1815: Anthony Trollope - Chronicles of Barsetshire IV: Framley Parsonage

Framley Parsonage is the fourth novel in Anthony Trollope's series known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. It was first published in serial form in the Cornhill Magazine in 1860, then in book form in 1861.

I finished this yesterday and enjoyed it very much. I find Trollope's characters so wonderfully normal. Although the passages on electioneering sometimes read like padding the word count.

There are a lot of new characters in this fourth of the Barsetshire series, and they have complicated relationships with each other and also familiar characters. First, there is the parson of Framley Parsonage, Mark Robarts, his wife Fanny, and his sister Lucy who comes to live with him after the death of his father. Second, there is Lady Lufton, who is responsible for Mark getting to be the parson because her son, now Lord Lufton after the death of her husband, grew up with Mark, going to school and university with him. She has plans for her son to marry Griselda, the daughter of the Grantlys (who readers of the Barsetshire will remember), but Lord Lufton falls in love with Lucy, who Lady Lufton disapproves of partly because she has no money and partly because she is lower in class. Then there is the Chaldicotes "set" consisting of Mr. Sowerby, who has mortgaged all his land to the Duke of Omnium and borrowed from everyone, and Harold Smith, who is married to Mr. Sowerby's sister who is known throughout the novel as Mrs. Harold Smith. Mrs. Smith is very good friends with Miss Dunstable (who readers of the series will remember), a heiress of a commercial enterprise who has tons of money, and cooks up a plan to have her marry her brother and cancel all his debts. But Miss Dunstable wants someone who doesn't want to marry someone who doesn't want her for her money and is intrigued by Dr. Thorne who she has met through her friends the Greshams. There are more new characters, and familiar characters, but I won't complicate things further.

Not only is this a tale of romantic problems, but it is also a tale of financial double-dealing as Mark Robarts uncharacteristically and foolishly agrees to sign a "note" for Mr. Sowerby, which compels him to pay money if Mr. Sowerby doesn't pay it by a certain date. He doesn't tell Fanny until all is lost and the bailiffs are almost at the door. It is also a political novel as the government fails partway through the novel, but not before Harold Smith gets a job in the government and as a favor for his brother-in-law, Mr. Sowerby, gets an additional church job for Mark Robarts. Meanwhile, Griselda Grantly receives a proposal from Lord Dumbello, who is the son of the woman who is the Duke of Omnium's mistress and Lord Hartletop, and is of much higher rank than Lord Lufton, so is a better catch. The Proudies and Arabins also make appearances and a very poor clergyman and his wife also play a role. It is a complex novel and i thoroughly enjoyed it, even though, having read the Palliser novels first, I miss having the same characters throughout the series. I always like it when familiar characters show up.