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Title: Barchester Towers (Penguin Classics) by Anthony Trollope, Robin Gilmour, J. K. Galbraith ISBN: 0-14-043203-5 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Immortal Trollope
Comment: Despite the criticisms levelled at Trollope for his "authorial intrusions" (see Henry James for example) this novel is always a pleasure to read. The characters take precedence over the plot, as in any Trollopian fiction and this is what makes a novel like BARCHESTER more palatable to the modern reader, as compared to any of Dickens's. Some readers may find the ecclesiastical terms confusing at first but with a little help (see the Penguin introduction for example), all becomes clear. What is important, however, is the interaction between the all-too-human characters and in this novel there are plenty of situations to keep you, the reader, amused.
Do yourself a favour and take a trip back into Nineteenth century where technology is just a blink in everyone's eye. What you will discover, however, is that human beings have not really changed, just the conventions have.
Rating: 5
Summary: Delightfully ridiculous!
Comment: I rushed home every day after work to read a little more of this Trollope comedy. The book starts out with the death of a bishop during a change in political power. The new bishop is a puppet to his wife Mrs. Proudie and her protégé Mr. Slope. Along the way we meet outrageous clergymen, a seductive invalid from Italy, and a whole host of delightfully ridiculous characters. Trollope has designed most of these characters to be "over the top". I kept wondering what a film version starring the Monty Python characters would look like. He wrote an equivalent of a soap opera, only it doesn't take place at the "hospital", it takes place with the bishops. Some of the characters you love, some of the characters you hate, and then there are those you love to hate. Trollope speaks to the reader throughout the novel using the mimetic voice, so we feel like we are at a cocktail party and these 19th century characters are our friends (or at least the people we're avoiding at the party!). The themes and characters are timeless. The book deals with power, especially power struggles between the sexes. We encounter greed, love, desperation, seductive sirens, and generosity. Like many books of this time period however, the modern reader has to give it a chance. No one is murdered on the first page, and it takes quite a few chapters for the action to pick up. But pick up it does by page 70, and accelerates into a raucously funny novel from there. Although I didn't read the Warden, I didn't feel lost and I'm curious to read the rest of this series after finishing this book. Enjoy!
Rating: 4
Summary: Endearing Comic Tale of the Clergy
Comment: Barchester Towers is a sly, funny novel- that is not for every taste. It is a Victorian story within an ecclesiastical milieu- and yet, it could be any modern corporate, non-profit or 'faith-based' arena.
The engaging settings include mansions of the bishop, an ancient and peculiar manor and a variety of homes of archbishops, deans and rectors. The characters range from a morally questionable, lame, Italian Countess- and her child, 'the last of the Nero's', to anachronistic nobles and a cuckolded, weak-kneed Bishop. An impudent newcomer and assistant to the new Bishop spurs a rebellion of sorts- this upstart, Mr. Slope, fulfills all the qualifications for a sweaty, sneering, fox who will offend the congregation- including all of the other rectors at his first sermon.
From that point onward, as Mr. Slope's sexual drives and greed seem to collide within him, and his hold on the power in the diocese requires war; the tale has tension, comedy and ultimately romance.
There is certainly a resemblance to Jane Austen here, but Trollope does not lend himself to a feminist interpretation. His heroines are either well-meaning 'spinsters' or dutiful, yet quietly influential wives. Their villainous counterparts are overbearing, seditious or vampish- not particularly modern, definitely engrossing and fun.
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Title: The Warden (Oxford World's Classics) by Anthony Trollope, Michael Sadleir, Frederick Page, Edward Ardizzone ISBN: 0192834088 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 1998 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Doctor Thorne (Everyman Paperback Classics) by Anthony Trollope, James Kincaid ISBN: 046087604X Publisher: Everymans Library Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Framley Parsonage (Penguin English Library) by Anthony Trollope, David Skilton, Peter Miles ISBN: 0140432132 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: January, 1985 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Last Chronicle of Barset (Everyman Paperback Classics) by Anthony Trollope, David Skilton, David Cardiff ISBN: 0460872346 Publisher: Everymans Library List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope, Julian Thompson ISBN: 0140433252 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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