Trollope, Anthony. Barchester Towers. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2005.
Reason read: to continue the series started in April in honor of Trollope’s birth month.
I will be 100% honest. I couldn’t get into Barchester Towers despite the fact it’s supposed to be Trollope’s most popular novel and many organizations have it on their “Top 1000 books to read.” Yes, it is satirical and it has it humorous parts. I just couldn’t get into any of the characters. I suspect my lack of enthusiasm centers around the fact the novel is focused on religion and the war between the high and low churches. The bishop has died and a new one needs to be appointed. There’s a lot of infighting about how that will be resolved.
The best element of Barchester Towers is the return of Septimus Harding. His daughter, Eleanor, is now a widow and eligible to remarry. The second best character was Mr. Stanhope, a member of the clergy. He has been in Italy for twelve years “recovering” from a sore throat and catching butterflies.
Quote I liked, “They had never, therefore, poured into each others ears their hopes and loves…” (p 252).
Author fact: According to Pearl, Trollope was a postman by day and an author in his spare time. He wrote whenever he could.
Book trivia: My copy contained both The Warden and Barchester Towers.
Nancy said: Pearl’s favorite Trollope is the entire Barchester series.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).
~*LunaSea*~ 