Fiction · 1857
Barchester Towers
The death of old Bishop Grantly of Barchester sets off a scramble for power in the cathedral close: the new bishop, the mild Dr. Proudie, arrives entirely under the thumb of his domineering wife and his oily, ambitious chaplain Mr. Slope, both of whom mean to run the diocese themselves — starting with the reappointment of Mr. Harding, the gentle former warden of Hiram's Hospital, whose son-in-law the Archdeacon is determined to fight them on every point of principle and precedent. Slope's own ambitions soon run past mere church politics into a double courtship — of the wealthy young widow Eleanor Bold and, more scandalously, of the exotic, wheelchair-bound Signora Neroni — that turns Barchester's drawing rooms into as active a battlefield as its chapter house. Trollope's satire of clerical intrigue, written with more affection than malice even for its worst characters, made Barchester and its cast of bishops, archdeacons and scheming chaplains a fixture of English fiction.
Barchester Towers (1857) is the second of Trollope's six Barsetshire novels, following The Warden (1855); it can be read on its own; no prior knowledge of the first book is required.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete text.
Contents
- Chapter I — Who Will Be the New Bishop?
- Chapter II — Hiram’s Hospital According to Act of Parliament
- Chapter III — Dr. and Mrs. Proudie
- Chapter IV — The Bishop’s Chaplain
- Chapter V — A Morning Visit
- Chapter VI — War
- Chapter VII — The Dean and Chapter Take Counsel
- Chapter VIII — The Ex-warden Rejoices in His Probable Return to the Hospital
- Chapter IX — The Stanhope Family
- Chapter X — Mrs. Proudie’s Reception—Commenced
- Chapter XI — Mrs. Proudie’s Reception—Concluded
- Chapter XII — Slope versus Harding
- Chapter XIII — The Rubbish Cart
- Chapter XIV — The New Champion
- Chapter XV — The Widow’s Suitors
- Chapter XVI — Baby Worship
- Chapter XVII — Who Shall Be Cock of the Walk?
- Chapter XVIII — The Widow’s Persecution
- Chapter XIX — Barchester by Moonlight
- Chapter XX — Mr. Arabin
- Chapter XXI — St. Ewold’s Parsonage
- Chapter XXII — The Thornes of Ullathorne
- Chapter XXIII — Mr. Arabin Reads Himself in at St. Ewold’s
- Chapter XXIV — Mr. Slope Manages Matters Very Cleverly at Puddingdale
- Chapter XXV — Fourteen Arguments in Favour of Mr. Quiverful’s Claims
- Chapter XXVI — Mrs. Proudie Wrestles and Gets a Fall
- Chapter XXVII — A Love Scene
- Chapter XXVIII — Mrs. Bold is Entertained by Dr. and Mrs. Grantly at Plumstead
- Chapter XXIX — A Serious Interview
- Chapter XXX — Another Love Scene
- Chapter XXXI — The Bishop’s Library
- Chapter XXXII — A New Candidate for Ecclesiastical Honours
- Chapter XXXIII — Mrs. Proudie Victrix
- Chapter XXXIV — Oxford—The Master and Tutor of Lazarus
- Chapter XXXV — Miss Thorne’s Fête Champêtre
- Chapter XXXVI — Ullathorne Sports—Act I
- Chapter XXXVII — The Signora Neroni, the Countess De Courcy, and Mrs. Proudie Meet Each Other at Ullathorne
- Chapter XXXVIII — The Bishop Sits Down to Breakfast, and the Dean Dies
- Chapter XXXIX — The Lookalofts and the Greenacres
- Chapter XL — Ullathorne Sports—Act II
- Chapter XLI — Mrs. Bold Confides Her Sorrow to Her Friend Miss Stanhope
- Chapter XLII — Ullathorne Sports—Act III
- Chapter XLIII — Mr. and Mrs. Quiverful Are Made Happy. Mr. Slope is Encouraged by the Press
- Chapter XLIV — Mrs. Bold at Home
- Chapter XLV — The Stanhopes at Home
- Chapter XLVI — Mr. Slope’s Parting Interview with the Signora
- Chapter XLVII — The Dean Elect
- Chapter XLVIII — Miss Thorne Shows Her Talent at Match-Making
- Chapter XLIX — The Beelzebub Colt
- Chapter L — The Archdeacon Is Satisfied with the State of Affairs
- Chapter LI — Mr. Slope Bids Farewell to the Palace and Its Inhabitants
- Chapter LII — The New Dean Takes Possession of the Deanery, and the New Warden of the Hospital
- Chapter LIII — Conclusion
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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About the author
1815–1882 · Victorian
Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) was born in London to a failed barrister and the prolific writer Frances Trollope, whose own success later supported the family; a poor and friendless schooling at Harrow and Winchester left him, by his own account, miserable. In 1834 he took a clerkship in the Post Office, and it was in that service — including a formative posting to Ireland and, in 1851–52, a tour of Britain to survey rural letter-receiving that led him to propose the roadside pillar box — that he spent thirty-three years, rising to a senior surveyorship before retiring in 1867. He wrote before office hours each morning to a fixed daily word quota, a working method he described frankly in his posthumously published Autobiography (1883), a candour about the mechanics of authorship that damaged his reputation with critics for a generation after his death. The Warden (1855) began the six Barsetshire novels, continued in Barchester Towers (1857) and completed by The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867); the six Palliser novels, beginning with Can You Forgive Her? (1864), followed the political and private lives of Plantagenet Palliser and Lady Glencora across parliamentary London. He died in London at sixty-seven, having published more than forty novels.
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