AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Barchester Towers (Everyman Paperback Classics) by Anthony Trollope, Hugh Osborne, David Skilton ISBN: 0-460-87496-9 Publisher: Everymans Library Pub. Date: 1919 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $3.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (12 reviews)

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.

Rating: 5
Summary: This is where you start with Trollope
Comment: This is Trollope's funniest and most popular novel, and the one where he really came into his own as a comic novelist. Although it is second in the Chronicles of Barset, I greatly recommend starting here if you have never read Trollope before rather than beginning with the first book in the series, THE WARDEN: you'll quickly pick up everything you needed to know that happened in the first book at the beginning of BARCHESTER TOWERS, and this is a much, much funnier novel (and is more likely to hook you into his way of seeing the world).

BARCHESTER TOWERS is the greatest novel of petty infighting ever written: it anticipates (and surpasses) the many British and American college novels written in the twentieth century. Very little happens in this novel: two old clergymen die in the course of this novel and have replacements chosen for them, and a widow is re-married. But to the inhabitants of Trollope's Barchester it is nothing less than all-out war, waged between the archdeacon's faction (representing the conservative church) on one hand and the new bishop's wife, Mrs. Proudie, and her chaplain Mr. Slope (representing the "Low Church" movement) on the other. Everyone else, including the henpecked bishop, is caught in the middle. There are two absolutely uproarious setpieces in this novel: the reception Mrs. Proudie throws at the bishop's palace, and the hilariously quaint medieval fair held at the country seat of Ullathorne (complete with such ghastly oddities as a quintain for practicing jousting) are as funny as anything Jane Austen ever wrote. Trollope may not have had Austen's genius for presenting ethical quandaries, but he comes second only to her as the great novelist of comic manners in the 19th century.

Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant!
Comment: Barchester Towers is one of the most timeless British classics I have read. Told to us in narrative, this is a story of hierachy, power, love, and downfall, in this sacred, private, ecclesiastical world. Written with an intuitive perception for sights, sounds, and characters, there are no protagonists to whom you can sympathize, and yet each of these characters will leave you spellbound for there depth and sensitivity. The story is set in Barchester, a small divided city in the northern part of England. On one side of this division, and from where our story focuses, we have a wealthy church diocese, who with its own rules all must obey. Enter: Mr. Obadiah Slope. Single, sinister, and the new Dean of Barchester. From his very arrival he knew only of one thing, reform and change. And was met with scrutiny, and hostility, from a conclave where no secrets are shared or revealed. Poignantly written, the truths of this diocean world and its parshioners are slowly unveiled, as the author cleverly manoeuvres from chapter to chapter, giving us insight into conflicts among prominent families and the clergy. And it is these scenes of conflict among our characters: deceit, revenge, vanity, prosperity, and moral convictions, which are the most graphic, mesmerizing, and suspenseful, as any author could have written, and will leave you wanting more information as each page is turned. Written in an era when victorian men were considered strong parochial figures, and seduction among women sacrilege, the script is turned. And it is the women who dominate these pages, for there intelligence, independence, strength, and complexity. And ironically, it is the men who in my opinion, who are reduced to timid, naive, hypocrites. Though not to be deceived, male dominance does prevail, as passion wins over compassion, love for lust, and reverence for irreverence, as our author delivers a masterpiece of a finale in English literature, between two destined lovers. Barchester Towers is my introdution to Anthony Trollope, and will not be the last, that I plan to read in the future.