Anthony Trollope and Barchester Towers

A video talk

“Trollope kills me. Kills me with his excellence,” said Leo Tolstoy.

I am just one of thousands of people who have adored the novels of Anthony Trollope. His writing has enriched my life.

Janet Maw & Donald Pleasence, The Barchester Chronicles (1982)

Anthony Trollope published three novels which failed to bring him either money or fame. Then, one evening, he was visiting the lovely cathedral city of Salisbury and, looking at the cathedral, he was hit with an idea. Why not write a novel about clergymen, showing them not as professional men of the cloth but as ordinary men who fall in love, get into debt, lust after power, and jostle for position? He went away and began The Warden which was soon followed by Barchester Towers. These two books form the start of his great Barsetshire series, six novels which firmly place the fictional county of Barsetshire on the map of England.

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I never travel without a Trollope novel.” ― Sir Alec Guinness

Barchester Towers has always been the best-known of Trollope’s books. And yet it disgusted some early readers – why? Trollope was ordered to remove his reference to Mr Slope’s bad breath as this was seen as simply too vulgar. It’s a very funny novel, as Eleanor and the Signora contend with too many suitors, Mrs Proudie struggles for dominance against all who come near her, and the men of God are revealed to have all too human failings.

But did you know that Trollope also wrote a political series, the brilliant six novel set known as ‘The Pallisers’? Trollope never took a holiday from writing, even when he travelled, and in his lifetime he produced 47 novels, a play, volumes of short stories, and some biographies and travel books.

Comments (4)

  1. Linda Fineman

    Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope are my two favorite writers, but I’ve never been adequately able to articulate the reasons why. Susannah does that brilliantly in this video talk! It was fascinating to learn facts like Trollope was the first British novelist to introduce recurring characters. As a fan of book series, that made me love him even more. And this video talk has possibly the best line ever spoken about my beloved author: “Trollope frequently looked like he’d been dragged through a bush backwards.” LOL!

    • Susannah Fullerton

      Thanks for the fabulous ‘review’ of my talk, Linda. I am delighted you share my love of Trollope and that you learned some new things.
      I believe his wife frequently tried to tidy him up, but it was a losing battle.

  2. Beatrice

    Yes I loved the BBC series and have read Barchester Towers several times. Trollope has such a sense of humour. I consider it to be Donald Pleasance’s finest performance.

    • Susannah Fullerton

      Wasn’t he utterly wonderful as Mr Harding. I especially loved the moments when he played his imaginary violin cello!

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