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The Last Chronicle of Barset (Penguin Classics)
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Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Anthony Trollope
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $9.60
You Save: $ 2.40 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Anthony Trollope
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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The Last Chronicle of Barset (Penguin Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780140437522
ISBN: 0140437525
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 928
Publication Date: 2002-10-29
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780140437522
ISBN: 0140437525
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 928
Publication Date: 2002-10-29
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Editorial Review of The Last Chronicle of Barset (Penguin Classics)
Anthony Trollope was a masterful satirist with an unerring eye for the most intrinsic details of human behavior and an imaginative grasp of the preoccupations of nineteenth-century English novels. In The Last Chronicle of Barset, Mr. Crawley, curate of Hogglestock, falls deeply into debt, bringing suffering to himself and his family. To make matters worse, he is accused of theft, can't remember where he got the counterfeit check he is alleged to have stolen, and must stand trial. Trollope's powerful portrait of this complex man-gloomy, brooding, and proud, moving relentlessly from one humiliation to another-achieves tragic dimensions.
Customer Reviews of The Last Chronicle of Barset (Penguin Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Last Chronicle of Barset is the final and best of the excellent Barset Series of Novels
Review: The Last Chronicle of Barset is the final, longest (862 pages) and best of the Barset novels of Anthony Trollope (1815-1882). The novels comprising the clerical series are: The Warden; Barchester Towers; Doctor Thorne; Framley Parsonage; The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset. This novel was written and published serially in 1866-1867. It is a massive three decker in the Victorian style. The prolific Trollope authored over 40 novels, short-stories and travel accounts in his storied career. The Last Chronicle of Barset has several characters and stories any one of which could have made a full fledged novel in itself! The main players are:
Josiah Crawley-The eccentric pastor of the poor Hogglestock bricklayer parish is accused of stealing a check for 20 pounds. Lawyer Mr. Toogood, the Grantleys and Lady Lufton seek to win him acquittal. We see this gloomy man put his wife Mary and daughters Grace and Jane through the purgatory of suffering and dread as his case is due to be brought up before the assizes. Crawley is one of the most interesting characters in all of Trollope's voluminous writing.
Several love stories are reported:
a. Johnny Eames still loves Lily Dale. Lily jilted him for the rake Adolphus Cosbie seven years previous to the opening of the novel. Johnny has a good job in London but Lily still says no. Will she marry Johnny or will she wed Adolphus? Or will she write two letters after her name "OM" for Old Maid? Read the novel and see!
b. Major Henry Grantley is the son of archdeacon Grantley. He is widowed with a small daughter. Henry falls in love with the intelligent and beautiful Grace Crawley daughter of the accused thief the Rev. Josiah Crawley. Will true love conquer?
c. The London artist Conway Dalrymple is torn between a married woman
and Miss Van Siever. Whom will he choose as his life's companion? This story has little to do with the action in Barsetshire and was added by Trollope to fulfill his contract for so many pages per month to a periodical.
In addition to the mystery regarding the theft of the check and the usual Trollopian love stories there are two key deaths of major characters in the Barset series:
a. The Rev. Septimus Harding-the aged fathere of Eleanor Arabin the dean's wife and Susan Harding the spouse of the archedeacon of Barset.
Mr. Harding is one of the kindest men seen in the pages of English fiction.
b. Mrs. Proudie-the busybody, interfering, harridan who has made her husband her uxorious tool dies of a heart attack in this final volume. She is one of the best comical characters in fiction.
There is also a suicide of a minor character Mr. Broughton.
I have read these Barset novels for many years and they are eminently worthy of rereading! Countless hours of pleasure and profitable wisdom await those who have the time and patience to devote to a huge Victorian novel. I was touched by Trollope's final paragraphs in which he bids adieu to Barset and the characters he so lovingly created with his genius pen.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Why be stubborn?
Review: Trollope ends his Barsetshire cycle of novels with the longest one of the series, but the one with the weakest plot and with a most unsatisfying resolution. But that's OK and it is usual with Trollope. He is not writing a mystery novel or a complex spy thriller. His plots may well be flat and uninteresting, but his characters gain all the more.
After all, real life seldom offers us complicated situations. Whether fortune smiles or frowns on us, we understand our lot pretty well, even if we often fail to act as we should. If our lives and situations are simple, we are not. Trollope offers us brilliantly recreated complex people from which even casual readers may draw insight into their own lives.
As usual, there are no white hats and black hats. The main character, Josiah Crawley, is an unimpeachable, principled man accused of theft. He could not have done it, but looks guilty. He stubbornly refuses all charity and comes off as dour. He wears his tattered pauper's cassock with sinful pride. But he suffers greatly and so we sympathize, empathize even as we dislike him.
Lily Dale stubbornly resists her suitor Johnny Eames. One could think of her as an early feminist if she simply stated that a woman's happiness does not necessarily require sharing her life with a man. But no: she turns down Eames because she refuses to get over a previous heartbreak.
Johnny Eames is continually refused by a Lily Dale who only offers him the "F" word (i.e. friendship), so he flirts with other women but stubbornly refuses committing to any one else because of his devotion to Lily.
Archdeacon Grantly stubbornly refuses to accept that his son may marry whomever he wishes. His son, Major Grantly, stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that his father has a right to at least have feelings about his choice of a mate.
In the end, some relent some do not; material or matrimonial happiness comes to some of the characters but not to others. But true happiness comes only to those who trust and hope whether or not they realize their temporal desires.
Indeed my favorite line in the novel is spoken by Mr. Harding, the hero of the first Barset novel and a man who sees the good even in his foes. "Why should anyone weep for those who go away full of years - and full of hope?" Happiness is to trust and to hope.
Vincent Poirier, Dublin
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: good read
Review: This Penguin edition has terrific notes, it's bound well, and for such a huge book (over 800 pages) it's very easy to hold and read in bed. Very fast and enjoyable novel--my second favorite of Trollope's after Barchester Towers.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: last but not least...
Review: The novel is finely written. The reader would do well to read the first five in the series, as this calls more than most on things from the past. Trollope delights in bringing and tying together most of the major characters of his series in a satisfying stew. Septamus Harding is especially well drawn and unifies the entire series. The reader learns much more of Josiah Crawley, whose travails form the spine of the plot. All in all the reader is treated to a portrayal of Victorian society that strikes me as entirely believable.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A must-read for Barchester fans, but uneven and overblown
Review: I see I am in the minority here, but I don't feel the finale of the Barsetshire novels is up to the mark of the works that preceded it. It cannot be called a disappointment, exactly, since it has moments of grandeur and brilliance, and as always Trollope is unfailingly, even painfully true to his people. Lily Dale's and Johnny Eames's non-courtship is brought to a heartbreaking non-conclusion. The fall of Mrs Proudie could hardly be more satisfying, even sad, and I was moved to tears to see the last of Mr Harding. Johnny's dalliance with a manhunter is truly original and wonderfully rendered, by turns hilarious and scary.
Review Summary: The Last Chronicle of Barset is the final and best of the excellent Barset Series of Novels
Review: The Last Chronicle of Barset is the final, longest (862 pages) and best of the Barset novels of Anthony Trollope (1815-1882). The novels comprising the clerical series are: The Warden; Barchester Towers; Doctor Thorne; Framley Parsonage; The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset. This novel was written and published serially in 1866-1867. It is a massive three decker in the Victorian style. The prolific Trollope authored over 40 novels, short-stories and travel accounts in his storied career. The Last Chronicle of Barset has several characters and stories any one of which could have made a full fledged novel in itself! The main players are:
Josiah Crawley-The eccentric pastor of the poor Hogglestock bricklayer parish is accused of stealing a check for 20 pounds. Lawyer Mr. Toogood, the Grantleys and Lady Lufton seek to win him acquittal. We see this gloomy man put his wife Mary and daughters Grace and Jane through the purgatory of suffering and dread as his case is due to be brought up before the assizes. Crawley is one of the most interesting characters in all of Trollope's voluminous writing.
Several love stories are reported:
a. Johnny Eames still loves Lily Dale. Lily jilted him for the rake Adolphus Cosbie seven years previous to the opening of the novel. Johnny has a good job in London but Lily still says no. Will she marry Johnny or will she wed Adolphus? Or will she write two letters after her name "OM" for Old Maid? Read the novel and see!
b. Major Henry Grantley is the son of archdeacon Grantley. He is widowed with a small daughter. Henry falls in love with the intelligent and beautiful Grace Crawley daughter of the accused thief the Rev. Josiah Crawley. Will true love conquer?
c. The London artist Conway Dalrymple is torn between a married woman
and Miss Van Siever. Whom will he choose as his life's companion? This story has little to do with the action in Barsetshire and was added by Trollope to fulfill his contract for so many pages per month to a periodical.
In addition to the mystery regarding the theft of the check and the usual Trollopian love stories there are two key deaths of major characters in the Barset series:
a. The Rev. Septimus Harding-the aged fathere of Eleanor Arabin the dean's wife and Susan Harding the spouse of the archedeacon of Barset.
Mr. Harding is one of the kindest men seen in the pages of English fiction.
b. Mrs. Proudie-the busybody, interfering, harridan who has made her husband her uxorious tool dies of a heart attack in this final volume. She is one of the best comical characters in fiction.
There is also a suicide of a minor character Mr. Broughton.
I have read these Barset novels for many years and they are eminently worthy of rereading! Countless hours of pleasure and profitable wisdom await those who have the time and patience to devote to a huge Victorian novel. I was touched by Trollope's final paragraphs in which he bids adieu to Barset and the characters he so lovingly created with his genius pen.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Why be stubborn?
Review: Trollope ends his Barsetshire cycle of novels with the longest one of the series, but the one with the weakest plot and with a most unsatisfying resolution. But that's OK and it is usual with Trollope. He is not writing a mystery novel or a complex spy thriller. His plots may well be flat and uninteresting, but his characters gain all the more.
After all, real life seldom offers us complicated situations. Whether fortune smiles or frowns on us, we understand our lot pretty well, even if we often fail to act as we should. If our lives and situations are simple, we are not. Trollope offers us brilliantly recreated complex people from which even casual readers may draw insight into their own lives.
As usual, there are no white hats and black hats. The main character, Josiah Crawley, is an unimpeachable, principled man accused of theft. He could not have done it, but looks guilty. He stubbornly refuses all charity and comes off as dour. He wears his tattered pauper's cassock with sinful pride. But he suffers greatly and so we sympathize, empathize even as we dislike him.
Lily Dale stubbornly resists her suitor Johnny Eames. One could think of her as an early feminist if she simply stated that a woman's happiness does not necessarily require sharing her life with a man. But no: she turns down Eames because she refuses to get over a previous heartbreak.
Johnny Eames is continually refused by a Lily Dale who only offers him the "F" word (i.e. friendship), so he flirts with other women but stubbornly refuses committing to any one else because of his devotion to Lily.
Archdeacon Grantly stubbornly refuses to accept that his son may marry whomever he wishes. His son, Major Grantly, stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that his father has a right to at least have feelings about his choice of a mate.
In the end, some relent some do not; material or matrimonial happiness comes to some of the characters but not to others. But true happiness comes only to those who trust and hope whether or not they realize their temporal desires.
Indeed my favorite line in the novel is spoken by Mr. Harding, the hero of the first Barset novel and a man who sees the good even in his foes. "Why should anyone weep for those who go away full of years - and full of hope?" Happiness is to trust and to hope.
Vincent Poirier, Dublin
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: good read
Review: This Penguin edition has terrific notes, it's bound well, and for such a huge book (over 800 pages) it's very easy to hold and read in bed. Very fast and enjoyable novel--my second favorite of Trollope's after Barchester Towers.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: last but not least...
Review: The novel is finely written. The reader would do well to read the first five in the series, as this calls more than most on things from the past. Trollope delights in bringing and tying together most of the major characters of his series in a satisfying stew. Septamus Harding is especially well drawn and unifies the entire series. The reader learns much more of Josiah Crawley, whose travails form the spine of the plot. All in all the reader is treated to a portrayal of Victorian society that strikes me as entirely believable.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A must-read for Barchester fans, but uneven and overblown
Review: I see I am in the minority here, but I don't feel the finale of the Barsetshire novels is up to the mark of the works that preceded it. It cannot be called a disappointment, exactly, since it has moments of grandeur and brilliance, and as always Trollope is unfailingly, even painfully true to his people. Lily Dale's and Johnny Eames's non-courtship is brought to a heartbreaking non-conclusion. The fall of Mrs Proudie could hardly be more satisfying, even sad, and I was moved to tears to see the last of Mr Harding. Johnny's dalliance with a manhunter is truly original and wonderfully rendered, by turns hilarious and scary.
But the plot construction is poor and the book feels bloated, overwritten, about 100 pages too long. The nominal love interests, Grace and Henry, are just ghosts of characters, and to make his plot work Trollope resorts to the embarrassing tactic of keeping the parties who will instantly unravel it off-stage and incommunicado for hundreds of pages. Meanwhile we are treated to repetitive scenes that show us the frustrating, self-pitying Josiah Crawley being frustrating and self-pitying.
THE LAST CHRONICLE's chief pleasure -- and for a Trollope reader it is a very great pleasure -- is in seeing all our old favorites from the previous novels respond to the Crawleys' predicament, and in having Lily's and Johnny's story told to its end, replete with the new cast of characters Johnny has taken up. I would not have missed it. I only wish Trollope had had a strong-minded editor by.