Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

Barchester Towers, published in 1857, is the second novel in Anthony Trollope's series known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. Among other things it satirises the then raging antipathy in the Church of England between High Church and Evangelical adherents. Trollope began writing this book in 1855. He wrote constantly, and made himself a writing-desk so he could continue writing while travelling by train. Pray know that when a man begins writing a book he never gives over, he wrote in a letter during this period. The evil with which he is beset is as inveterate as drinking - as exciting as gambling. And, years later in his autobiography, he observed In the writing of Barchester Towers I took great delight. The bishop and Mrs. Proudie were very real to me, as were also the troubles of the archdeacon and the loves of Mr. Slope. But when he submitted his finished work, his publisher, William Longman, initially turned it down, finding much of it to be full of vulgarity and exaggeration. More recent critics offer a more sanguine opinion. Barchester Towers is many readers' favourite Trollope, wrote The Guardian, which included it in its list of 1000 novels everyone must read.

Start with Barchester Towers, generally reckoned to be the best, certainly the funniest * Guardian *
It was in [Trollope's] fifth book, Barchester Towers, in which he blended his satirical gifts with disdain for evangelical puritanism, that he found himself * Washington Post *
His characters are real, truthfully felt and never patronised by their creator * Daily Mail *
[The] Barsetshire novels firmly established clerical intrigue as an art form in the mid-nineteenth century * New York Times *
Trollope is one of our greatest comic novelists, as well as having an extraordinary talent for taking you confidentially and irresistibly into the flow of his story * Sunday Times *

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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780099595885
ISBN 10	0099595885
Title	Barchester Towers
Author	Anthony Trollope
Series	Vintage Classics Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Vintage Publishing
Year published	2015-04-02
Number of pages	544
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.