Barchester Towers Book

"There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel."

A visit to Victorian England & indulging myself with another re-read of the delightful Barchester Towers.

A new bishop is coming to town (the fictional Barchester in the fictional Barsetshire) greatly disturbing the stagnant water of long-standing clerical balance in the diocese. Almost instantly HOLY (?) WAR is declared between resident clergymen (High Church) lead by Archdeacon Grantly, who got disappointed in his hope of becoming the new bishop after his father's death & Dr Proudie's (the new bishop, Low Church) entourage, namely his formidable wife & his chaplain, Mr Obadiah Slope, a beneficiary of Mrs Proudie's patronage.

This is, however, not the only war that is waged in the novel. There is a contest for primacy in the diocese between Mrs Proudie & Mr Slope, because the hen-pecked Dr. Proudie is bishop only in name and so both strive to become the real power behind his ecclesiastical throne. :)

Additionally, a there is battle for love (and/or for money - depending on the parties involved) to gain the hand of the young & rich widow, Eleanor Bold (sister-in-law to Archdeacon Grantly). The contestants are Mr Slope, Mr Bertie Stanhope (never-do-well, though harmless, spendthrift son of Dr Vesey Stanhope, prebendary of the Bishop) and Reverend Francis Arabin, a scholar and Fellow of Lazarus College at Oxford & a supporter of Archdeacon Grantly.

You'd think after this summary that the clerical war is about some elevated subjects with deep, underlying philosophical ideas, but it is fought much more on social (wives joining husbands, daughters supporting fathers) & political levels (which camps can soldier bigger troops & more supporters) in drawing/ball rooms, at parties as well as in churches. This gives Trollope the chance to depict clergymen as men with a very much tongue-in-cheek approach, which makes the whole novel delightful & funny.

"Wars about trifles are always bitter, especially among neighbours. When the differences are great, and the parties comparative strangers, men quarrel with courtesy. What combatants are ever so eager as two brothers?"

Also the insight into his characters is wonderful: the most memorable from this novel are Mr Slope, Mrs Proudie, Signora Neroni & Archdeacon Grantley.

Trollope never ceases to amaze me with his power of characterisation, which is precise, complex and utterly hilarious at the same time. The way he portraits Obadiah Slope is genius. He is one of the most obnoxious, obsequious, slimy appalling characters in classic literature (he brings Jane Austen's Mr Collins in P&P to my mind - in some respects) and yet you cannot help, but admire his cunning and enterprise as he sets about fulfilling his ambitions. He is a smarmy sycophant and no mistake, but he is never painted as black or even as a truly vicious person. - And here I have to mention the divine Alan Rickman, who played him to perfection in the 1982 BBC adaptation. (That is also highly recommended.)



And then there is the indomitable & staunch Mrs Proudie, wife to the bishop, uncrowned queen of her family & the diocese. A character you love to hate, yet cannot help, but respect at the same time.

"It is ordained that all novels should have a male and female angel, and a male and female devil. It it be considered that this rule obeyed in these pages, the latter character must be supposed to have fallen to the lot of Mrs Proudie, but she was not all devil. there was a heart inside that stiff-ribbed bodice, though not, perhaps, of large dimensions, and certainly not easily accessible."

The scenes where Mrs Proudie & Mr Slope are involved in a tug-of-war with the poor bishop as the rope are the funniest in the whole book.

" The bishop was sitting in his easy chair twiddling his thumbs, turning his eyes now to his wife, and now to his chaplain, as each took up the cudgels. How comfortable it would be if they could fight it out between them without the necessity of any interference on his part; fight it out so that one should kill the other utterly, as far as the diocesan life was concerned, so that he, the bishop, might know clearly by whom it behoved him to be led. There would be the comfort of quiet in either case; but if the bishop had a wish as to which might prove the victor, that wish was certainly not antagonistic to Mr Slope."