The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867)

I'm so sorry that this is the end of this series. I'm tempted to go back and start at the beginning again. David Shaw Parker is a wonderful narrator. These books are real comfort reads for me. Great depth, wonderful characters, great play of language in a world I love to visit. Beautifully done. ( )

There are some slow stretches in the intervening chronicles between Barchester Towers and the Last Chronicle, but this makes up for it. In fact, you can probably just skip straight over the middle books unless you really like Trollope. I do. ( )

We only have vol one from library sadly ! ( )

The final book in Trollope’s Barsetshire series is a very long shaggy dog story (almost 1000 pages) about one of the least sympathetic characters, The Rev. Josiah Crawley who is the perpetual curate of Hogglestock, who has been accused of stealing 20 pounds. The Bishop of Barsetshire, based in the city of Barchester, is constantly goaded into righteous zeal by his ambitious wife. Bishop Proudie forbids Reverend Crawley to hold services until the case is settled, but Crawley refuses. This complicates the situation because even some of his supporters criticize Crawley for arrogance. Complicating things is the fact that Rev. Crawley’s daughter Grace is in a romantic relationship with Major Henry Grantly whose father is the Archdeacon of Barsetshire, and who is totally opposed to the marriage of his son to the daughter of a felon.

The plot goes here and there & rounds Robin Hood’s barn until Trollope has everything settled and all the major characters of his Barsetshire series accounted for. If this is the first Trollope novel you’ve ever picked up, you will give up by page 100. However, if you have followed Trollpe’s gentle satire of the Anglican church through his multiple volumes, you will hang in there, just to see how everyone turns out. ( )

Overall, very well done. I enjoyed how Trollope wove together the plot to include all of the main characters in the Chronicles of Barset and for the most part provided a good resolution of all the threads of conflict running through all six books. However, the whole story of the painting of Jael and Sisera could have been omitted without much if any damage to the main story, which was an outstanding analysis of human pride – of its many forms and consequences. Being a lawyer myself, I was also pleased to see Trollope give a mostly positive portrayal of an attorney in this series, Mr. Toogood. I also found Mr. Harding’s situation as the story progressed increasingly poignant, and Mr. Crawley’s descent into madness and its effect on his family frighteningly authentic.

I also found it interesting that Trollope followed international news to the point that he was able to have his characters start arguing about the American Civil War:

“Then Mrs. Grantly, working hard in her vocation as a peacemaker, changed the conversation again, and began to talk of the American war. But even that was made matter of discord on church matters,—the archdeacon professing an opinion that the Southerners were Christian gentlemen, and the Northerners infidel snobs; whereas Mrs. Proudie had an idea that the Gospel was preached with genuine zeal in the Northern States. And at each such outbreak the poor bishop would laugh uneasily, and say a word or two to which no one paid much attention. And so the dinner went on, not always in the most pleasant manner for those who preferred continued social good-humour to the occasional excitement of a half-suppressed battle.”

My reaction to learning that John Eames was related to Grace Crawley was to ask why this wasn’t mentioned earlier in “The Small House at Allington.” One of the reasons why I liked “Small House” the least was because of its tenuous connections to Barsetshire and all the characters I had grown to know and love over the course of the series. It felt almost like “Small House” was just floating around out there when I read it and I found it frustrating (and to a certain extent I still do). I will also say that this confirmed my belief, which began to grow when I was reading “Small House,” that Lily is a fool, and very annoying. And that John Eames deserves better, now that he’s matured. In that sense, I’m glad Trollope didn’t marry them off.

I also wish that Mrs. Proudie’s heart condition had been mentioned earlier in the series, since this explanation for her death didn’t seem to have much to do with anything that had come before. But it might have been necessary to do it that way if the point was that her pride, which developed over the series, ultimately destroyed her heart.
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