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The Last Chronicle of Barset (Chronicles of Barsetshire, #6)

Anthony Trollope,

Sophie Gilmartin (Editor)

Start date: November 1, 2026

Finish date: December 31, 2026

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Anthony Trollope

Chronicles of Barsetshire 2026: Reading Schedule
By Piyangie , Classical Princess · 22 posts · 31 views

last updated Nov 30, 2025 09:49PM

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Oct 12, 2022 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: victorian, family, classics, literary-fiction, 19th-century-literature

How masterfully Trollope brought this series full cycle. We began in The Warden with a good man, in Mr. Harding, being mistreated and purposefully misunderstood, met his extended family, as his girls settled their lives with the men who were to be their husbands. In this last book of the series, we see how Mr. Harding has settled in his old age and where the girls, now women, have landed. We take up all the characters we met throughout the series and feel a great sense of closure as all the plot How masterfully Trollope brought this series full cycle. We began in The Warden with a good man, in Mr. Harding, being mistreated and purposefully misunderstood, met his extended family, as his girls settled their lives with the men who were to be their husbands. In this last book of the series, we see how Mr. Harding has settled in his old age and where the girls, now women, have landed. We take up all the characters we met throughout the series and feel a great sense of closure as all the plot lines are brought to a close.

But this book is not only about revisiting the stories we already know; it is also about another clergyman, Mr. Crawley. Accused of stealing a check and unable to explain his possession of it, he is brought before the Magistrates and bound over for trial. His own confusion about both his acquisition of the check and as to how he has landed it such a strait, being a very honest and upstanding man who has sacrificed everything for the good of his parish, is at the center of this last tale. Perhaps the saddest part is that Crawley is made to doubt himself.

“There are different kinds of sickness. There is sickness of the body, and sickness of the heart, and sickness of the spirit;—and then there is sickness of the mind, the worst of all.”

The consequences of this prosecution, and sometimes persecution, reverberates through the entire community and we are able to see the hearts of so many in how they react to Crawley’s misfortunes. I could not help feeling that, given the same set of circumstances, the wealthy man would have been treated much differently than the poverty stricken Crawley.

I was brought to tears and to moments of rage as the story wound itself down. As he so often does, Trollope gives us people, with all their wondrous kindness and horrible pretension, none of them perfect or perfectly evil. At the same time that you want to hug them, you want to smack them. They throw away their own happiness with stubbornness and dogged determination not to yield or admit mistakes. They push one another beyond the brink, or cling to a pride or sense of injustice, until they cannot escape the holes they have dug themselves.

They come very easily, these quarrels, but the quittance from them is sometimes terribly difficult. Much of thought is necessary before the angry man can remember that he too in part may have been wrong; and any attempt at such thinking is almost beyond the power of him who is carefully nursing his wrath, lest it cool! But the nursing of such quarreling kills all happiness.

I have loved every moment of the six books in this series. As I have closed the pages on each one, I have whispered to myself that it was the best. In fact, they are all top-notch, and this last is not the least. I am looking forward to starting The Pallister novels next and hoping they will be a fraction as good as this. I am grateful that Anthony Trollope was so prolific. Loads of good reading in my future. ...more

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Sep 17, 2021 Chrissie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, hf, free, england, series, vietnam, favorites, love, audible-plus-uk, long

Do you want to try the classical Victorian author Anthony Trollope?

If so, read this series. Do not choose the Palliser Series . I erroneously shied away from the Barset series because I thought religious issues would play a predominant role. Trollope states as the book reaches its end that his characters are drawn not from the perspective of their professional duties. Why? He felt he lacked the necessary competence for such a task. He writes of them as normal human beings, not as professi ...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio-books, read-2015, 1000-guardian, british-literature, fiction-19th-century, family-saga, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you

From BBC Radio 4:
This is the final book in Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles and many of the characters from both "The Small House at Allington" and "Framley Parsonage" return to finish his story of Barsetshire life set between 1855 and 1867. These 4 episodes focus in part on the story of the proud but impoverished vicar of Hogglestock, Josiah Crawley and the accusation that he has stolen and cashed a cheque. The whole of Barset has an opinion about Crawley's guilt or innocence, but no-on From BBC Radio 4:
This is the final book in Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles and many of the characters from both "The Small House at Allington" and "Framley Parsonage" return to finish his story of Barsetshire life set between 1855 and 1867. These 4 episodes focus in part on the story of the proud but impoverished vicar of Hogglestock, Josiah Crawley and the accusation that he has stolen and cashed a cheque. The whole of Barset has an opinion about Crawley's guilt or innocence, but no-one is more affected by it than Archdeacon Grantly's son, Henry, who has fallen in love with Crawley's daughter, Grace. Meanwhile, Johnny Eames has returned to try for the hand of Lily Dale, who is still devastated by the betrayal of her amoral fiance, Adolphus Crosbie. Happily, Mrs Baxter returns to tell the tale and give her inimitable opinion on events.

Part One: The Way Things Are

In the sleepy village of Silverbridge, Henry Grantly has fallen in love again and Mr Crawley is to find that a butcher with a vengeance is someone to be reckoned with.

Part 2: Propose Propose

Lily's past returns to haunt her, Grace has a difficult letter to write, Johnny makes a new friend and Mr Toogood begins to live up to his name.

Part 3: Dogged

Johnny traverses Europe trying to save Mr Crawley, who has a revelation in the rain. Meanwhile, Archdeacon Grantly is having trouble with his temper.

Part 4: All the Work of His Life

Johnny's travel abroad brings him an unexpected new friend and an answer to Mr Crawley's dilemma, but what repercussions will it have in Barsetshire?

Music composed by David Tobin, Jeff Meegan and Julian Gallant.
Produced & directed by Marion Nancarrow

Maggie Steed stars as Mrs Baxter and is joined by Adam Kotz, Tim Pigott-Smith, Samuel Barnett and Scarlett Alice Johnson.

The Barchester Chronicles is Anthony Trollope's much-loved series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life set within the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the surrounding county of Barsetshire. With a focus on the lives, loves and tribulations of the local clergy and rural gentry, the canvas is broad and colourful, with a wonderful set of iconic characters whose lives we become intimately involved in as they grow up, grow old and fall in or out of love and friendship across the years. ...more

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Aug 20, 2022 Tom Britz rated it it was amazing

I've finished this six volume series of Anthony Trollope's. This is the largest series I've ever finished and it was definitely worth the effort. Mr. Trollope certainly could bring his characters to life and it's almost as if I've just left a houseful of friends. Like most of the authors of his time, he tends to be long-winded and repeats things a bit much for today's readers, but he more than makes up with his skills of writing. For a book of almost 900 pages and 2 weeks of reading, I never tho ...more

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May 28, 2017 Karen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: travel-the-world, 1001, 2017-chunky-book-challenge

Very sad that this is the end of the Chronicles of Barsetshire. Trollope ended the series nicely tied up, even though I wished some of the ties had be knotted differently. I have become so used to the characters in this series that they are like old friends. It's a good thing Trollope was such a prolific author. ...more

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Aug 07, 2024 Brianna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century

The little dissatisfying threads in Small House must now be completely pardoned, thanks to the utter perfections of their tyings-up in The Last Chronicle of Barset. I wished for this final volume to deliver, and boy did it deliver - at least ten free pizzas' worth. Naturally not every thread concluded happily, but I may confidently declare that each and every character in this pretend town got exactly the ending that he or she deserved. I must further conclude that the absolute greatest characte ...more

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