The Chronicles of Barsetshire

✍ Scribed by Anthony Trollope

• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 2 MB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

The "Chronicles of Barsetshire" is a series of six novels by English
author Anthony Trollope, set in the west-country Cathedral city of
Barchester.

The beautifully-written epic saga concerns the
dealings of the clergy and the gentry, and the political, amatory, and
social maneuverings that go on among and between them.

Barsetshire
is the county in which the novels take place. The county town and
cathedral town is Barchester. Other towns mentioned in the novels
include Silverbridge, Hogglestock and Greshamsbury.

Included in this volume:
Book
One: The Warden -- Mr Septimus Harding, elderly warden of Hiram's
Hospital and Precentor of Barchester Cathedral. The story concerns the
impact upon Harding and his circle when a zealous young reformer, John
Bold, launches a campaign to expose the disparity in the apportionment
of the charity's income between its object, the bedesmen, and its
officer, Mr Harding. John Bold embarks on this campaign out of a spirit
of public duty despite his romantic involvement with Eleanor and
previously cordial relations with Mr Harding...

Book Two:
Barchester Towers -- The much loved bishop having died, all expectations
are that his son, Archdeacon Grantly, also a clergyman, will gain the
office in his place. Instead, owing to the passage of the power of
patronage to a new Prime Minister, a newcomer, Bishop Proudie, gains the
see. His wife, Mrs Proudie, exercises an undue influence over the new
bishop, making herself unpopular with right-thinking members of the
clergy and their families...

Book Three: Doctor Thorne -- The
romantic problems of Mary Thorne, niece of Doctor Thomas Thorne (a
member of a junior branch of the family of Mr Wilfred Thorne who
appeared in the previous novel), and Frank Gresham, the only son of the
local squire. Major themes of the book are the social pain and exclusion
caused by illegitimacy, the nefarious effects of the demon drink, and
the difficulties of romantic attachments outside one's social class...

Book
Four: Framley Parsonage -- Mark Robarts is a young vicar, newly arrived
in the village of Framley in Barsetshire. This "living" has come into
his hands through Lady Lufton, the mother of his childhood friend
Ludovic, Lord Lufton. Mark has ambitions to further his career and
begins to seek connections in the county's high society. He is soon
preyed upon by local Member of Parliament Mr Sowerby...

Book
Five: The Small House at Allington -- Lily has for a long time been
secretly loved by John Eames, a junior clerk at the Income Tax Office,
while Bell is in love with the local doctor, James Crofts. The handsome
and personable, somewhat mercenary Adolphus Crosbie is introduced into
the circle by the squire's nephew, Bernard Dale...

Book Six: The
Last Chronicle of Barset -- An indigent but learned clergyman, the
Reverend Josiah Crawley, the curate of Hogglestock, as he stands accused
of stealing. It also features the courtship of the Rev. Mr Crawley's
daughter, Grace, and Major Henry Grantly, son of the wealthy Archdeacon
Grantly. The Archdeacon, although allowing that Grace is a lady, doesn't
think her of high enough rank or wealth for his widowed son; his
position is strengthened by the Reverend Mr Crawley's apparent crime.
Almost broken by poverty and trouble, the Reverend Mr Crawley hardly
knows himself if he is guilty or not...

These are wonderful, well-written thrilling and vigorous novels!