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Title: Barchester Towers (The World's Classics) by Anthony Trollope, Michael Sadleir, Frederick Page, James R. Kincaid, Edward Ardizzone ISBN: 0-19-281507-5 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 1984 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (12 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: A great volume in a great series of novels
Comment: This is the second of the six Barsetshire novels, and the first great novel in that series. THE WARDEN, while pleasant, primarily serves as a prequel to this novel. To be honest, if Trollope had not gone on to write BARCHESTER TOWERS, there would not be any real reason to read THE WARDEN. But because it introduces us to characters and situations that are crucial to BARCHESTER TOWERS, one really ought to have read THE WARDEN before reading this novel.

Trollope presents a dilemma for most readers. On the one hand, he wrote an enormous number of very good novels. On the other hand, he wrote no masterpieces. None of Trollope's books can stand comparison with the best work of Jane Austen, Flaubert, Dickens, George Eliot, Tolstoy, or Dostoevsky. On the other hand, none of those writers wrote anywhere near as many excellent as Trollope did. He may not have been a very great writer, but he was a very good one, and perhaps the most prolific good novelist who ever lived. Conservatively assessing his output, Trollope wrote at least 20 good novels. Trollope may not have been a genius, but he did possess a genius for consistency.

So, what to read? Trollope's wrote two very good series, two other novels that could be considered minor classics, and several other first rate novels. I recommend to friends that they try the Barsetshire novels, and then, if they find themselves hooked, to go on to read the Political series of novels (sometimes called the Palliser novels, which I feel uncomfortable with, since it exaggerates the role of that family in most of the novels). The two "minor classics" are THE WAY WE LIVE NOW and HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT. The former is a marvelous portrait of Victorian social life, and the latter is perhaps the finest study of human jealousy since Shakespeare's OTHELLO. BARSETSHIRE TOWERS is, therefore, coupled with THE WARDEN, a magnificent place, and perhaps the best place to enter Trollope's world.

There are many, many reasons to read Trollope. He probably is the great spokesperson for the Victorian Mind. Like most Victorians, he is a bit parochial, with no interest in Europe, and very little interest in the rest of the world. Despite THE AMERICAN SENATOR, he has few American's or colonials in his novels, and close to no foreigners of any type. He is politically liberal in a conservative way, and is focussed almost exclusively on the upper middle class and gentry. He writes a good deal about young men and women needing and hoping to marry, but with a far more complex approach than we find in Jane Austen. His characters are often compelling, with very human problems, subject to morally complex situations that we would not find unfamiliar. Trollope is especially good with female characters, and in his sympathy for and liking of very independent, strong females he is somewhat an exception of the Victorian stereotype.

Anyone wanting to read Trollope, and I heartily believe that anyone who loves Dickens, Austen, Eliot, Hardy, and Thackery will want to, could find no better place to start than with reading the first two books in the Barsetshire Chronicles, beginning first with the rather short THE WARDEN and then progressing to this very, very fun and enjoyable novel.

Rating: 5
Summary: Isn't it Amazing?
Comment: From another century comes a voice that speaks to us today. Most writers hope for a shelf life of a year or two. Did Anthony Trollope have a clue that we'd be reading and relishing and learning and find ourselves mesmerized by him so many decades after he wrote this book? Is the TV age, the media and internet age lowering all our IQ's and ability to concentrate, as the contemporary author Sven Birkerts suggests? All I know is that re-reading this book last month was a joy, and I suggest all here turn off the TV, get off the internet and win back our minds with the wonderful book.

Rating: 4
Summary: Endearing Comic Tale of the Clergy
Comment: Barchester Towers is a sly, funny novel- that is not for every taste. It is a Victorian story within an ecclesiastical milieu- and yet, it could be any modern corporate, non-profit or 'faith-based' arena.

The engaging settings include mansions of the bishop, an ancient and peculiar manor and a variety of homes of archbishops, deans and rectors. The characters range from a morally questionable, lame, Italian Countess- and her child, 'the last of the Nero's', to anachronistic nobles and a cuckolded, weak-kneed Bishop. An impudent newcomer and assistant to the new Bishop spurs a rebellion of sorts- this upstart, Mr. Slope, fulfills all the qualifications for a sweaty, sneering, fox who will offend the congregation- including all of the other rectors at his first sermon.
From that point onward, as Mr. Slope's sexual drives and greed seem to collide within him, and his hold on the power in the diocese requires war; the tale has tension, comedy and ultimately romance.

There is certainly a resemblance to Jane Austen here, but Trollope does not lend himself to a feminist interpretation. His heroines are either well-meaning 'spinsters' or dutiful, yet quietly influential wives. Their villainous counterparts are overbearing, seditious or vampish- not particularly modern, definitely engrossing and fun.