I am definitely hooked on
Anthony Trollop. I said in other reviews
of his books that the only reason he is not as popular as Dickens or Austen is
that his novels are too long and most readers don’t want to tackle that
much. For someone who pumped out 47
novels I think he might have wanted to pare them down a little so he could
write more. But I can tell he fell in
love with his characters and wanted every inch of them revealed and then he
couldn’t bear to give them up. This was
never so evident as it was in The Last Chronicles of Barchester, the
winding up of his Barchester series that included The Warden, Barchester Towers, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington and
The Last Chronicle of Barset. He
finished this last book musing about his fictional area of Barset: “But to
me Barset has been a real county, and its city a real city, and the spires and
towers have been before my eyes, and the voices of the people are known to my
ears, and the pavement of the city ways are familiar to my footsteps. That I
have been induced to wander among them too long by my love of old friendships,
and by the sweetness of old faces, is a fault for which I may perhaps be more
readily forgiven….”
Having read each of these
novels with joy I understand his feelings.
Each novel stands alone except the last chronicle. In this book all the characters from the
series are brought back, linking their lives more closely. He introduced a few new people and a small
sub plot that detracted, in my opinion…not sure why he did it.
If you read reviews of
Trollop’s books on Goodreads or Amazon you will find that they are adored by
many, who admit to reading a good chunk of his 47 books. I might end up being one of them. If you love Victorian English literature, he satisfies.
He has a keen understanding of human
nature, and I might say women in particular.
None of his villains are all evil.
He always points out their redeeming qualities. And all of his heroes have some character flaws. Most of his plots have happyish endings but
not all end up as you might want or think they should. Each
book has many subplots going on at the same time with lives intertwining. (His books are perfect "Downtown Abby" miniseries) Trollop likes to tell you who the hero and
heroine are so you can pay close attention to their story. And sometime he can’t resist doing a little
story spoiler, before necessary.
There are some old BBC productions of some of his books, that I have watched, but none of them caught my fancy like the novels. I would like to see some tried again.
There are some old BBC productions of some of his books, that I have watched, but none of them caught my fancy like the novels. I would like to see some tried again.