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Wiltshire - Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope


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WILTSHIRE
 
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
 
Synopsis:
Trollope's comic masterpiece of plotting and backstabbing opens as the Bishop of Barchester lies on his deathbed. Soon a pitched battle breaks out over who will take power, involving, among others, the zealous reformer Dr Proudie, his fiendish wife and the unctuous schemer Obadiah Slope.
 
Barchester Towers is one of the best-loved novels in Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, which captured nineteenth-century provincial England with wit, worldly wisdom and an unparalleled gift for characterization.
 
The second book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.
 
 
Other Wiltshire books:
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh

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Based on the one I have read (Can You Forgive Her?), he is very readable. Trollope was a disciple of William Thackery, which surprised me when I found out because I hated Thackery; it took me a whole month to read Vanity Fair.

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  • 2 months later...

Barchester Towers is being serialised in three parts on Radio 4 starting on Sunday at 3 o'clock. I listened to The Warden, the first book in the series & it was very good, Tim Piggot Smith is the voice of Mr Harding & Andrew Sachs Bishop Grantley well worth a listen if you get the time  :smile:

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Barchester Towers is being serialised in three parts on Radio 4 starting on Sunday at 3 o'clock. I listened to The Warden, the first book in the series & it was very good, Tim Piggot Smith is the voice of Mr Harding & Andrew Sachs Bishop Grantley well worth a listen if you get the time  :smile:

Yes, I listened to The Warden on Sunday afternoon - Tim Piggot Smith was just wonderful to listen to.  I thought that the Archdeacon  (Malcolm Sinclair) was doing to go apoplectic at some time :giggle2: . I hope to listen to The Barchester Towers series each week. 

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Yes, I listened to The Warden on Sunday afternoon - Tim Piggot Smith was just wonderful to listen to.  I thought that the Archdeacon  (Malcolm Sinclair) was doing to go apoplectic at some time :giggle2: . I hope to listen to The Barchester Towers series each week. 

 I thought Malcolm Sinclair made a very good Archdeacon just the right amount of pomposity :D I listened to the first episode of Barchester Towers, really enjoyed it, i definitely thought Obidiah Slope had a touch of the Uriah Heeps about him though  :smile: Did you manage to tune in Marie?

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The BBC drama is well worth seeing too. Fantastic cast .. Donald Pleasance as the Warden, Nigel Hawthorne as the Archdeacon, Alan Rickman as Mr Slope and Geraldine McEwan as Mrs Proudie. Filmed back in the 80's so a little bit dated but brilliant all the same.

I'll try and listen back to the Radio 4 dramatisations  :smile: 

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It's really good Kay, i listen to it on the radio on my ipod that way i'm not distracted by other people. I can't remember if i watched the dramatisation back in the dim & distant 80's, it sounds like a really good cast & i always enjoy the BBC's costume dramas so i shall have to check that one out  :smile:

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 I thought Malcolm Sinclair made a very good Archdeacon just the right amount of pomposity :D I listened to the first episode of Barchester Towers, really enjoyed it, i definitely thought Obidiah Slope had a touch of the Uriah Heeps about him though  :smile: Did you manage to tune in Marie?

Oh heck, I totally forgot to listen The New Bishop over the weekend :doh:  , but I'll listen on iplayer during the week. I noticed that this after a leap of four years from The Warder, and I read a terrible spoiler in the Radio Times  :o . Well, you  :censored:  :censored: RT!!! :motz: .

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  • 2 years later...

I did originally start to read this on my Kindle about a year ago, and got about a fifth of the way in and was finding it a little dry as there seemed to be very little dialogue and long passages (which if I'm honest, I almost fell asleep reading at my desk during my lunch break), so I decided to try the audiobook instead.  The version I have is read by Timothy West, and it made such a big difference!  I started listening to the book last Monday, and I've finished it today, which considering it's a 19 hour book, shows how much I was enjoying it that I kept wanting to listen whenever I had chance.

 

Once I got into my head the hierarchy of church positions and the families and individuals associated with them, I thoroughly enjoyed this story.  I loved the Englishness of it, particularly of nineteenth century society, and who was trying to climb up the social ladder and who was been kept down.  Mrs Proudie made me laugh out loud a few times ...  you'd have thought she was the bishop, not her husband at times! :lol:  The slippery Mr Slope was a particular favourite, not that I liked him, just the opposite ... I loved to dislike him :giggle2:  

 

I have to admit that while I did enjoy the beginning, once more of the female characters were introduced which I think took quite a lot of time for them to become more part of the story, I found it much more interesting and entertaining.  I loved Eleanor Bold and also Signora Neroni especially, and their stories were my favourites to follow.  Oh, but I did feel sorry for Mr Harding and Mr Quiverful (what a great name!) and all the to-ing and fro-ing they went through, poor Mrs Quiverful didn't know if she was coming or going.

 

There were also some lovely moments when the author speaks directly to the reader, taking them out of the story in one way, but actually bringing them into it more by the direct conversation.

 

I really did enjoy listening to this book, and I know I definitely wouldn't have bothered with it, if not for the challenge, so another hit to add to my list. :smile2:

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