Chronicles of Barsetshire

The Chronicles of Barsetshire is a series of six novels by the English author Anthony Trollope, set in the fictitious English county of Barsetshire and its cathedral town of Barchester.^[1] The novels concern the dealings of the clergy and the gentry, and the political, amatory, and social manœuvrings that go on among and between them. Of the six novels, the second in the series, Barchester Towers, is generally the best known, while the last was Trollope's own favourite.^[2] Together, the series is regarded by many as Trollope's finest work.^[3]

Contents

The novels in the series are:

• The Warden (1855)
• Barchester Towers (1857)
• Doctor Thorne (1858)
• Framley Parsonage (1861)
• The Small House at Allington (1864)
• The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867)

Realism or romance

Nathaniel Hawthorne praised the novels for their realism, "as if some giant had hewn a great lump out of the earth and put it under a glass case, with all its inhabitants going about their daily business";^[4] – a view widely echoed elsewhere.^[5] By the time of the Second World War, however, with the enchantments of distance, they could be read more as romances of the past.^[6]

See also

• Thomas Hardy's Wessex

References

1. Ousby 1995, p. 61.
2. Ousby 1995, p. 531.
3. Daiches, D. (Editor) (1971). The Penguin Companion to Literature I. p. 527.
4. Cowley, M. (Editor) (1978). The Portable Hawthorne. p. 688.
5. Le Faye, Deidre (Editor) (1996). Jane Austen's Letters. pages xiii and xviii.
6. Frye, Northrop (1973). Anatomy of Criticism. p. 307.

Bibliography

• Ousby, I, ed. (1995), The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English.