role is defined (and limited) by her social and financial position, Trollope creates a number of resourceful women--and a number who are willing to do almost anything to marry a wealthy man. As is customary in Victorian novels, the good are rewarded here, and the evil are punished, but Trollope's characters, unlike those by Dickens, for example, usually control their own destinies. Broad in scope, thoughtful in construction, complete in its depiction of 1870s' England, filled with wonderful characters, and absolutely engrossing to read, The Way We Live Now is one of the great novels of the nineteenth century. Mary Whipple

Outsider defrauds City of Millions!, 21 Aug 1999
The story of Robert Maxwell, written half a century before Robert Maxell was born. Read it - the book is enjoyable, and the title is accurate, still.

Perhaps the greatest, bitterest satirical novel ever written, 24 Nov 1998
A brilliant satire of Victorian society, The Way We Live Now reads today as a strikingly modern novel. Almost all of the characters are horrible: Mrs. Carbury, a witless writer of romance novels; her wastrel gambler of a son; and the ruthless, vicious businessman Melmotte, a precursor of Rupert Murdoch. An indictment of his times that still holds power today, and a brilliant, hilarious satire.

The Way We STILL Live Now, 11 Apr 1998
Picture a world in which a shadowy entreprenour rubs shoulders with the great and powerful, while hard-driving yuppies stop at nothing to be associated with his schemes. Sounds like Ron Reagan's "Morning in America," doesn't it? Except it is Victorian London. The entreprenour is Auguste Melmotte. The yuppies are the scions of great and small families hurling themselves at his daughter, his phantasmagorical railway (between Salt Lake City and Vera Cruz yet!) company, and the hem of his cloak. And the book is Anthony Trollope's THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.

Like all of Trollope's books, this one is as well crafted as any by Eliot or Thackeray; yet the theme and handling are strikingly modern. I came to this book by way of the Barsetshire novels with their depiction of rural clergy. I should have read THE WAY WE LIVE NOW first.

Especially worth noting are the surprisingly full characterizations of Marie Melmotte, daughter of the financier, who is courted by her emotional inferiors, and Roger Carbury, a rural landowner who holds aloof from the fray and helps several of the others pick up the pieces from their lives.

The only negative is the book's anti-semitism, though it makes several attempts to lift itself from this charge.

Love and money in Victorian times, 27 Mar 2008
'Dr. Thorne' is the third novel in Trollope's Barsetshire-series, and the first to steer away from Barchester city and the clergymen living there. The action is set in Greshambury, where Doctor Thorne is living with his 'niece' Mary, who is actually the illegitimate child of the doctor's deceased brother. Frank Gresham, son of the local squire, grew up with Mary and, now that he has come of age, is intent on marrying her. Frank's father however is virtually bankrupt, and to save the estate Frank is pushed on all sides marry 'money' and not some penniless orphan, however charming she may be...

Based on this simple plot Trollope tells a beautiful and captivating story. As always his main interest lies with the inner life of his characters, and he records their thoughts, feelings, changes of heart and emotions with infinite care and in great detail. Should Frank follow his heart and marry Mary? Or is that selfish and should he rather think of the reputation (and property) of his family and marry some rich heiress? And even though he has pledged himself to her, should perhaps Mary release Frank from their engagement since their marriage would only bring quarrels and financial ruin for the Gresham-family? With great affection for his characters and often subtle humour, Trollope investigates the implications and myriad aspects of each choice to be made.

'Dr. Thorne' gives one a glimpse into life 'as it was' for the landed gentry in Victorian times, and yet it is also very recognizable and relevant today (often I found myself thinking 'that's exactly how I would have felt'). I was very sorry to reach the end of this book, and afterwards immediately started in 'Framley Parsonage'!

"There is no road to wealth so easy and respectable as that of matrimony.",, 01 Mar 2008
(3.5 stars) The third in the Chronicles of Barsetshire, Dr. Thorne is not a satire like the mild satire of The Warden or the more pointed ecclesiastical satire of Barchester Towers. Instead, this novel is pure melodrama, the story of Mary Thorne, a girl of uncertain parentage. Mary, often in the company of the Gresham sisters, with whom she has been schooled, and is attracted to the Greshams' brother Frank.

The Greshams, of a high social level, own a dilapidated estate, and their increasing debts have left them owing many wealthy landowners and lenders. Their only hope is that Frank, who will inherit the estate, marry a wealthy woman who will solve their cash-flow problems by trading her wealth for his family's status. Frank, however, is in love with Mary. As Mary is increasingly ostracized because of her lack of high birth, she and Frank become increasingly in love. When the ailing Sir Roger Scratcherd decides to redo his will, the scene is set for a change of fortunes.

Though the earlier Barsetshire novels are highly satiric, casting wry glances at the church and its behavior, this novel is more realistic, accurately depicting the class divisions in England at the time and emphasizing their absurdities. These divisions are so ingrained in society that there is little hope for any change and even less for any recognition that they might be morally wrong. Mary Thorne is the perfect little lady, despite her lack of family "background," and she shows those more "elevated" than she that she is more a lady than they are. The novel follows standard plot lines, and there is little doubt, throughout, that the romantic complications will be resolved as the reader hopes. The good and honest characters of low birth are rewarded, and the snobs and their heirs are brought low.

Though Trollope is as good as always with his dialogue and his pointed observations, this novel lacks the punch of his earlier satires. The action and melodrama are predictable, and the ending is completely expected. Adding to the complexity of life in Barchester, this novel provides some new characters for this community (and series), and suggests new complications for future novels of the Barset Chronicles. n Mary Whipple


A Visit to the Good Doctor, 24 Apr 2006
For this, the third in the Barsetshire series after The Warden and Barchester Towers, Trollope takes us to East Barset, and the home of the eponymous Doctor Thorne. The Doctor is a kind and gentle man, good-hearted and generous, who thinks the world of his niece, Mary. She is in love with Frank, son of the impoverished local landowner, who reciprocates her love. The problem is that Mary is without a fortune, and Frank must marry money. How these difficulties are resolved forms the basis of the novel. Trollope had no time for the mysteries that often lay at the heart of Victorian fiction; he makes it clear just a few chapters in that Mary and Frank will end up happily married, and he is scornful of those writers for whom plot is more important than character - mentioning Mrs Radcliffe by name.

Doctor Thorne is a charming, witty book with much humour. One of Trollope's great strengths is his understanding of character, which leads him to create well-drawn, three-dimensional characters who have both good and bad, dark and light, in their characters. Few people in Trollope are either wholly good or wholly bad. Thus, the Doctor has to endeavour to preserve the lives of not one but two people whose deaths would benefit his niece greatly.

I felt when reading this novel that this is truly where Trollope's world fully develops. Although he wrote forty-seven novels and many other works, including the celebrated Autobiography, the quality never suffered. The reader fully lives with the characters and their milieu, and actually cares about the people, and that, finally, is what the purpose of reading should be.


A Barsetshire novel in Trollopes gently satirical style, 25 Feb 2001
This is the third of the Barsetshire novels and the first to leave behind the trials and tribulations of Hiram's Hospital. Typical of Trollope's subtle humour the first literary trick of this book is the title since the Doctor himself, though not exactly a minor character, is in many ways almost an overseer of the plot rather than the true hero of the story. That honour goes to his neice Mary, whose strange origin is the event that underlies the plot. So cleverly does Trollope bring us close to Mary and her plight that he has the reader practically wishing for the death of a character so that Mary's happiness might be secured. This book contains an array of interesting characters, as you would expect from Anthony Trollope, but is a little less complex than some of the "Palliser" and other novels.

Impressive, 06 Aug 2008
This is the first book of the so-called 'Palliser-' or 'political' novels by Anthony Trollope, and if the next 5 volumes are as good as this one that would be nothing short of amazing. If you've read the Barsetshire-chronicles, you'll immediately recognize the inimitable Trollope-style, with its painstakingly detailed analyses of the characters' feelings and emotions. And therefore, remote in time as the settings of these novels may be, ever so much is recognizable and relevant even in the 21st century. I found myself constantly thinking 'I would have felt so too', sympathizing with some characters and disliking others because all of them are painted so life-like you'll feel you've met them in the flesh.

In this particular novel the heroine, Alice Vavasor, is torn between two lovers: her cousin George (ambitious and attractive but with a temper) and the stoic gentleman John Grey. She in turn accepts and then rejects both and is unable to forgive herself for being a 'jilt' (hence the title).

There's nothing much sensational about the plot (is there ever with Trollope?) and the pace is slow, much slower probably than what we've become used to, but nevertheless this is a book thoroughly to be enjoyed.

A masterpiece! utterly brilliant!, 23 Apr 2008
"Can you forgive her" is the best Trollope book I have ever read and although I am far from having read them all, I must have been through at least 12 of them. In "Can you forgive her?" spirited Alice Vavasor cannot reconcile herself to the idea of marrying the man she truly loves because his sedate style of life doesn't agree with Alice's idea that people who have knowledge and opportunity should make something useful of their lives.As a woman she cannot take an active part in political life and is therefore determined to be the helpmate of someone willing to take risks and to serve his fellowmen. She becomes engaged to her cousin whose political ambitions she respects but finds herself distraught at having promised herself to a man she cannot love... and then starts the long campaign of Mr John Grey, jilted lover of the resolute Alice, who is unable to come to terms with the fact that the woman he cherishes is not to be his and who is determined he shall overcome all obstacles and marry her after all.
The book is peopled with unforgettable characters from the wonderful aunt Greenow to the memorable farmer Cheeseacre who is desperate to get married but whose ideas of romance consist in telling the woman he covets how lucky she is to have been selected as his prospective bride...
And we meet Glencora Palliser, Alice's cousin, a young woman who has been married off to a prominent member of the establishemnt and who is deeply unhappy as she cannot forget the good-for-nothing but handsome and blue-eyed Burgo Fitzgerald her heart longs for...and a host of other people just as brilliantly sketched.
It is a very accomplished book, great fun and superbly written , with fewer repetitions than in other Trollope books, a book I have already read 3 times and which I will re read again as I find it incredibly good, and as its heroine, although complicated and sometimes annoying, is one of the best creations ever brought to life. You cannot help but feel for Alice whose unhappiness is all of her own