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Barchester Towers (Chronicles of Barsetshire, #2)

Anthony Trollope

Discussion: Chronicles of Barsetshire

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Chronicles of Barsetshire

* The Series
By Elizabeth (Al… · 16 posts · 173 views

last updated Jan 12, 2014 04:31PM

Last Chronicle of Barset (possible minor spoiler)
By Paul · 3 posts · 10 views

last updated Nov 12, 2021 11:41AM

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What Members Thought

Feb 05, 2018 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: victorians, classics, on-dj, bricks, owned, audio-avail-ill, hoopla, british, library-request, on-laptop

4.5 stars. Loved it! I picked this up at my lunch break and couldn't put it down until I finished.

I wish I could explain what a great author Anthony Trollope is. I am a Dickens and Austen fan, but always assumed Trollope was just a little bit stuffy and a drag to read.

I'm very glad to be wrong! Trollope has a great sense of humor and will even throw unexpected spoilers quite early on in the book. But his characters are so real and full of depth that even if you know the heroine doesn't marry p ...more

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Sep 22, 2017 Jane rated it really liked it

The first time I started reading ‘Barchester Towers’ it failed to capture me, and to I put the book to one side. When I came back to it later, having not read any Trollope for quite some time and rather missing him, I was smitten. And I think that proves that even the greatest authors, even favourite novelists, need to be matched to your reading mood!

This story begins not long after the end of the story told in ‘The Warden’ ends; at a time when much remains the same, but some changes have happen ...more

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Apr 24, 2011 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: author-trollope, classics, kindle, barsetshire

Anthony Trollope is so amusing. In this the second of his Chronicles of Barsetshire, a few of his minor characters are: Mr. Quiverful, a parson with 14 children; Dr. Rerechild, the pediatrician; Dr. Fillgrave, the physician to the dying dean.

Trollope also talks to his readers. At one point he tells us that his characters believe such and such will come about but we readers can be assured that it will not be. Elsewhere he tells us that a good novelist would be able to describe just exactly the s ...more

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Feb 13, 2023 Laura (Reading is a Doing Word) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2023-read, classics-trad-and-modern, trollope

I really loved this book! I'm also very glad to have read The Warden first, as this novel revisits most of the characters from the preceding installment and it felt like revisiting old friends.
A new Bishop comes to Barchester and his entourage and their ideas cause a ruckus amongst the established clergy.
There are some wonderful new characters in this novel - Mr Slope and Mrs Proudie foremost among them as well as Mr Arabin and the Stanhopes. Oh how I loved to hate Mr Slope! What a great villain I really loved this book! I'm also very glad to have read The Warden first, as this novel revisits most of the characters from the preceding installment and it felt like revisiting old friends.
A new Bishop comes to Barchester and his entourage and their ideas cause a ruckus amongst the established clergy.
There are some wonderful new characters in this novel - Mr Slope and Mrs Proudie foremost among them as well as Mr Arabin and the Stanhopes. Oh how I loved to hate Mr Slope! What a great villain and the embodiment of clerical hypocrisy!
The intrigues centre around different beliefs in the church of England and the contentions between "high" and "low" church practices. Whilst the background of church politics provides the motivation for much of the conflict in the book, it is really the personalities involved that perpetuate it. A desire for power drives Mrs Proudie, the Archdeacon and Mr Slope, so that they necessarily clash. There is also a commentary on the status quo and resistance to change - when clergymen are comfortable in their situation why rock the boat or look to reform, when they themselves may end up worse off?!

The idea of reputation and rumour is also explored. Poor Eleanor Bold becomes the centre of much speculation, through no fault of her own and this highlights that, despite her previously flawless conduct, even those closest to her are quick to believe the worst. How difficult for a guileless woman to protect herself from suspicion - her innocence is her weakness as she cannot fathom what people suspect her of!

I also loved the moral ambiguity of Signora Negroni and Berti Stanhope. Far from being morally religious, they care little for convention but ultimately neither is all bad.

Among all the bustle, Mr Harding remains the truest and most sincere character. The only one who allows himself to be led by his beliefs and his conscience, rather than by the desire for material gain or power, he represents an optimistic view of the clergy when compared to most of the other characters.

I loved revisiting these characters and observing the machinations surrounding the church and politics of Barchester. I look forward to the next installment.
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Aug 18, 2020 Tom Britz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Barchester Towers is a well deserved classic. I enjoyed this tale of deceit and infighting within the church and the town. Barchester Towers is the second book in the series and it follows close on The Warden which opened the series. A few new characters are introduced after the beloved Bishop of Barchester dies, his replacement comes in and the sparks begin flying almost immediately. Mr. Proudie is to be the new Bishop. His wife is used to calling the shots and getting her way and she brings in ...more

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Dec 17, 2014 Joseph rated it really liked it

It seems that a number of Goodreads reviewers felt that the first book in Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, The Warden, merely set the stage for better stories to come. After finishing this second volume, I understand that sentiment. The characters in Barchester Towers were more fully-drawn (the odious curate, Mr. Slope, is wonderfully slimy), the plot is engaging, and Trollope's understated dry commentary strikes just the right tone. ...more

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Jan 29, 2015 Trisha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I usually limit myself to just one Trollope per year, but having just finished The Warden I couldn’t wait that long before going back to see what happens next in the Chronicles of Barchester. This novel begins a little over a year after The Warden ends. Old Bishop Grantley has died and though his son had hoped to move into the vacant post, it goes instead to the mild mannered and timid Dr. Proudie who is married to one of the most obnoxious women in all of 19th century British literature. Trollo I usually limit myself to just one Trollope per year, but having just finished The Warden I couldn’t wait that long before going back to see what happens next in the Chronicles of Barchester. This novel begins a little over a year after The Warden ends. Old Bishop Grantley has died and though his son had hoped to move into the vacant post, it goes instead to the mild mannered and timid Dr. Proudie who is married to one of the most obnoxious women in all of 19th century British literature. Trollope has this to say of her: “it is not my intention to breathe a word against the character of Mrs. Proudie, but still I cannot think that with all her virtues she adds much to her husband’s happiness. . .this lady is habitually authoritative to all, but to her poor husband she is despotic.”

Trollope likes to remind us that even the most unlikable of his characters aren’t all THAT bad, but it’s obvious that even he has a hard time finding much to like about Mrs. Proudie: “It is ordained that all novels should have a male and female angel and a male and female devil. . .the latter character must be supposed to have fallen to the lot of Mrs. Proudie. But she was not all devil. There was a heart inside that stiff-ribbed bodice, though not perhaps of large dimensions and certainly not easily accessible.”

What I love about Trollope has little to do with his plots and everything to do with the characters he creates and his gently mocking (and sometimes not so gentle) way of poking fun at the stodginess of Victorian mores and the hypocrisy in the church including the vanity and duplicity of many members of the clergy like the indolent Dr. Standhope and the atrociously scheming and deceitful Mr. Slope.

As usual, Trollope can’t resist inserting himself into the novel, not just as an omniscient author, but almost as if he is one of the minor characters – someone who has been invited to tea with the archbishop and has frequently gone to church in the cathedral and sat through boring sermons: “. . . How often sitting there, in happy early days, on those lowly benches in front of the altar, have I whiled away the tedium of a sermon. . . there is perhaps no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilized and free countries than the necessity of listening to sermons.”

As an omniscient author, Trollope frequently interrupts the narrative to point out that there are some things he is just not willing to tell us. “He took a couple of glasses of sherry, and mounted the stairs. Far be it from us to follow him thither. There are some things which no novelist, no historian, should attempt; some few scenes in life’s drama which even no poet should dare to paint. Let that which passed between Dr. Proudie and his wife on this night be understood to be among them. He came down the following morning a sad and thoughtful man.

Like other 19th century writers, Trollope is fond of addressing his readers directly, often endearing himself to us by confiding in us: “I am this moment in want of a dozen pages and I am sick with cudgeling my brains to find them. . .” He also frequently interrupts what he has just written to share something that has just occurred to him about human nature. And these are the kinds of passages that end up getting bookmarked and highlighted because there is so much truth to them: “Considering how much we are all given to discuss the characters of others, and discuss them often not in the strictest spirit of charity, it is singular how little we are inclined to think that others can speak ill-naturedly of us, and how angry and hurt we are when proof reaches us that they have done so. It is hardly too much to say that we all of us occasionally speak of our dearest friends in a manner which those dearest friends would very little like to hear themselves mentioned and that we nevertheless expect that our dearest friends shall invariably speak of us as though they were blind to all our faults but keenly alive to every shade of our virtues.”I’ve found that it’s best to read Trollope on my kindle because that way I can easily mark those kinds of passages when I come across them so that I go back and copy them into my commonplace book.

My kindle also makes it a snap to instantly track down the meaning of all those wonderfully archaic words that I only find when reading Trollope. Among my favorites from this book are:
hebdomadal: weekly, used primarily when referring to organizations that meet every week.
pusillanimous: timid, showing a lack of courage or determination; timid
succedaneum: a substitute, especially for a medicine or drug;
negus: a hot drink of port, sugar, lemon and spices

There are so many reasons for loving Trollope and that’s why it’s hard to limit myself to just one of his many novels per year!

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