The Last Chronicle of Barset (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: the love of old friendships, and the sweetness of old faces
Review: As time passes, the novels of Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) seem to gain in freshness, stature and influence. He lived long enough to see his modest reputation fade, in contrast to that of many of his famous novelist contemporaries. Nowadays the situation seems to be reversing.

Of special merit, amongst his huge output, are the so-called Barsetshire ("clerical") novels, and the so-called Palliser ("political") novels. Of the former, the last and longest is "The Last Chronicle of Barset". Not only are there fresh concerns, complications and current affairs introduced here, but there are also fond and final appearances of people and places encountered in the earlier Barsetshire novels. Everybody's favourite literary virago, Mrs Proudie, is again denouncing and dominating everybody. Trollope even contrives to create a character who has the temerity to say to her, "Peace, Woman!"

There are the innumerable characters of marriageable age, whose names are perhaps more memorable than their characters, whose charming dialogues and relationship problems are deftly laid out and interwoven. Above all, there is master story-teller Anthony Trollope, admitting finally that for him Barset has been a real place, a place where he as been induced to wander too long by his "love of old friendships, and by the sweetness of old faces".

Superb TV and radio adaptations of Trollope's Barsetshire novels have appeared in recent years. His novels read aloud well, too, and audio cassette readings, some of them unabridged, can provide endless hours of rich listening pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: the love of old friendships, and the sweetness of old faces
Review: As time passes, the novels of Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) seem to gain in freshness, stature and influence. He lived long enough to see his modest reputation fade, in contrast to that of many of his famous novelist contemporaries. Nowadays the situation seems to be reversing.

Of special merit, amongst his huge output, are the so-called Barsetshire ("clerical") novels, and the so-called Palliser ("political") novels. Of the former, the last and longest is "The Last Chronicle of Barset". Not only are there fresh concerns, complications and current affairs introduced here, but there are also fond and final appearances of people and places encountered in the earlier Barsetshire novels. Everybody's favourite literary virago, Mrs Proudie, is again denouncing and dominating everybody. Trollope even contrives to create a character who has the temerity to say to her, "Peace, Woman!"

There are the innumerable characters of marriageable age, whose names are perhaps more memorable than their characters, whose charming dialogues and relationship problems are deftly laid out and interwoven. Above all, there is master story-teller Anthony Trollope, admitting finally that for him Barset has been a real place, a place where he as been induced to wander too long by his "love of old friendships, and by the sweetness of old faces".

Superb TV and radio adaptations of Trollope's Barsetshire novels have appeared in recent years. His novels read aloud well, too, and audio cassette readings, some of them unabridged, can provide endless hours of rich listening pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: Rich humanity, Grand vision
Review: How one man could hold in his mind so much of his age, and then relate it back to us peopled with so many and varied characters in--how many? 20?-- interconnected novels of surpassing richness of detail and sagacity of moral observation, is a great mystery of human psychology.

"The Last Chronicle of Barset" is surely one of the most successful and satisfying of the whole Barset and Palliser series, illustrating perhaps better than any of the former Trollope's admirable gift for creating multi-dimensional characters that are as recognizable to us today as they were in his time.

Rating:
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.

Rating:
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. Crawley may be true to life, but he's just not very interesting or enjoyable to be with -- in fact he's maddening. The novel seems to wear its literary ambitions on its sleeve too ponderously. It does not have the let-'er-rip high spirits of BARCHESTER TOWERS, the economy of THE WARDEN, the precision of DOCTOR THORNE. True, the plots of FRAMLEY PARSONAGE and THE SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON are also oddly shaped, but the maturity and seriousness of intention of those books feel supplanted in this one by mere gravity.

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.

Rating:
Summary: An Unjustly Neglected English Language Classic
Review: THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET is one of the great novels in the English language, and yet it is not widely read. The reason for this is obvious: it is the LAST novel in the Barsetshire series of novels, and a relatively small number make it all the way through the previous five volumes. This is a shame, because while all the previous novels are quite excellent and thoroughly entertaining, the final novel in the series is a work of an entirely different level of magnitude.

This novel is also one of the darkest that Trollope wrote. The moral dilemma in which Crawley finds himself would seem to belong more readily to the world of Dostoevsky than Victorian England.

Can this novel be read on its own, without reading the novels that precede it? Yes, but I do feel that it is best read after working through the other books in the series first. This is hardly an unfortunate situation, since all the books in the series are superb (with the exception of the first novel, THE WARDEN, which, while nice, is merely a prelude to the far superior five novels that came after it). Many of the characters in THE LAST CHRONICLE appeared first as characters in the other novels, and the central character of the book, Crawley, himself appeared earlier.

Trollope is...one of the most entertaining writers the English language has produced. At this point I have read around 20 of his novels, and fully intend to read more. But of all his books, this one might be his finest. The only two that I feel are close to the same level are his incredible books THE WAY WE LIVE NOW and HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT (possibly the finest work on excessive jealousy since OTHELLO). Anyone who loves the English novel owes it to him or herself to read as many of these volumes as possible. My recommendation would be to read first the six novels in the Barsetshire Chronicles, and then to move on to the other two novels I mentioned. If still hooked, then try his other major series of novels, variously known as the Political novels or the Palliser novels or the Parliamentary novels, which begin with CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?

Rating:
Summary: An Unjustly Neglected English Language Classic
Review: THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET is one of the great novels in the English language, and yet it is not widely read. The reason for this is obvious: it is the LAST novel in the Barsetshire series of novels, and a relatively small number make it all the way through the previous five volumes. This is a shame, because while all the previous novels are quite excellent and thoroughly entertaining, the final novel in the series is a work of an entirely different level of magnitude.

This novel is also one of the darkest that Trollope wrote. The moral dilemma in which Crawley finds himself would seem to belong more readily to the world of Dostoevsky than Victorian England.

Can this novel be read on its own, without reading the novels that precede it? Yes, but I do feel that it is best read after working through the other books in the series first. This is hardly an unfortunate situation, since all the books in the series are superb (with the exception of the first novel, THE WARDEN, which, while nice, is merely a prelude to the far superior five novels that came after it). Many of the characters in THE LAST CHRONICLE appeared first as characters in the other novels, and the central character of the book, Crawley, himself appeared earlier.

Trollope is...one of the most entertaining writers the English language has produced. At this point I have read around 20 of his novels, and fully intend to read more. But of all his books, this one might be his finest. The only two that I feel are close to the same level are his incredible books THE WAY WE LIVE NOW and HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT (possibly the finest work on excessive jealousy since OTHELLO). Anyone who loves the English novel owes it to him or herself to read as many of these volumes as possible. My recommendation would be to read first the six novels in the Barsetshire Chronicles, and then to move on to the other two novels I mentioned. If still hooked, then try his other major series of novels, variously known as the Political novels or the Palliser novels or the Parliamentary novels, which begin with CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?

Rating:
Summary: Last and best of the outstanding Barsetshire novels.
Review: The Rev. Josiah Crawley, impoverished curate of Hogglestock, has been accused of stealing a check for 20 pounds. Confused about how the check came into his possession, he has no defense to offer. Mrs. Proudie, shrewish tyrant over her husband, the Bishop, is determined to hound Crawley out of his meager position. Also caught up in the problem is young Henry Grantly, son of the aristocratic Archdeacon, who is in love with the beautiful and intelligent daughter of the accused man--a match that his father bitterly opposes.

This is the main plot, but there is a wealth of subplots, each worthy of its own novel. Among these is a continuation of John Eames' wooing of Lily Dale, carried over from "The Small House at Allington."

The Last Chronicle is the longest of the Barsetshire novels--and the best, considerably better in style than the more popular "Barchester Towers." Trollope's characterizations are, as usual, superb, among the very best in all literature. He skillfully interweaves all the various strands of the novel into a very satisfying whole. And he has largely freed himself from the sometimes annoying philosophical asides to the reader that detracted from some of his earlier novels. This book merits consideration as a true masterwork.