Should be required reading if your an Episcopalian or Anglican
I became hooked on this Victorian Brit writer after reading The Way We Live Now- excellent read. I laughed my behind off reading Barchester Towers. If your churched Anglican in any way you'll enjoy this novel.
Grace and Favor
Subsequent to his father's death, the archdeacon is not made bishop. Dr. Proudie receives the appointment to that office. Another change in Barchester from the circumstances portrayed in THE WARDEN is the status of Mr. Harding's daughter, Eleanor Bold. She is a widow. Eight months after the death of John Bold, another John Bold is born.
Dr. Grantly and Mr. Harding find themselves disliking the bishop's chaplain, Mr. Slope, and his wife, Mrs. Proudie. If Mr. Proudie is to return to his former position of warden, Mr. Slope claims he must embrace certain conditions. Under the circumstances, Mr. Harding refuses. The position is given to Mr. Quiverful, Mrs. Proudie's candidate.
Dr. Proudie raises the issue of absent clergy, and Dr. Vesey Stanhope returns to England after having resided in Italy for twelve years. Mr. Arabin, the new man recruited by the archdeacon for the living at St. Ewold, has been on the side of the Tractarians at Oxford. (Schism has the advantage of calling attention to religion.) Arabin has become tired of his Oxford room and college life. He is forty.
Mr. Slope and Mrs. Proudie are in a contest to be puppet master to the bishop. In the book's plot, Eleanor Bold, one of the more engaging characters, shoulders an immense burden through a misunderstanding. An added interest is the jockeying of the High Church group, the archdeacon and Mr. Arabin and Mr. Harding, and the Low Church enclave, the bishop, Mrs. Proudie and Mr. Slope, for power.
That said, the larger part of the reading experience is an enounter with comedy, rather than tragedy. The characters are delightful.
A Literary Comic Masterpiece
In 1855, Anthony Trollope came out with his fourth novel, "The Warden," an amusing, but slight piece of social commentary. In 1857, he produced its sequel, "Barchester Towers." What a difference two short years can make to the growth and confidence of a writer! Reading this masterpiece, one can almost feel Trollope finding his voice, allowing his talents to breathe, relax and take glorious shape; the book is a near perfect balance of humor, drama and romance. Obviously, the modest success of "The Warden" gave Trollope the self-assurance to tell a richer, more complicated story, less concerned with ideas, more reliant on plot and character. And what characters! There's the sanctimonious Mrs. Proudie, the unctuous Obadiah Slope, the dangerously flirtatious Signorina Neroni, the pompous and exasperated Archdeacon Grantly...to have them all in one novel is truly an embarrassment of riches. Simply put, "Barchester Towers" is not only Trollope at his best, but a piece of comic brilliance rarely equaled by anyone else in English literature.
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