Customer Reviews

Penguin Classics Barchester Towers

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This book will be memorable for me because of the characters: the abusive Mrs. Proudie, the plotting Mr. Slope, the siren Neroni, etc. Trollope's characters were so s---disturbing that I couldn't wait for them to have scenes with each other just so they could spar! The scenes came, though the showdowns, not really. That aside, I enjoyed this novel and am curious about the rest of the Barchester Chronicles.

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.

This is the second of the six Barsetshire novels, and the first great novel in that series. THE WARDEN, while pleasant, primarily serves as a prequel to this novel. To be honest, if Trollope had not gone on to write BARCHESTER TOWERS, there would not be any real reason to read THE WARDEN. But because it introduces us to characters and situations that are crucial to BARCHESTER TOWERS, one really ought to have read THE WARDEN before reading this novel.

Trollope presents a dilemma for most readers. On the one hand, he wrote an enormous number of very good novels. On the other hand, he wrote no masterpieces. None of Trollope's books can stand comparison with the best work of Jane Austen, Flaubert, Dickens, George Eliot, Tolstoy, or Dostoevsky. On the other hand, none of those writers wrote anywhere near as many excellent as Trollope did. He may not have been a very great writer, but he was a very good one, and perhaps the most prolific good novelist who ever lived. Conservatively assessing his output, Trollope wrote at least 20 good novels. Trollope may not have been a genius, but he did possess a genius for consistency.

So, what to read? Trollope's wrote two very good series, two other novels that could be considered minor classics, and several other first rate novels. I recommend to friends that they try the Barsetshire novels, and then, if they find themselves hooked, to go on to read the Political series of novels (sometimes called the Palliser novels, which I feel uncomfortable with, since it exaggerates the role of that family in most of the novels). The two "minor classics" are THE WAY WE LIVE NOW and HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT. The former is a marvelous portrait of Victorian social life, and the latter is perhaps the finest study of human jealousy since Shakespeare's OTHELLO. BARSETSHIRE TOWERS is, therefore, coupled with THE WARDEN, a magnificent place, and perhaps the best place to enter Trollope's world.

There are many, many reasons to read Trollope. He probably is the great spokesperson for the Victorian Mind. Like most Victorians, he is a bit parochial, with no interest in Europe, and very little interest in the rest of the world. Despite THE AMERICAN SENATOR, he has few American's or colonials in his novels, and close to no foreigners of any type. He is politically liberal in a conservative way, and is focussed almost exclusively on the upper middle class and gentry. He writes a good deal about young men and women needing and hoping to marry, but with a far more complex approach than we find in Jane Austen. His characters are often compelling, with very human problems, subject to morally complex situations that we would not find unfamiliar. Trollope is especially good with female characters, and in his sympathy for and liking of very independent, strong females he is somewhat an exception of the Victorian stereotype.

Anyone wanting to read Trollope, and I heartily believe that anyone who loves Dickens, Austen, Eliot, Hardy, and Thackery will want to, could find no better place to start than with reading the first two books in the Barsetshire Chronicles, beginning first with the rather short THE WARDEN and then progressing to this very, very fun and enjoyable novel.

From another century comes a voice that speaks to us today. Most writers hope for a shelf life of a year or two. Did Anthony Trollope have a clue that we'd be reading and relishing and learning and find ourselves mesmerized by him so many decades after he wrote this book? Is the TV age, the media and internet age lowering all our IQ's and ability to concentrate, as the contemporary author Sven Birkerts suggests? All I know is that re-reading this book last month was a joy, and I suggest all here turn off the TV, get off the internet and win back our minds with the wonderful book.

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!

I have just finished reading Barchester Towers, and my only sadness is at finishing it. I read The Warden first, and Barchester Towers more than fulfilled my desire to live with all the wonderful people in The Warden a little longer. It was the most delightful book I have ever read. It was so funny, and so moving, and so real. What a wonderful experience! If only modern life could afford us some of the same simple pleasures! One would have to be terribly jaded not to get caught up in its intrigues. What a wonderful, talented man Trollope was.

I have just finished reading Barchester Towers, and my only sadness is at finishing it. I read The Warden first, and Barchester Towers more than fulfilled my desire to live with all the wonderful people in The Warden a little longer. It was the most delightful book I have ever read. It was so funny, and so moving, and so real. What a wonderful experience! If only modern life could afford us some of the same simple pleasures! One would have to be terribly jaded not to get caught up in its intrigues. What a wonderful, talented man Trollope was.

In this amazing novel Anthony Trollope continues his saga of clergymen of the Church of England in the little town of Barsetshire. A feud erupts when a new bishop and his chaplain, Mr. Slope, demand reforms in the church service. The main players quickly line up in either the conservative or progressive camps, and spend much of their time plotting the downfall of their enemies. While this novel is often called a "comedy", that's a misnomer. It is, however, a dead-on portrait of ecclesiastical politics and manners of mid-nineteenth century England, and one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read.

"Barchester Towers" has proven to be the most popular novel Anthony Trollope ever wrote-despite the fact that most critics would rank higher his later work such as "The Last Chronicle of Barset","He Knew He Was Right" and "The Way We Live Now".While containing much satire those great novels are very powerful and disturbing, and have little of the genial good humor that pervades "Barchester Towers".Indeed after "Barchester Towers",Trollope would never write anything so funny again-as if comedy was something to be eschewed.That is too bad,because the book along with its predecessor "The Warden" are the closest a Victorian novelist ever came to approximating Jane Austen."Barchester Towers" presents many unforgettable characters caught in a storm of religious controversy,political and social power struggles and romantic and sexual imbroglios.All of this done with a light but deft hand that blends realism,idealism and some irresistible comedy.It has one of the greatest endings in all of literature-a long,elaborate party at a country manor(which transpires for about a hundred pages)where all of the plot's threads are inwoven and all of the character's intrigues come to fruition."Barchester Towers" has none of the faults common to Trollope's later works -(such as repetiveness)it is enjoyable from beginning to end.Henry James(one of our best novelists,but not one of our best critics) believed that Trollope peaked with "The Warden"and that the subsequent work showed a falling off as well as proof that Trollope was no more than a second rate Thackeray.For the last fifty years critics have been trying to undo the damage that was done to Trollope's critical reputation."Barchester Towers"proves not only to be a first rate novel but probably the most humorous Victorian novel ever written.

I was chagrined by the introduction to the Everyman's. I don't think Trollope's writing was guided--even unconsciously--by Freudian analysis--referring to Dr. Arabin and the way he plays with the coins in his pockets. He only wants the reader to know that Arabin is a thoughtful man--someone who has to think things out carefully and in a systematic way. And I don't care what Henry James has to say about Trollope, Anthony Trollope is the author to which I turn when I can't afford a trip to England! Or to the 19th century. I appreciate the way Anthony talks to his readers; I feel as though I am being taken into his confidence; he doesn't mean to be clever. Heartwarming--as are all his Barsetshire novels . . .