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A review by jenn756
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope
5.0
I’ve committed the terrible crime of reading this Last Chronicle of Barset before any of the other books, so now I’ve ruined it for myself. It was only that the Barsetshire novels are in total 3000 pages, they said this last one was the best one and it seemed like a good idea at the time…
It is a marvellous book - leisurely, very genteel and comfortable – despite the awfulness of Mr Crawley’s predicament. Trollope’s cloistered world of Archdeacons and Bishops and Deans is a pleasant one to live in I think. It does apparently wrap up all the lose ends of the other books, and there’s a huge cast of characters to get your head round. Some of the subplots don’t seem to fit too well with the main plot – I’m thinking of the story of Clara Von Shriever and Dobbs Broughton here, which has nothing much to do with Mr Crawley.
Mr Crawley is a vividly drawn person and full of contradictions - intense, highly intelligent yet without emotional intelligence; moral, yet willing to sacrifice his family; despising worldliness yet jealous of others’ possessions. His vividness apparently is due to him being drawn from real life – Trollope’s father. Not the sort of man who should have married and had children obviously.
The other strong character is the awful Mrs Proudie. As I’ve not read the rest of the novels I’ve probably missed her awfulness being featured elsewhere – a frustrated, ambitious woman. Today we’d celebrate her and call her dynamic and ambitious and feature her on `The Apprentice’. It fact several of the finalists bear more than a passing similarity to Mrs Proudie.
It is a monumentally long book, a real pudding of a novel, so it took forever to complete. Not that it should have been shorter, its meandering course was very relaxing, a really enjoyable read. The sort of book I bet that would be popular in wartime, or in times of tribulation for there is a comforting security and permanence to it.
It is a marvellous book - leisurely, very genteel and comfortable – despite the awfulness of Mr Crawley’s predicament. Trollope’s cloistered world of Archdeacons and Bishops and Deans is a pleasant one to live in I think. It does apparently wrap up all the lose ends of the other books, and there’s a huge cast of characters to get your head round. Some of the subplots don’t seem to fit too well with the main plot – I’m thinking of the story of Clara Von Shriever and Dobbs Broughton here, which has nothing much to do with Mr Crawley.
Mr Crawley is a vividly drawn person and full of contradictions - intense, highly intelligent yet without emotional intelligence; moral, yet willing to sacrifice his family; despising worldliness yet jealous of others’ possessions. His vividness apparently is due to him being drawn from real life – Trollope’s father. Not the sort of man who should have married and had children obviously.
The other strong character is the awful Mrs Proudie. As I’ve not read the rest of the novels I’ve probably missed her awfulness being featured elsewhere – a frustrated, ambitious woman. Today we’d celebrate her and call her dynamic and ambitious and feature her on `The Apprentice’. It fact several of the finalists bear more than a passing similarity to Mrs Proudie.
It is a monumentally long book, a real pudding of a novel, so it took forever to complete. Not that it should have been shorter, its meandering course was very relaxing, a really enjoyable read. The sort of book I bet that would be popular in wartime, or in times of tribulation for there is a comforting security and permanence to it.