Introduction to "The Trollope Project"

[Lynnm]

As we come to the end of the Small House in Allington, it is time to think about when to start the last novel in the series, aptly named "Last Chronicle of Barset."

And it's a long one! 84 chapters!

Sadly, Lily is in this novel as well. That made me extremely unhappy, but c'est la vie.

Any thoughts/comments on when to begin?

I was thinking May 15, which will give people who are behind time to catch up.

[Robin P, Moderator]

That's fine. I thought it was odd that things were left so unresolved at the end. It would be normal for a 20th century novel but not for the 19th. So I guess we'll see the outcome in the next book.

[Lori, Moderator]

Fine with me. I have a few other books I can get through by then.

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

May 15 is good for me as well.

[Lynnm]

Robin wrote: "That's fine. I thought it was odd that things were left so unresolved at the end. It would be normal for a 20th century novel but not for the 19th. So I guess we'll see the outcome in the next book."

It is odd for a 19th century novel.

They might not have a happy ending, but there is an ending.

[Everyman]

Lynnm wrote: Sadly, Lily is in this novel as well. That made me extremely unhappy, but c'est la vie.."

I'm curious why you think that's a bad thing.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

I am already reading the Pallisers and am up to about Chapt 10 in Phineas Redux.
If anyone cares to join with me, all I can say is
Please!

Other wise I will be in these books for months. If your project proceeds with any speed at all you may catch up, Or I may re join based on memory when you get to Can You Forgive Her?

I am adding this just to get a rise:
I prefer Trollope over Austen in part because his people actually do things. Have jobs plan to or expect to work. Even the very rich have more to do than fiddle about over marriage. Yes they do fiddle about over marriage. But not to the exclusion of other activities.

Besides his fox hunts are always exciting.

[Dan]

We will be on to the Pallisers when we finish the Chronicles of Barsetshire set on Aug 19.

I prefer Trollope over most novelists.

[Frances, Moderator]

Hello, Trollope enthusiasts!

I will be leading the Palliser series discussions, and anticipate posting the background and discussion threads once we have wrapped up the Chronicles, and starting the discussion of the first novel around September 10th (so that those of us starting/with children starting school or coming back from vacations have a chance to sort ourselves out prior to plunging back into the 19th century).

We will likely continue our read at a similar pace to that we've had for the Chronicles unless I get a lot of feedback one way or another (faster?slower?) so we are unlikely to catch you up, Phrodrick, but please check in and comment as we go (but careful of spoilers!).

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

Frances wrote: "Hello, Trollope enthusiasts!

I will be leading the Palliser series discussions, and anticipate posting the background and discussion threads once we have wrapped up the Chronicles, and starting t..."

d'accord

[Lori, Moderator]

Dan wrote: "We will be on to the Pallisers when we finish the Chronicles of Barsetshire set on Aug 19.

I prefer Trollope over most novelists."

Great, I've just downloaded them all!

[Everyman]

Frances wrote: "We will likely continue our read at a similar pace to that we've had for the Chronicles unless I get a lot of feedback one way or another (faster?slower?)."

OUr current pace works for me, even though I've fallen behind in the Last Chronicle.

[Robin P, Moderator]

Yes, the current pace is good.

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

I am happy with the pace we read the books, too.

[Vicky]

Ooh, I just found this group today and the palliser novels are all on my TBR so very excited to see your plans for these. Fab!

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

You have found us at the right moment. We will be starting the Pallisers in a short while.

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

I am reading a compilation of the writings of Elizabeth Bowen. One of them is a radio play she wrote in 1945 about Anthony Trollope.
The premise of the story is the following:

A young man is off to do military service and asks his uncle if he has any of the works of Trollope that he could take with him. Trollope was popular with the soldiers because of the world he created in his novels. The soldier takes a book, falls asleep on the train and dreams he has a conversation with Trollope.
Here is what the dream Trollope says about our old friend:

"My Warden, old Mr. Harding, in the novel, was a personification of my own muddled wish to do right at any cost."

[Madge UK]

Rosemarie wrote: "You have found us at the right moment. We will be starting the Pallisers in a short while."

Needless to say the Palliser political novels are my favourites:) Here are some interesting observations about them (beware possible spoilers):

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=U...

[Paula]

Rosemarie wrote: "You have found us at the right moment. We will be starting the Pallisers in a short while."

Looking forward to it!

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

Sorry I am having problems tracking these discussion. I think this post should have been in two other places

[Abigail]

Definite yes to Elizabeth von Arnim! Mr Skeffington, The Enchanted April, Elizabeth and Her German Garden.

[Frances, Moderator]

Hello everyone-just an update on our Palliser series. As we will be finishing off Can You Forgive Her? in the next week or so, I propose a small break for the holidays and we can start discussing Phineas Finn around the 7th of January.

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

That sounds good to me.

[Robin P, Moderator]

Yes, that's good.

[Everyman]

Lily wrote: "Still haven't found it, but did encounter this 572 page book of critical sources on Trollope. On a project of this length, mig..."

Snagged a copy, hardback, good condition, former library copy, from Alibris for $.99 plus 3.99 shipping. There's one more at that price, first person to read this can get it for that, then others starting at $18 or so.

https://www.alibris.com/booksearch?ti...

[Robin P, Moderator]

I got the whole set of Barsetshire and Palliser Penguin paperback editions at a library sale some years back for .50 each. A benefit of living in a college town (Madison, WI) is the high quality of used books in the library sales!

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

If it has not been said before there are free downloads available.
If reading on line is not your thing, they can still help with posting long quotes
http://www.online-literature.com/anth...
https://archive.org/details/phineasfi...

[Everyman]

Phrodrick wrote: "If it has not been said before there are free downloads available.
If reading on line is not your thing, they can still help with posting long quotes
http://www.online-literature.com/anth......"

Thanks for those links. But I have found that the archive.org site is often filled with errors and misprints, so the online-literature may be a better bet.

Then, of course, all the Palliser series and many other works of Trollope can be found on http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/searc...
and read online (for easy cutting and pasting) or downloaded in many formats including Kindle and epub (Nook).

Gutenberg.org is a wonderful source for classic work, all proofread by volunteers, and is well worth an occasional small contribution to keep them in good operation.

[Lori, Moderator]

Even Amazon has a free version of many of these classics.

I prefer to use Gutenberg, but my new Kindle, for some reason, adds the Gutenberg files to "documents" instead of books, and then doesn't save my place.

I did get Orley Farm for $1 from our library; too bad they didn't have any Pallisers for sale.

[Frances, Moderator]

I splurged and bought the series as Folio edition hardcovers second-hand-when I'm home I enjoy having the nice editions, and I use a downloaded gutenburg edition when I'm out and about.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

Back in January , for 1.99 I got a Kindle version of all 6 books. It looks like that edition is no longer available.

Being smarter than most, I also bought a Kindle edition of the Collected works Of Trollope, then 0.99 USD (Now 1.40) A Kindle Edition of Can We Forgive Her (Bought in 2015) and for $10 in paper back:
The Duke's Children: The Only Complete Edition The last because it is some several 10's of thousands of words longer.

Just in case I also have:
THE PALLISERS
Anniversary, 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
DVD | Box Set


Umm maybe not so smart....

[Christopher]

The Kindle version I bought in 2012 is still "in print," although I saw two cheaper e-ditions.

https://www.amazon.com/Palliser-Chron...

As for Project Gutenberg e-books in general, if you want to keep them in the cloud, you have to buy them (for $0.00) from the Kindle store.

Sometimes they take some determined searching to find. One I wasn't able to find was part one of Lost Illusions: The Two Poets.

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

Over the past year or so I have managed to find used copies of the Palliser books. Some of them have smaller print than others, but are still nice paperbacks.

[Haaze]

Christopher wrote: "Sometimes they take some determined searching to find. One I wasn't able to find was part one of Lost Illusions: The Two Poets. ."

Why don't you just buy the Delphi collections (e.g. Balzac)? They are only about $2-3 each and you get more than you ever wanted in the first place. Besides, it adds a bit organization to your Kindle by having all books of a specific author in the same place.

Here is your "Two Poets" (Ellen Marriage translation) ; -)
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/balz...

or here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1443

[Christopher]

Haaze wrote: "Christopher wrote: "Sometimes they take some determined searching to find. One I wasn't able to find was part one of Lost Illusions: The Two Poets. ."

Why don't you just buy the Delphi collections..."

Yes, I got the Gutenberg Two Poets- it is one of the few I couldn't find in the Kindle store.

As for those big collections, I have a few of those too.

[Haaze]

Oh, you want them cloud based?

[Christopher]

Haaze wrote: "Oh, you want them cloud based?"

Sometimes it is convenient to take a book off the device and come back to it.

Also, it is nice to have the highlights.

[Robin P, Moderator]

I use an iPad app called Megareader, which cost a few dollars up front, but allows me to access all of Project Gutenberg as well as some other collections. I can download a book in seconds for free and keep it on my tablet as long as I like, then delete it. Even though I have all the Trollope books we've read in paperback, I usually read on the tablet so I can increase the font.

On the other hand, for Zola and Balzac, I paid a ridiculously low price, maybe 2.99 on iTunes for the complete works of each in the original French, since my French is good enough. We have read some less common books of theirs in this group and this way I have them all in a decent format. The thousands of pages downloaded in only a couple of minutes. So amazing! When I was a student of French literature, all books had to be ordered specifically unless you were in New York or another big city, and the prices were high, even for classics.

The one thing I don't get on the tablet is the notes that are in some editions. Sometimes I get the illustrations but not always.

[Frances, Moderator]

Trollope readers-when would people like to start the next novel, Phineas Redux? Would you like to
a) Start early July, a couple of weeks after finishing The Eustace Diamonds.
b) take a summer break, and start in early September.

I'm posting this question in several of the discussions, feel free to answer wherever you find it!

[Lori, Moderator]

Anytime. I'm looking forward to reading it, so soon after finishing ED is fine with me. But if others want to wait, that's ok too.
If we do start it later, it may be nice to have a reading schedule so I can take notes for the appropriate weeks if I decide to read ahead.

[Brian E]

I'd prefer a start date before September since it means I won't start until October. However, I too am willing to wait to accommodate others.

[Frances, Moderator]

As we come to the end of Phineas Redux, I am proposing a 3 week break to allow people to catch up, catch up on their other reading, and then start The Prime Minister on October 14th. We will likely spend 10 weeks on this 5th novel in our series, allowing us to break over Christmas and tackle the final novel,The Duke's Children in January. Let me know if that works for you or if you would like a longer break.

[Lori, Moderator]

Sounds good to me!

[LiLi]

That sounds fine to me, too. :)

[Brian E]

Great plan. The last part should finish the week of December 17th.
That gives me time to plan my reading schedule.

And there is more open time for people to add in Cousin Bette! (or Woman in White)

[Lori, Moderator]

Brian wrote: "Great plan. The last part should finish the week of December 17th.
That gives me time to plan my reading schedule.

And there is more open time for people to add in Cousin Bette! (or ..."

I'm confused. Are we reading The Woman in White in this group?

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

Brian and I are in a group that is reading Woman in White, Lori.

[Brian E]

Rosemarie wrote: "Brian and I are in a group that is reading Woman in White, Lori."

Lori, sorry for the confusion. I intended it as subtle encouragement for Elizabeth, who had just posted before me. Elizabeth had previously expressed in the other group that her Pallisers reading might leave little time to read Woman in White.

[Lori, Moderator]

Brian wrote: "Rosemarie wrote: "Brian and I are in a group that is reading Woman in White, Lori."

Lori, sorry for the confusion. I should have specified that the remark was intended as encouragement for Elizabe..."

No problem! It's a book that's on my to-read list, so I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

[LiLi]

I'm looking at the size of _Woman in White_ and wondering how I'm going to do it when I have sox songs to work on and an express Dutch course starting at the beginning of October. :P Time management! Time management. ..:D