Anthony Trollope Books

Anthony Trollope is a favorite author of mine, and this audio CD version of Framley Parsonage, read by Simon Vance, is well worth the investment. Deft use of language and a keen sense of human motivation, time, and place characterize all Trollope's writing, and those who enjoy period literature will be more than satisfied with this book. It starts slowly, as Trollope's stories often do, but once the background information is given, there are many interesting social, political, financial, and romantic plot developments to engage the reader and listener. Simon Vance's reading is superb, as always. The only caveat is that his rendering of the voice and character of young women is not as good as his pitch, tone, and inflection when narrating the voices of mature women and all men. His skill in rendering different dialects for different social classes and geographical regions is matchless. By all means, listen to this book.

In this novel we find one Mark Robarts, clergyman and parson of Framley. He is an ambitious young man desirous of rising in society. He is friends since childhood with Lord Lufton who makes an unfortunate introduction in the person of Sowerby who seduces poor Mark into signing his name to a debt which the parson cannot afford.

Mark Robarts's father passes away early on and his sister Lucy joins Mark and his wife at Framley Parsonage where Lord Lufton falls in love with her. Two more couples form and while I won't reveal how any of these relationships work out it wouldn't really matter if I did. Trollope's plots usually vary from bad to good but they are hardly ever of any importance anyway. What is important in a Trollope novel isn't what the plot is or how it concludes, it's how it works itself out and how Trollope paints his characters.

The characters in Framley Parsonage are a little whiter and blacker than those of the previous novels in the Barsetshire series. Sowerby is by far and away the blackest and Trollope was so effective in painting him black that towards the end he clumsily appeals directly to the reader and assures us Sowerby isn't really as bad a fellow as he seems.

Dr. Thorne and his niece Mary Gresham appear (from Doctor Thorne) as do the Grantlys and the Proudies (from Barchester Towers). Lucy Robarts is a fascinating woman even more headstrong here than Mary Gresham was in Doctor Thorne, but my favourite character in this novel is Lady Lufton. She opposes her son's desire to court and marry Lucy but does so politely and with consideration. At the same time, Lucy behaves in way Lady Lufton can only find irreproachable. So of course, not having anything with which to reproach Lucy, Lady Lufton has nothing with which to oppose her son's suit. And yet she does. How will this three-sided battle of wills, pitting Lord Lufton against his mother against Lucy against her suitor, resolve itself?

Well, that would be telling, wouldn't it? Let's just say that Lady Lufton has painted herself into a corner and let us leave it at that.

All in all, another fine example of Trollope's mastery of moral calculus.

Vincent Poirier, Dublin

Framley Parsonage is the fourth in Trollope's Barsetshire novels. Trollope (1815-1882) wrote the novel as a serial in the influential Cornhill magazine in 186-61, This novel along with the others in the series: The Warden; Dr. Thorne, The Small House at Allington, Barchester Towers and the Last Chronicle of Barset is a delightful return to mid-Victorian middle class society in a rural mythical county named Barsetshire.
In this long novel of over 600 pages there are several stories. The main character is the Rev. Mark Robarts, a
doctor's son, who at a young age becomes the vicar of Framley Parsonage. He has children and a kind wife Fanny. Mark has visions of grandeur in his head. He lends money to the unscrupulous Member of Parliament Mr. Sowerby. As a result of this fatuity Mark falls into debt. His friends rally to his aid.
Mark's sister Lucy Robarts is novel's heroine. She falls in love with the wealthy Lord Lufton who lives at Eustace Court with his formidable mother Lady Lufton. Lady Lufton wants her son Ludovic to wed Griselda Grantley the statuesque but dull as dishwater and cold as a cucumber daughter of Archdeacon Grantley. Lufton is torn between these two women. We see Lady Lufton overcome her prejudice against Lucy. Lucy is a kind girl who minister to the family of the poor clergyman Josiah Crawley. She wins over the heart of Lady Lufton and the reader.
Secondary plots concern the midlife romance of Miss Dunstable and good Doctor Thorne. Olivia Proudie daughter of the fussy busybody and scold Mrs. Proudie and the uxorious Bishop Proudie weds a clergyman Mr. Tickler who is a widower. Griselda Grantley is courted by the stupid Lord Dumbello who possesses a name and title to the Hartletop lands and fortune. Will she win Lord Lufton or choose Dumbello?
All's well that ends well in this classic Trollopian tale. Long before Jan Karon, Anthony Trollope wrote humorous, moving and plot driven tales of the lives of the clergy dealing with real life problems, romance and challenges. In my opinion, an Anthony Trollope novel is a good way to spend a quiet evening before the fireplace. Enjoy this wonderful author and the world he created.

I'm reading the Barset series in order and have not been disappointed yet. Framley Parsonage is substantive, richer than The Warden, more serious than Barchester Towers, similar in much to Doctor Thorne, and slightly more intricate than DT. I enjoyed the introduction of a healthy dose of political gamesmanship in the form of descriptions of the parliamentary machinations and electioneering strategies. One also learns how to conduct financial shennanigans with horses, farmland, and public forests. The characters in FP are textured and almost always believable; there's only a few caricatures here. As always, the Everyman's edition is accompanied by a lucid introduction and helpful timetable.

The fourth of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, Framley Parsonage (1861) is a gentle novel filled with memorable characters, including many characters from The Warden, Barchester Towers, and Dr. Thorne. Mark Robarts, a young vicar with a devoted wife, has a comfortable situation at Framley Parsonage on the estate of the indomitable Lady Lufton. Her son, now Lord Lufton, had been a friend of Mark Robarts at school, and it was their friendship which resulted in Mark's position. Mark, though conscientious in his duties and grateful for his situation, is ambitious, however, anxious to expand his horizons beyond Framley.

Lady Lufton, who rules with an iron hand, is appalled when Mark decides to spend a weekend with a "fast" crowd, one which he believes can advance his career. Young and naïve, he becomes the dupe of an aristocratic "con-man," an MP named Nathaniel Sowerby, who persuades him to help him out of a financial jam by signing a note for five hundred pounds (more than half Robarts's yearly salary), allowing Sowerby to draw funds on Robarts's name. Though Sowerby swears he will resolve the problem within weeks, he needs an additional four hundred pounds when the note comes due.

In the meantime, Robarts's sister Lucy arrives at Framley Parsonage upon the death of their father. Lucy, a sweet ingénue in mourning, soon comes to the attention of Lord Lufton, who is fascinated by her naivete, a marked contrast with the women he has known to date. Though Lady Lufton has much more "significant" matrimonial prospects in mind for her son, the courtship begins, and though Lucy declines Lord Lufton's initial proposal, she remains in love with him. As Robarts's financial miseries become more pressing, and as Lucy's misery at having turned down Lord Lufton increases, the scene is set for a final showdown.

Numerous peripheral characters, many of them known to readers of the series, add to the drama of the primary action. The implacable dowager Lady Lufton, wishing to maintain her family's social position, staunchly opposes the Duke's relationship with Lucy Robarts, pushing Griselda Grantly, daughter of Archdeacon Grantly, as the Duke's suitor. The competition between the (Archdeacon) Grantlys and the (Bishop) Proudies for suitors for their daughters adds great comic relief to the story, and the internecine manipulations among the clergy provide gentle satire in a novel which seems to be remarkably domestic in its focus.

Trollope provides a full picture of Victorian life, representing many aspects of society, and though his view of the clergy has in earlier novels been a bit jaded, he is sympathetic to many of its representatives in this novel, seeing them as humans, rather than as types. A sweet novel, part love story and part social commentary, Framley Parsonage is charming, memorable for its characters and picture of Victorian England. n Mary Whipple

The Warden
Barchester Towers
Doctor Thorne (Barsetshire Novels)

Trollope was a master of the domestic situation. There is a scarcity of dialogue in Orley Farm, but the detailed explanations of the emotions, surroundings, and background of each character offers so much more than dialogue ever could. Anthony Trollope's Orley Farm is by far the best fictionalized trial drama that I have ever read. One would be hard-pressed to find another like it.

I would offer the warning to those who dislike long, tedious readings that this work would not be for them. It is nearly 850 pages with very little action/dialogue. It more a study into the human psyche as it relates to guilt, pity, law, and the moral implications of all these things.

Orley is simply timeless. Just as in the Palliser series, the characters are the people all around you, in the office, in the news, and on the tube. Trollope's ability to understand the subtle differences that shape the mind of men and women is simply uncanny. If you are a truth seeker, this is a book for you. Anyone with exposure to a legal system with its basis in the English common law will understand the perceptive analysis it is subjected to in Orley Farm. The distinction between evil deeds and the often sympathetic humans that are their authors is one that modern American culture often forgets to make. Orley Farm is here to remind us. As a trusts and estates lawyer, I can not believe that I practiced for fifteen years before someone told me about this gem.

I love Anthony Trollope. His writing style is very readable compared to Dickens or Tolstoy. His subject matter is oriented towards subjects which are still relevant today -- politics, money and power, women's rights, relationships. His character development and imagery makes it feel like you are there. His books aren't "pretentious" but just plain good stories that you an relate to -- even though they take place in the 1800s.

One of the reasons I like them is it reinforces that many of the personal, moral, and emotional struggles you think about in your day-to-day life are exactly those that individuals have been pondering since the beginning of time. I think that we like to think that the problems we face are unique to our generation, our country (the US), our times, our families. When you read something like Orley Farm or the other Trollope books, you realize they are not and that there is still a lot to be learned from these "old guys".

In addition, if you are looking for a good "escape" and a window into how the "other half lives", Trollope novels also give you that vehicle. You can imagine yourself as part of the British Aristocracy living in a life of influence and power -- which can be a lot more interesting than being part of middle class suburbia working every day just to make enough money to pay Uncle Sam, get health insurance and hopefully have enough paid time off to afford a 1-week beach trip every year.

One of the great novels of 19th Century fiction, with characters you will learn to appreciate and understand; not the kind of sensationalist fiction of Collins or Dickens, but a real probing into morality, responsibility and compassion. Set aside your summer, or perhaps your winter in front of the fireplace...do not pass this up.

with Trollope, but this one is particularly overweight. A great deal is made - by Trollope and others - about the lack of suspense, which is said to make the novel 'realistic' (versus 'sensationalist'). Why? Anyway, we know from the beginning that the heroine forged the will, or rather the codicil (always a worry, the codicil). This means she spends 800 pages wallowing in terror and guilt. Others around her gradually find out; she wallows deeper and deeper with never a change of tone. This woman is TIRESOME. So is the bee in Trollope's bonnet about the adversarial legal system. As ever when nearing a political issue, Trollope uses it to bring in characters and set up oppositions, but he has no idea what to do with an idea, that is with an issue to be thoughtfully discussed. Given that this book slowly reaches a criminal trial, and that there is really no other serious plot, it becomes annoying to be told repeatedly that lawyers defend clients they don't believe in, and witnesses are badgered. The alternative hinted at - that the law should try to reach the truth - is awe-inspiringly feeble. Once the heroine is found 'not guilty', another non-surprise, and her son gives back the property fraudulently acquired, she is dropped with no gallantry into a fuzzy future in which she may, perhaps, the author hints, have one or two pleasant days. Though the book is treated by critics as a work about guilt and redemption, nobody seems redeemed, or changed in the least. How could they be, given the rigid Trollope rules of conduct.

So why did I read it? Because of the richly populated, vividly conjured Trollope world - and also of course for the exciting hunting scenes. Which in some sense is the whole book. But if the heroine is the fox - and to support this, there is a thrown off line about foxes tails resembling womens' tails (you'd have to be a Victorian male to know what THIS means) - she spends an awful long time in the woods.

I have noted Trollope's penchant for sloppiness in my review of Rachel Ray. As I noted there, one must make allowences for this author -- given the astonishing number of novels he wrote and the serialized format he wrote in. But it does tend to annoy, as does Trollope's tendency to repeat himself. Again, the result of the serialization, no doubt. One must also make allowences because Trollope wants to say so much and so much of what he says is important. In this novel, for example, he performs an intellectual tour-de-force by adopting the view of a brash (and annoying) American Senator in order to criticize English culture -- especially the meager results of the Reform movement and the quaint tradition in his day of purchasing clerical livings. It is quite astonishing to watch Trollope pull it off! There are also the other pet Trollope themes, including the role of women in Victorian society, the demise of Victorian values, and a relentless attack on the growing ills of materialism. Those themes may sound a bit like Chicken Little to one who has not read Trollope. But they are serious and seriously persued by this man who saw well beneath the surfact of capitalism and was not blinded by the smoke from the steam engine.

I've read several books by Trollope and enjoyed this one very much. It includes most of the standard Trollope elements: two people who are in love with each other, but too shy to say so; a fortune-hunting woman and the men she's after; members of the clergy; a bit of Parliament; family life in England in the 1870s; fox hunting; and satire of life in both England and the United States. The characters are extremely well drawn. Although the writing is "old fashioned," the emotions and situations are up-to-date. There is humor, pathos and excellent description.

The American Senator of the title is a stuffy, boring old man who wants to understand English politics and morality but also wants to impose his own morality upon the English. Sadly, the book could have been far more exciting without this character. On the other hand, the characters remaining are interesting enough. This book is mainly about love, or about the pursuit of love or fortune. The scheming and penniless Arabella Trefoil is engaged to a man who we quickly see is far too good for her, and what he sees in her beyond her remote beauty is a big question that is never quite resolved. However, wanting a fortune, she maintains her engagement in private while denying it in public, thus finding herself able to pursue the local squire, Lord Rufford, who is also taken with her beauty but on advice of friends, becomes reluctant to truly woo Arabella. Social interactions between all these parties, including their antecedents, are quite interesting and fill a good portion of the book. On the other hand, another love affair of lesser merit but far more honesty is that of Mary Masters and Reginald Morton, a romance against the Masters' family wishes who pressure both her and the unfortunate Larry Twentyman to make a match. Intrigues from minor characters, plots and subplots, though rather too much mention and detail of fox hunting, still this is a fun read.

All of the underlying themes of Trollope's work are in this book; (1) the underlying strength of women; (2) the weakness of men; (3) and the portrayal of how people manipulate, or attempt to manipulate each other.

This book has well-developed characters - as always with Trollope, including a young woman who is seeking to marry a rich man, a rich lord, two rich men who are members of the upper class (but one rung below the lord), a successful farmer, a lawyer, an heiress and a couple of nice people. The book has two successful love stores (Reginald/Mary and Rufford/Penge) and three failed love stories (Twentyman/Masters; Trefoil/Rufford and Trefoil/Morton). It deals honestly with the emotions of all concerned. Every scene is put together with the thoughtful approach of Trollope, who never lets any strand of the plot dangle.

What makes this book unusual is Senator Gotobed, who is on a visit from America. The Senator speaks frankly about everything and often offends his English hosts. His comments bring buried tensions to the surface. I ended up admiring the Senator because of his fearlessness and outspokenness. He is, of course, ridiculous and Trollope was having a bit of fun by introducing him to the story.

In this curious autobiiography, Anthony Trollope sketches in the outlines of his life. He relates the misery of his childhood, the heroism of his mother, the tragedy and ultimate failure of his father. If not banal, at least typical material for an autobiography, and makes for good reading. The second two-thirds of the book summarizes his writings, and relate his ideas on everything from literary criticism to suggestions for young writers. Perhaps most interesting are his assessments of his own work, praising or condemning them with little emotion. Of course there is the famous analysis of his working methods, where he counts words and disciplines himself to an astonishingly regular routine of writing. He produced 47 novels, edited and wrote for magazines, all the while working full time for the post office. One distressing feature of this work is the almost complete lack of intormation about his wife and family....It is clear that he lived with and loved his fictional characters more than his corporeal family. Also, the grammar and punctuation are often awkward but this is still a highly readable and fascinating book.

If one has read a number of Trollope's novels, one would expect that Trollope would have written precisely this sort of autobiography. In fact, it is almost impossible to imagine it having taken any other form.

Trollope writes not so much of his life (though he does touch upon the major events), as of his occupation. Although employed most of his adult life by the postal service, Trollope decided to engage in a second and parallel career as a writer. He is forthright about his motives: the satisfaction of writing, but also fame, financial reward, and social standing. Looking back on his career, Trollope is proud of a job well done. The oddity is that he seems quite as happy telling us about how much he sold each work for, and the financial dealings with his publishers, as he does about his books and characters. In fact, near the end of the book he gives a complete list of his novels and how much he managed to sell each one for (with very few exceptions, he preferred to sell the rights to a novel, rather than getting a percentage of sales). What emerges is a portrait of the novelist not as an artist so much as a dedicated, disciplined craftsman. He explicitly denigrates the value of genius and creativity in a novelist in favor of hard work and keeping to a schedule of writing.

The early sections of the book dealing with his childhood are fascinating. By all measures, Trollope had a bad childhood. His discussions of his father are full of pathos and sadness. What is especially shocking is the lack of credit he gives to his mother, who, in early middle age, realizing that her husband was a perpetual financial failure, decided to salvage the family's fortunes by becoming a novelist. He notes that while nursing several children dying from consumption, she wrote a huge succession of books, enabling the family to live a greatly improved mode of existence. Her achievement must strike an outside observer as an incredibly heroic undertaking. Trollope seems scarcely impressed.

Some of the more interesting parts of the book are his evaluation of the work of many of his contemporaries. History has not agreed completely with all of his assessments. For instance, he rates Thackery as the greatest novelist of his generation, and HENRY ESMOND as the greatest novel in the language. HENRY ESMOND is still somewhat read, but it hardly receives the kind of regard that Trollope heaped on it, and it is certainly not as highly regarded as VANITY FAIR. Trollope's remarks on George Eliot are, however, far closer to general opinion. His remarks concerning Dickens, are, however, bizarre. It is obvious that Trollope really dislikes him, even while grudgingly offering some compliments. Quite perceptively, Trollope remarks that Dickens's famous characters are not lifelike or human (anticipating E. M. Forster's assessment that Dickens's characters are "flat" rather than "round" like those of Tolstoy or Austen) and that Dickens's famous pathos is artificial and inhuman (anticipating Oscar Wilde's wonderful witticism that "It would take a man with a heart of stone to cry at the death of Little Nell"). Even the most avid fan of Dickens would admit that his characters, while enormously vivid and well drawn, are nonetheless a bit cartoonish, and that much of the pathos is a tad over the top. But Trollope goes on to attack Dickens's prose: "Of Dickens's style it is impossible to speak in praise. It is jerky, ungrammatical, and created by himself in defiance of rules . . . . To readers who have taught themselves to regard language, it must therefore be unpleasant." If one had not read Dickens, after reading Trollope on Dickens, one would wonder why anyone bothered to read him at all. One wonders if some of Trollope's problems with Dickens was professional jealousy. For whatever reason, he clearly believes that Dickens receives far more than his due.

Favorite moment: Trollope recounts being in a club working on the novel that turned into THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET, when he overheard two clergymen discussing his novels, unaware that he was sitting near them. One of them complained of the continual reappearance of several characters in the Barsetshire series, in particular Mrs. Proudie. Trollope then introduces himself, apologizes for the reappearing Mrs. Proudie, and promises, "I will go home and kill her before the week is over." Which, he says, he proceeded to do.

you should consider reading this too! Trollope writes candidly about his education (and about being a poor, mostly overlooked student), his lack of professional ambition (and how he finally got around to witing his first novel),and the ups and downs of his literary career (and his early rejections). He does all of this in the same conversational tone employed in his novels, making this autobiography feel more like a chat with an older, experienced friend than a learned, classic autobiography

Redolent of the Victorian Age, and beautifully written. Some of the amusement comes precisely from his occasional pedantic preaching of Victorian virtues. He is capable of being self-critical. If elsewhere he is self-satisfied, he has much to be self-satisfied about. A man who from the most unpromising beginning came to live life to the full.

If you enjoy seeing good, but fundamentally human and weak, characters involve themselves in rather funny, socially embarrassing positions, this is a great novel for you. I'm too feminist to rate this novel a five-Trollope's accurate portrayal of the vulnerable position of women in Victorian society unsettled me. There is no powerful, outrageous woman figure like Mrs. Proudie of "Barchester Towers"-Mrs. Proudie does get a one-line mention in the novel, however! There are some wonderful minor characters here-Archie, Sophie, and Boodles are wickedly fun. If you are a Trollope addict not yet familiar with this novel, I'd say this is a sort of happy "Small House at Allington." If you are familiar with Rousseau, you will recognize the main character Julie is Trollope's variation on "Julie ou La Nouvelle Heloise" sans the premarital or adulterous sex. If all this is mumbo-jumbo to you, the book is a wonderful depiction of Victorian life featuring a love triangle.

Since its first appearance in 1867, this novel has been acclaimed as one of Trollope's most successful portrayals of mid-Victorian life. A novel of conflicting choices in love, often accounted one of Trollope's best, but I still prefer the wicked THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS.

IF YOU ARE A FAN OF ANTHONY TROLLOPE, DO NOT OVERLOOK "THE CLAVERINGS".

"THE CLAVERINGS" MAIN PLOT CONCERNS A YOUNG WOMAN WHO GIVES UP THE MAN SHE LOVES - AND WHO LOVES HER - TO MARRY AN OLD, VERY RICH, UPPER CLASS GENTLEMAN. THE MARRIAGE IS A MISERABLE FAILURE, BUT LUCKILY THE OLD GENTLEMAN DIES, LEAVING ALL OF HIS FORTUNE AND PROPERTY TO HIS YOUNG WIFE. IN THIS MARRIAGE, THE WIFE'S REPUTATION IS ALSO SULLIED BY RUMORS THAT SHE IS HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH ANOTHER MAN.

WHEN THE YOUNG WOMAN FINDS HERSELF A WEALTHY WIDOW, SHE DISCOVERS THAT SHE IS UNABLE TO ENJOY HER WEALTH AND TITLE DUE TO THE SLANDEROUS RUMORS THAT BESMIRCH HER CHARACTER. HER WEALTH BRINGS HER NO JOY AS SHE IS ALONE AND SOCIALLY RUINED. SHE THUS BEGINS A CAMPAIGN TO WIN BACK HER FIRST LOVE WHOM SHE WISHES TO SHOWER WITH HER RICHES.PERHAPS THEN SHE WILL FIND HAPPINESS AND RESTORE HER TARNISHED REPUTATION.

IN THE MEANTIME, HER YOUNG MAN WHO TRULY LOVED HER HAS BECOME ENGAGED TO ANOTHER FAR LESS HANDSOME AND QUITE POOR WOMAN.

THE MAIN ACTION OF THE BOOK REVOLVES AROUND THE RELATIONSHIP THAT DEVELOPS BETWEEN THE ENGAGED YOUNG MAN WHO CANNOT TELL HIS PAST LOVE THAT HE IS NOW ENGAGED, AND THE NEWLY WIDOWED WOMEN WHO IS UNAWARE OF HIS ENGAGEMENT AND ATTEMPTING TO WIN HIM BACK.

AS IN ALL OF TROLLOPE'S BOOKS, THERE ARE MANY SIDE PLOTS THAT ARE EQUALLY AS PSYCHOLOGICALLY INTERESTING.

ANTHONY TROLLOP DELVES INTO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ALL HIS CHARACTERS. IT IS NOT AN 'ACTION' BOOK BUT A STUDY OF LOVE AND GREED AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES.

I IMMENSELY ENJOYED THIS BOOK.

...I know I did. After being set onto Phineas Finn a year or two ago, I have been unable to stop a frantic Trollope binge-reading. I thought, however, that I had (unfortunately) read everything Trollope had written, but stumbled across this one.

It is absolutely wonderful. I'm not sure anyone does love triangles as well as Trollope, and The Claverings offers one of his best yet (Harry, Julia, and Florence). Trollope sets it up such that the reader isn't quite sure where Harry's heart should lie in the end (I, for one, wanted Trollope to pull a Phineas Redux and have Harry end up with "Madame Max." But he doesn't, for many good reasons, none of which will make you feel that it couldn't have ended up well with...well, I won't give away the story.)

Needless to say, The Claverings is more than a love story, in classic Trollope fashion. At its most profound, it's a difficult soul-searching of what matters most in life, and how best to get there. And, unlike many of Trollope's other works, he doesn't leave a clear safety net under his characters - you really aren't sure things are going to work out, after all.

I would heartily recommend this to anyone who is either an old Trollope pro or someone wanting to get a taste of Trollope for the first time. Perhaps you, like me, will find the world of Trollope to be rich and worthy of a year or two of your free time.

This guide, at once learned and down to earth, provides a detailed look at one of the greatest writers of the 19th century, Anthony Trollope. Always a popular favorite, and only now being accorded the academic and critical attention he so richly deserves, this guide takes a reader through his many novels, travel pieces, criticism, translation and biography. Trollope was an indefatigable observer of middle- and upper-middle-class life at the height of the British Empire, during the mid-19th century. His unusually acute psychological observations -- still telling today -- and his keen eye and ear for social nuance and political intrigue are unparalleled in literature (George Eliot, a close friend, said she couldn't have embarked on "Middlemarch" without the groundwork Trollope laid in his Barsetshire novels). This volume includes thoughtful essays on all of the novels, with tidbits on critical reception at the time of their publication. It also describes aspects of Trollope's art -- his prose style, his sense of characterization, his plotting, his humor, his moral depth and his literary antecedents. For someone new to the author, it is a welcome introduction to his work; for those already in thrall to this supreme novelist's skill, it is an invaluable resource, a reminder of the breadth of Trollope's talent. It's a volume to be dipped into or savored at length. Filled with intelligence, insight and wit, this literary companion belongs on the shelf of any thoughtful reader's library.

In his long writing career, Anthony Trollope wrote 47 novels, dozens of short stories, plus assorted nonfiction such as the journal of a voyage to Iceland and a book about the Spanish Main. If you like his work as much as I do, you need a vade mecum, or companion, to help remind you which character belongs to which book, with assorted explanations of the major themes and background in the Victorian era in which Trollope is so firmly situated.

R. C. Terry's encyclopedic reference is both well-informed and well-written, and certainly comprehensive. Its only competition is Richard Mullen's PENGUIN COMPANION TO TROLLOPE, which is not quite so useful. Terry's book has over 500 entries, including several aids to navigating its 600 pages. The entry for Griselda, Marchioness of Hartletop, for example, identifies the 8 Trollope novels in which she appears, at times as an important character. There is no equivalent entry in the Mullen book.

Like Balzac, Proust, and Faulkner, Trollope has characters that frequently span two or more novels. This is especially true in the two big "sextets," the Barchester and Palliser novels, though not limited to them.

Anthony Trollope's novels have been a source of great joy to me over the years. There are few reading experiences comparable to the frisson I get when opening a new Trollope novel for the first time. I would not be surprised that that thrill will recur when I start re-reading them, as I hope to do some day.

This guide, at once learned and down to earth, provides a detailed look at one of the greatest writers of the 19th century, Anthony Trollope. Always a popular favorite, and only now being accorded the academic and critical attention he so richly deserves, this guide takes a reader through his many novels, travel pieces, criticism, translation and biography. Trollope was an indefatigable observer of middle- and upper-middle-class life at the height of the British Empire, during the mid-19th century. His unusually acute psychological observations -- still telling today -- and his keen eye and ear for social nuance and political intrigue are unparalleled in literature (George Eliot, a close friend, said she couldn't have embarked on "Middlemarch" without the groundwork Trollope laid in his Barsetshire novels). This volume includes thoughtful essays on all of the novels, with tidbits on critical reception at the time of their publication. It also describes aspects of Trollope's art -- his prose style, his sense of characterization, his plotting, his humor, his moral depth and his literary antecedents. For someone new to the author, it is a welcome introduction to his work; for those already in thrall to this supreme novelist's skill, it is an invaluable resource, a reminder of the breadth of Trollope's talent. It's a volume to be dipped into or savored at length. Filled with intelligence, insight and wit, this literary companion belongs on the shelf of any thoughtful reader's library.

Other reviewers have discussed the plot and the characters of this wonderful mid-Victorian novel; I would rather speculate about what makes the author so much a favorite of mine. Trollope led a jumbling life, traveling constantly during his career as a postal inspector in Ireland, and throughout the world thereafter. He started life as a poor boy suffering hazing at a rich boy's school, was defeated later in a run for Parliament, and ended up a loud, red-faced, hale fellow at clubs. But something developed in his character that gave him remarkable insight into both the upper and lower class mental sets of the English mind of that period. The result is that he can marvelously reproduce both the speech and the thought patterns of his men and women characters as they wrestle with problems they encounter in everyday ethical situations, both ordinary and extraordinary. Thus, we are presented with the dilemmas of a puzzled betrothed young woman, a "fallen" woman, a youth suspected of murder, an old man torn by grief, a man in the throes of unrequited love, and a fight between a country parson and a lord. Everything is explained and I found myself murmuring, "Of course. They would think that, say that, do that." Unlike Dickens, he doesn't deal in grotesques. Unlike Thackeray, he doesn't mock his creations. The novel is therefore a perfect example of the Realist school of fiction writing as well as a fine read. It doesn't cut as deeply as "The Way We Live Now," which could be a treatise on the "greed is good" generations of our recent past, nor does it have the spellbinding comedy-tragedy of the Barsetshire series, nor the political intricacies of the Palliser Series of his novels, but Trollope doesn't disappoint the attentive reader who will suspend "presentism" type judgments about the role of women or the church in the 19th century or the fact that defendants in a criminal trial could not testify. That was then. He still speaks to us now, and speaks quite clearly.

The title of the book might lead you to refrain, since it implies that the story is about a country vicar. One wonders how exciting that might be? However, this book is probably one of Trollope's most suspenseful and well-rounded novels. You have a romance, an unrequited romance, and a young woman at the heart of it whose lack of fortune could lead her astray. Mary Lowther, visiting the vicar and her friend, his wife, receives a marriage proposal from Harry Gilmore, the local squire, who at the encouragement of the vicar, has fallen desperately in love with Mary. Mary has offered no encouragement, and despite the pressure of the vicar and his wife to accept the marriage offer, refuses. Once at home, she falls in love with a visiting relation, but because he is penniless, cannot marry him. Thus she is tossed about on the tides of marital opportunities, continually pressured by friends and family to turn to Harry Gilmore. This portion of the story is rather like a "one woman stands against the world" scene, and it is intriguing, frustrating, and ultimately inspiring as Mary finds her strength not just in love but in herself. If romance doesn't interest you, Trollope has thrown in a second storyline, one unusual in his books. A murder occurs, and the vicar sets about attempting to solve it because the suspect -- even he suspects him -- is a young man from his neighborhood who has been skirting the law and morality for some time. Add to that, we have the character of the beautiful Carry Brattle, seduced by a man outside of wedlock and then tossed out of her home by her insulted father, forced to turn to prostitution in order to eat and find shelter. Her trials and her reform, including her family's eventual forgiveness of her sins, is at once indicative of the harsh lives imposed upon women in Trollope's era and a hope for a future where women are not viewed as the property of men but as persons in their own right. Finally, the vicar does have his own story as he insults a nobleman in his parish and is thereby made an enemy, the nobleman going so far as to build a new church right up against the vicar's property as an insult to the vicar's faith and effectiveness as a man of religion. How this resolves itself is a lark! The story is exciting, and each storyline is so well intertwined that the switch from one to the other as the book progresses is smooth. Never a dull moment in this one, you'll find that from the first page, you cannot put the book down.

As a professor of literature, and as a "common reader," I revere Tolstoy above all other novelists I have read, but I would place Trollope just below him, in company with Dickens, Balzac, Austen, and Lawrence. It did not surprize me much to learn, while reading a biography of Tolstoy,that he had a great admiration for Trollope's work. Both these men share, in my opinion, an almost Olympian view of the human beings they have created. I sometimes think these men are writers for grown-ups because they do not deal in villains. We see their characters, as they do, as from a great height, so that Trollope's Crosbie, or Tolstoy's Vronsky demand from us almost as much compassion as those whom they injure. I guess I could sum up why I respect Trollope so: he is the master of ordinary life, and --like Tolstoy--he makes it extraordinary. The clerical hero of "The Vicar of Bullhampton" is one of the extraordinary, ordinary men. You will remember him.

THE STORY IS ESSENTIALLY A LOVE STORY -- ABOUT 2 MAIN COUPLES. THERE ARE LOTS OF OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL SUBPLOTS, ALSO. THE STORY INVOLVES TWO YOUNG MEN WHO ARE EACH IN LOVE, ONE GEORGE BERTRAM AND ONE ARTHUR W. GEORGE DENOUNCES HIS UNCLES MONEY AND WILL NOT BE MOVED TO ANY SORT OF ACTION BY IT -- THUS CAUSING THE WOMAN HE LOVES TO POSTPONE THEIR MARRIAGE. SHE WANTS TO LIVE WELL WITH LOTS OF MONEY. ON THE OTHER HAND, ARTHUR DOES THE SAME, FEELING HE CANNOT MARRY HIS LOVE SINCE HE HAS NO MONEY. THE EFFECT THAT MONEY OR THE LACK THEREOF HAS ON THESE 4 PEOPLE AND THE OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE STORY IS THE CENTRAL THEME. THE BOOK IS SO BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND EXAMINES DEEPLY THE PSYCHE OF ALL THE CHARACTERS. I LOVED IT!

"The Bertrams is one of Trollope's more remarkable novels, drawing on his experiences in Egypt and the Holy Land, and has an unusually exotic flavour, particularly for readers familiar only with the English rural world of his Barsetshire series."

Start at the beginning, with Can You Forgive Her?, and just keep going straight through the six "political" (aka Palliser) novels. You won't be able to stop; you'll be amazed at how modern, how psychologically penetrating they are (and you'll re-think your conception of Victorian); you'll be hugely entertained. I think I was most surprised by the strength of his characterization of women; equally surprising was the undertow of physical, erotic drives between characters.

Pub: Published by Oxford University Press; , London; ISBN: 0192811495, 1974 & 1977 (1&2) Six Volumes in 1 slipcase.- Can You Forgive Her?, The Eustace Diamonds, Phineas Finn, Phineas Redux, The Prime Minister, & The Duke's Children

Unfairly the author was deemed a disgrace during his school days and he burns with indignation over his treatment fifty years later. At twelve he went from Harrow to Winchester. His father had taken two farms, had no capital, and had given up his career as a lawyer. After Winchester Trollope returned to Harrow.

When his mother wrote a book about her stay in the United States, it was a success. The family's pecuniary circumstances improved, but the boy remained friendless. DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE AMERICANS was the first of Mrs. Trollope's travel books. In her case politics was an affair of the heart.

At Orley Farm the mother surrounded the family with moderate comforts. After two years the family decamped to Belgium to avoid creditors. Mrs. Trollope wrote novels while a son and her husband were dying of consumption. The author then hurried to London to assume a job at the Post Office. After the father's death, Mrs. Trollope moved back to England. The author's father had had a life of misery through no fault of his own, suffering a blighted ambition.

Seven years later Anthony went to Ireland to work as a surveyor clerk for the Post Office. He met his wife there and married in 1844. In 1845 his first novel was finished. Two Irish novels and an historical novel were failures. He surveyed postal facilities in England and conceived of THE WARDEN story at Salisbury. It was begun in 1852. When it was published in 1855 there were notices of it in the press. It was not as great a failure as the others. He wrote BARCHESTER TOWERS in railway coaches as he traveled in them on Post Office business. The author's brother supplied the plot for DR. THORNE.

To pursue his other career Trollope allotted himself so many pages a week. (This bit in the autobiography is famous.) He finished DR. THORNE on one day and started THE BERTRAMS the next. Trollope went to Egypt, to Scotland, to the West Indies for the Post Office. He created FRAMLEY PARSONAGE for CORNHILL MAGAZINE. John Everett Millais illustrated FRAMLEY PARSONAGE, THE SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON, PHINEAS FINN, and RACHEL RAY.

Anthony Trollope settled at Waltham Cross and in 1866 became a member of the Garrick Club and subsequently a number of other clubs. His comments on other novelists of the 19th century are interesting. He claims authors and critics should not be in the same company. In 1867 THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET was brought out in monthly installments. That same year Trollope resigned from the Post Office. Evidently Anthony Trollope inherited his mother's stamina.