“What
on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of
coffee?...Was ever anything so civil?”
—Anthony
Trollope, English author (1815-1882), from The
Warden
Oh,
how I love Trollope’s Barsetshire series! I knew nothing of it when, years ago,
I picked the slim and slight-seeming novella The Warden, the first of the six novels that comprise the series. I
knew The Warden to be about a
choirmaster in the Anglican Church in the mid-19th century, but
I never imagined what a wonderful world it would open up to me. Each of the novels
is wonderful, though The Warden and Barchester Towers will always be my
favorites. And of course of course, the BBC dramatization known as
The Barchester
Chronicles is perfect – perfect in its casting, costumes, settings, and
most of all for capturing Trollope’s razor-sharp satire of the Church, tempered
by many comic moments and a tender affection for the characters that people
these novels. And any dramatization that brings together Alan Rickman, Nigel
Hawthorne, Geraldine McEwan, and Donald Pleasance has got to be worth
watching.
My
pleasure in the Barsetshire novels led me on to the Palliser series, and to
several other novels in Trollope’s oeuvre,
all of which I read (and re-read) with great pleasure. Someday I will read them
all.
In
honor of Trollope’s 201st birth anniversary, which is today, April
24, I will watch the Barchester
Chronicles again as I prepare dinner.
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