Barchester Towers

by Anthony Trollope

Overview

Be irresistibly drawn into Barchester's clerical skirmishes as Archdeacon Grantly declares war on Bishop Proudie and his retinue in Trollope's most popular novel.

This 1857 sequel to The Warden wryly chronicles the struggle for control of the English diocese of Barchester. It opens with the Bishop of Barchester lying on his death bed; soon a battle begins over who will take over power, with key players including the rather incompetent Dr Proudie, his fiendishly unpleasant wife and his slippery curate, Slope. This is a wonderfully rich novel, in which men and women are too shy to tell each other of their love; misunderstandings abound; and Church of England officials are only too willing to undermine each other in the battle for power.

One of Trollope's best-loved novels, it is a dazzlingly real portrayal of nineteenth-century provincial England peppered with humour, wisdom and extraordinary characters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473520318
Publisher:	Random House
Publication date:	04/02/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	544
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Anthony Trollope was born on 24 April 1815 and attended both Harrow and Winchester schools. His family were poor and eventually were forced to move to Belgium, where his father died. His mother, Frances Trollope, supported the family through writing. Trollope began a life-long career in the civil service with a position as a clerk in the General Post Office in London – he is also credited with later introducing the pillar box. He published his first novel, The Macdermots of Ballycloran in 1847, but his fourth novel, The Warden (1855) began the series of 'Barsetshire' novels for which he was to become best known. This series of five novels featuring interconnecting characters spanned twenty years of Trollope's career as a novelist, as did the 'Palliser' series. He wrong over 47 novels in total, as well as short stories, biographies, travel books and his own autobiography, which was published posthumously in 1883. Trollope resigned from the Post Office in 1867 and stood for Parliament as a Liberal, though he was not elected. He died on 6 December 1882.

Table of Contents

I. Who Will Be the New Bishop?
II. Hiram's Hospital, According to an Act of Parliament
III. Dr. and Mrs. Proudie
IV. The Bishop's Chaplain
V. A Morning Visit
VI. War
VII. The Dean and Chapter Take Counsel
VIII. The Ex-Warden Rejoices in His Probable Return to the Hospital
IX. The Stanhope Family
X. Mrs. Proudie's Reception—Commences
XII. Slope versus Harding
XIII. The Rubbish Cart
XIV. The New Champion
XV. The Widow's Suitors
XVI. Baby Worship
XVII. Who Shall be Cock of the Walk?
XVIII. The Widow's Persecution
XIX. Barchester by Moonlight
XX. Mr. Arabin
XXI. St. Ewold's Parsonage
XXII. The Thorns of Ullathorne
XXIII. Mr. Asrabinn Reads Himself in at St. Ewold's
XXIV. Mr. Slopes Manages Very Cleverly at Puddingdale
XXV. Fourteen Arguments in Favour of Mr. Quiverful's Claims
XXVI. Mrs. Proudie Wrestles and Gets a Fall
XXVII. A Love Scene
XXVIII. Mrs. Bold is Entertained by Dr. and Mrs. Grantly at Plumstead
XXIX. A Serious Interview
XXX. Another Love Scene
XXXI. The Bishop's Library
XXII. A New Candidate for Ecclesiastical Honours
XXXIII. Mrs. Proudie Victrix
XXXIV. Oxford—The Master and the Tutor of Lazarus
XXXV. Miss Thorne's Fete Champerte
XXXVI. Ullathorne Sports—Act I
XXXVII. The Countess De Courcy, Mrs. Proudie, and the Signora Neroni Meet Each Other at Ullathorne
XXXVIII. The Bishop Sits Down to Breakfast, and the Dean Dies
XXXIX The Lookalofts and the Greenacres
XL. Ullathorne Sports—Act II
XLII. Ullathorne Sports—Act III
XLIII. Mr. and Mrs. Quiverful are Made Happy. Mr. Slope is Encouraged by the Press
XLIV. Mrs. Bold at Home
XLV. The Stanhopes at Home
XLVI. Mr. Slope's Parting Interview with the Signora
XLVII The Dean Elect
XLVIII Miss Thorne Shows her Talent at Match-making
XLIX. The Beelzebub Colt
L. The Archdeacon is Satisfied with the State of Affairs
LI. Mr. Slope Bids Farewell to the Palace and its Inhabitants
LII. The New Dean Takes Possession of the Deanery, and the New Warden of the Hospital
LIII. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"Start with Barchester Towers, generally reckoned to be the best, certainly the funniest"

EBOOK COMMENTARY

Narrator Timothy West has the technique, versatility, and sense of place to give a fine, idiomatic performance, but not quite the strength of personality to make us give a hoot about the characters and their concerns.”

AudioFile

"There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel."

― Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers

"Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower."

― Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers

"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 in 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."

― Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers

From the Publisher

The second and best of the prolific author’s six novels about the fictional Barsetshire satirizes ecclesiastical politics in rural Victorian Britain. Among the many superbly drawn characters, the risibly overbearing Mrs. Proudie and the feckless Ethelbert Stanhope particularly shine. Some of us may even recognize the central conflict from our own experiences as congregants. Trollope once said, “In the writing of BARCHESTER TOWERS, I took great delight.” The listener gathers that, in the reading of it, Simon Vance also takes great delight. Obviously, he relishes impersonating the dramatis personae. One gets the impression that the more, the merrier, as far as he’s concerned. In addition, he delivers the fustian narrative with particular fluidity, verve, and grace. Y.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

FEB/MAR 07 - AudioFile