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Barchester Towers (Oxford World's Classics)
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Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Author: Anthony Trollope
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
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Our Price: $9.95
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Author: Anthony Trollope
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Average Customer Rating:
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Barchester Towers (Oxford World's Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780192834324
ISBN: 0192834320
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 388
Publication Date: 1998-07-16
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780192834324
ISBN: 0192834320
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 388
Publication Date: 1998-07-16
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
Editorial Review of Barchester Towers (Oxford World's Classics)
This 1857 sequel to The Warden wryly chronicles the struggle for control of the English diocese of Barchester. The evangelical but not particularly competent new bishop is Dr. Proudie, who with his awful wife and oily curate, Slope, maneuver for power. The Warden and Barchester Towers are part of Trollope's Barsetshire series, in which some of the same characters recur.
Customer Reviews of Barchester Towers (Oxford World's Classics)
Customer Rating: 
Review Summary: This edition is an adaptation
Review: This edition is an adaptation, a fact that is *not* mentioned in the item record *at all*. I ordered it, and when if FINALLY came (6 months after I ordered it), I had to return it because I prefer the real edition of a book, not some dumbed-down "retold" version to go with the TV version of the story.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Victorian "Comédie Humaine"
Review: Where Dickens paints memorable characters with wonderful names, Trollope draws characters closer to ourselves then shows us how they think, behave, and interact.
Another difference between characters in Dickens and in Trollope is that Trollope's are more nuanced. The detestable Mrs. Proudie repels us with her prudish haughtiness but when she upholds the cause of Mrs. Quiverful she does so as much out of charity as out of principle. The odious Obadiah Slope suffers pangs of love that made me want to shake him by the collar and tell him to wake up! The good Mr. Harding is clearly in the wrong in thinking ill of his daughter Eleanor's judgment, and yet Eleanor was also at fault in thinking herself above defense. There are no white hats or black hats in Barchester, only various shades of gray.
Trollope delights in describing what all these people think, and how they express themselves. How the tone of voice is intended to undo the work of the words spoken. How truth can be spun into a spider's web as does the wonderful character of the Signora Madeline Neroni. If anyone in the novel can be called evil it is her. She manipulates people like objects for her own amusement; she's like a cat playing with a mouse which it has no intention to eat. And yet even the reader can't help falling in love with la Signora. And yet, and yet, and yet... No one is simple in Trollope's world.
Barchester Towers differs from its predecessor in the Chronicles of Barsetshire. The Warden is a classic romance tainted with a touch of tragedy all brought down to the scale of everyday life. Barchester Towers on the other hand is a sprawling pageant of people, a long chapter in a comédie humaine that follows Balzac's tradition.
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: One of Trollope's best
Review: Other reviewers have provided good synopses of this volume's plot. This is an absolutely wonderful book I managed to go through undergraduate school and graduate school as an English major and not read any Trollope. I bought the Barset novels over 20 years ago and read them when I was starting a new job and feeling a bit at sea. I have to these books, most often Barchester Towers and The Last Chronicle of Barset, for their calming effects many times over the years
"Calming" is not code for dull or boring. Trollope's comic ability and his obvious liking of even his most flawed characters is wonderful He is also very modern and very much aware of his reader. If you're looking for a cozy, calming, moving read for this holiday season, you can do no better than Barchester Towers
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An astonishingly well-written humorous drama
Review: Superb. One of the finest novels I've read. Trollope's most popular work and the second in the Chronicles of Barset series. I never read the first one "The Warden" and didn't feel like I needed to, the first couple chapters of Towers supply enough background to know what happened in the first book, at least in a broad sense.
Initially, the backdrop of a looming clerical power struggle in the pastoral English town of Barchester and environs is convincingly weighty. However, as this power struggle plays out it becomes apparent that Trollope is for the most part poking fun at players on both sides of the battle. He reminds us that despite the detachment and solemnity that such a conflict deserves, it's only human to be looking out for one's own interests as most of the characters end up doing. Trollope accomplishes this through brilliant characterization and a rich plot that keeps the reader interested and never bogs down.
Towers is incredibly humorous, both in the dialogue of the characters and in Trollope's third person omniscient narration. There were so many scenes of dumbfoundingly witty humor that if I didn't have other books to move on to I'd go back through and catalog all of the humorous bits for posterity. Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" is just as humorous, but it's more slapstick and deals more with situations. Trollope's humor is in wordplay and hyperbole. For example, when the awkward and unattractive Mr. Slope is soon to declare his love for the stunningly beautiful Signora Neroni, he takes her hand and this is how Trollope describes it:
"Mr. Slope was big, awkward, cumbrous, and having his heart in his pursuit, was ill at ease. The lady was fair, as we have said, and delicate; everything about her was fine and refined; her hand in his looked like a rose lying among carrots, and when he kissed it he looked as a cow might do on finding such a flower among her food."
I will never forget the analogy of a woman's hand in a man's looking like a rose lying among carrots.
Most of my friends aren't readers so I don't often enthuse to them about novels I've enjoyed, but you can bet I'll be recommending this to them as one of many reasons books are far worthier of one's time than TV and movies. This is one of those for which I can be jealous of anyone who'll be reading it for the first time. Don't miss it. Also, Trollope was a prolific writer and I've heard he's got a couple other gems. Based on other reviews, I added "The Last Chronicle of Barset", "The Way We Live Now", and "He Knew He Was Right" to my collection.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Fantastic Continuation of THE WARDEN
Review: BARCHESTER TOWERS is the second Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope, and continues the ideological wars of the fictitious cathedral community presented in THE WARDEN. It is a much more complex novel than THE WARDEN, and I don't feel that it is necessary to read THE WARDEN before reading BARCHESTER TOWERS, though THE WARDEN is a very enjoyable book.
The Bishop of Barchester, Dr. Grantly, Sr., has passed away, and Dr. Grantly, Jr., archdeacon of the Cathedral and son-in-law to Mr. Septimus Harding, protagonist of THE WARDEN, is vying for his fathers position. Unfortunately for Dr. Grantly, a new, leberal government has come into power days before his father's passing, and Dr. Proudie, well-known in London, who lacks any specific theological views, has been named to the post. He brings with him two characters who will drive much of the plot of the novel - his wife, Mrs. Proudie, and her favorite minister, Mr. Obadiah Slope.
Mrs. Proudie and her minister lack any theological ideas themselves, save one. The Sabbath is a holy day, and come-hell-or-high-water, they will have every man and woman in church, and every child in catechism, and more importantly, the mail trains will be stopped. The Proudies and Dr. Slope harbour Low-Church sympathies, meaning most important to the story, a distaste for ritual, while Dr. Grantly and his colleagues at Barchester harbor High-Church, though still anti-papist, sympathies. Needless to say, the two parties don't get along. The rest of the novel comprises several misunderstandings and underhandings and a comedic love-triangle (or square?). This is the second novel of Trollope's that I have read, and I found it engaging and very funny. Highly recommended.
Review Summary: This edition is an adaptation
Review: This edition is an adaptation, a fact that is *not* mentioned in the item record *at all*. I ordered it, and when if FINALLY came (6 months after I ordered it), I had to return it because I prefer the real edition of a book, not some dumbed-down "retold" version to go with the TV version of the story.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Victorian "Comédie Humaine"
Review: Where Dickens paints memorable characters with wonderful names, Trollope draws characters closer to ourselves then shows us how they think, behave, and interact.
Another difference between characters in Dickens and in Trollope is that Trollope's are more nuanced. The detestable Mrs. Proudie repels us with her prudish haughtiness but when she upholds the cause of Mrs. Quiverful she does so as much out of charity as out of principle. The odious Obadiah Slope suffers pangs of love that made me want to shake him by the collar and tell him to wake up! The good Mr. Harding is clearly in the wrong in thinking ill of his daughter Eleanor's judgment, and yet Eleanor was also at fault in thinking herself above defense. There are no white hats or black hats in Barchester, only various shades of gray.
Trollope delights in describing what all these people think, and how they express themselves. How the tone of voice is intended to undo the work of the words spoken. How truth can be spun into a spider's web as does the wonderful character of the Signora Madeline Neroni. If anyone in the novel can be called evil it is her. She manipulates people like objects for her own amusement; she's like a cat playing with a mouse which it has no intention to eat. And yet even the reader can't help falling in love with la Signora. And yet, and yet, and yet... No one is simple in Trollope's world.
Barchester Towers differs from its predecessor in the Chronicles of Barsetshire. The Warden is a classic romance tainted with a touch of tragedy all brought down to the scale of everyday life. Barchester Towers on the other hand is a sprawling pageant of people, a long chapter in a comédie humaine that follows Balzac's tradition.
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: One of Trollope's best
Review: Other reviewers have provided good synopses of this volume's plot. This is an absolutely wonderful book I managed to go through undergraduate school and graduate school as an English major and not read any Trollope. I bought the Barset novels over 20 years ago and read them when I was starting a new job and feeling a bit at sea. I have to these books, most often Barchester Towers and The Last Chronicle of Barset, for their calming effects many times over the years
"Calming" is not code for dull or boring. Trollope's comic ability and his obvious liking of even his most flawed characters is wonderful He is also very modern and very much aware of his reader. If you're looking for a cozy, calming, moving read for this holiday season, you can do no better than Barchester Towers
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An astonishingly well-written humorous drama
Review: Superb. One of the finest novels I've read. Trollope's most popular work and the second in the Chronicles of Barset series. I never read the first one "The Warden" and didn't feel like I needed to, the first couple chapters of Towers supply enough background to know what happened in the first book, at least in a broad sense.
Initially, the backdrop of a looming clerical power struggle in the pastoral English town of Barchester and environs is convincingly weighty. However, as this power struggle plays out it becomes apparent that Trollope is for the most part poking fun at players on both sides of the battle. He reminds us that despite the detachment and solemnity that such a conflict deserves, it's only human to be looking out for one's own interests as most of the characters end up doing. Trollope accomplishes this through brilliant characterization and a rich plot that keeps the reader interested and never bogs down.
Towers is incredibly humorous, both in the dialogue of the characters and in Trollope's third person omniscient narration. There were so many scenes of dumbfoundingly witty humor that if I didn't have other books to move on to I'd go back through and catalog all of the humorous bits for posterity. Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" is just as humorous, but it's more slapstick and deals more with situations. Trollope's humor is in wordplay and hyperbole. For example, when the awkward and unattractive Mr. Slope is soon to declare his love for the stunningly beautiful Signora Neroni, he takes her hand and this is how Trollope describes it:
"Mr. Slope was big, awkward, cumbrous, and having his heart in his pursuit, was ill at ease. The lady was fair, as we have said, and delicate; everything about her was fine and refined; her hand in his looked like a rose lying among carrots, and when he kissed it he looked as a cow might do on finding such a flower among her food."
I will never forget the analogy of a woman's hand in a man's looking like a rose lying among carrots.
Most of my friends aren't readers so I don't often enthuse to them about novels I've enjoyed, but you can bet I'll be recommending this to them as one of many reasons books are far worthier of one's time than TV and movies. This is one of those for which I can be jealous of anyone who'll be reading it for the first time. Don't miss it. Also, Trollope was a prolific writer and I've heard he's got a couple other gems. Based on other reviews, I added "The Last Chronicle of Barset", "The Way We Live Now", and "He Knew He Was Right" to my collection.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Fantastic Continuation of THE WARDEN
Review: BARCHESTER TOWERS is the second Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope, and continues the ideological wars of the fictitious cathedral community presented in THE WARDEN. It is a much more complex novel than THE WARDEN, and I don't feel that it is necessary to read THE WARDEN before reading BARCHESTER TOWERS, though THE WARDEN is a very enjoyable book.
The Bishop of Barchester, Dr. Grantly, Sr., has passed away, and Dr. Grantly, Jr., archdeacon of the Cathedral and son-in-law to Mr. Septimus Harding, protagonist of THE WARDEN, is vying for his fathers position. Unfortunately for Dr. Grantly, a new, leberal government has come into power days before his father's passing, and Dr. Proudie, well-known in London, who lacks any specific theological views, has been named to the post. He brings with him two characters who will drive much of the plot of the novel - his wife, Mrs. Proudie, and her favorite minister, Mr. Obadiah Slope.
Mrs. Proudie and her minister lack any theological ideas themselves, save one. The Sabbath is a holy day, and come-hell-or-high-water, they will have every man and woman in church, and every child in catechism, and more importantly, the mail trains will be stopped. The Proudies and Dr. Slope harbour Low-Church sympathies, meaning most important to the story, a distaste for ritual, while Dr. Grantly and his colleagues at Barchester harbor High-Church, though still anti-papist, sympathies. Needless to say, the two parties don't get along. The rest of the novel comprises several misunderstandings and underhandings and a comedic love-triangle (or square?). This is the second novel of Trollope's that I have read, and I found it engaging and very funny. Highly recommended.