A Fond Farewell to Barsetshire

... or #6Barsets, The Best Reading Experience Ever!

Sometime toward the end of November, I finished The Last Chronicle of Barset... the final novel of our year-long #6Barsets project. It all began in January... Audrey got us organized, set the schedule (one novel every two months), made a lovely button, and we never looked back.

We read. We chatted on twitter... comparing notes, sharing quotes, and tempting each other with books for further reading. We even posted on our blogs... though in my case, not very faithfully.

And what a journey it has been. Every moment in Barsetshire was a pleasure!

The Last Chronicle of Barset was the culmination of our project and, in many ways, our just reward. After spending an entire year with these characters, they seem like old friends. I developed a cumulative love for many of them ... and for Anthony Trollope, our narrator, who interjects his thoughts and opinions from time to time. I laughed, I cried, and I gasped in surprise as he skillfully brought so many story lines to a close.

I'll wrap up our project by giving you my awards for....

The Best of Barsetshire

Favorite novel
It is impossible for me to choose a favorite from this series! I'm calling a three-way tie between Barchester Towers, Dr. Thorne, and The Small House at Allington. All were 5 star reads and have been added to my list of all-time favorites.

Favorite character
Mr. Harding, of course, is my sentimental favorite. But I also grew very fond Archdeacon Grantley, loved to hate Mrs. Proudie and Mr. Slope, and quite enjoyed Mary Thorne and Miss Dunstable, too.

Favorite word
An easy choice... hobbledehoy! There should be a picture of Johnny Eames next to the definition. Hobbledehoyhood and hobbledehoya also made me smile.

Favorite coined expression
"Trolloping with friends" ... with credit to Audrey. I love that she made Trollope into a verb!

Biggest surprise
You don't think I'm going to spoil it, do you? Let's just say there was an unexpected death in The Lasr Chronicle of Barset  and leave it at that...

The silver lining
Though I am sad to leave Barsetshire behind, there is already talk of a #PalliserParty... possibly in the  fall, or probably in January 2017. Maybe you'd like to join us?


Bottom line...
I have another favorite author. To my mind, Trollope is infinitely more readable than Dickens and similar in style to Jane Austen. I am thankful he has such a large body of work to explore.

Thank you, Audrey for inviting me to read along with you. #6Barsets has been my most enjoyable reading experience... ever!

#AMonthofFaves: Unique and Memorable Books

#AMonthofFaves, hosted by Traveling with T, Estella’s Revenge, and GirlXOXO, continues. The prompts this month cover a wide variety of fun, end-of-the year-ish topics. Today we're talking about the most unique or memorable book(s) read this year. Those are two very distinct categories for me... especially this year.

Most Memorable Book(s)

The six novels making up Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire have been my most memorable books of the year. In fact, they have provided one of my most memorable reading experiences ever.  Along with a small group of blogging friends, I read one book every two months. We compared notes on twitter (#6Barsets) as we went along... an activity appropriately dubbed "Trolloping with friends" by Audrey. In the process, I acquired a new favorite author.

Perhaps we'll throw a #PalliserParty in 2016.

Most Unique Book

This honor goes to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (my review). Her basic principles of organizing and decluttering are sound, but eventually the book got a little too weird for me. Talk to my possessions? Thank them for serving my needs? Be considerate of their feelings? I don't think so.

Still, the book inspired me to get rid of all the clothes in my closet that I no longer wore, were out of style, or simply did not fit. And that really made me happy. I'm not so sure about the life-changing part though...


What were the most unique or memorable books you read this year?

The Sunday Salon: October 4, 2015

Happy Sunday, friends. This post is coming to you a little later than usual because the weekend just got away from me. They seem to get shorter and shorter, don't you think?

We finally broke down and turned on the heat yesterday morning. Overnight lows dipped down into the 30s, and I was forced to wear socks for the first time in five months. Thanks to those chilly temperatures, peak fall color is fast approaching. There should be a dazzling show by next weekend!

Finished this week//

Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg

This book lives up to all the praise you've been hearing - 5 stars!

Current reading//

The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Trollope? 

Favorite quotes from this week's reading:

Let her who is 40 call herself 40; but if she can be young in spirit at 40, let her show that she is so. 

The little sacrifices of society are all made by women, as are also the great sacrifices of life.

Up next//

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

A library book I'm dying to read... and the due date is looming.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Admittedly outside my comfort zone. I've never read Gaiman, but am tempted by this readlaong  at Bookfoolery. Besides, it will help will my less than stellar RIP effort this year. I'll make a decision soon. Have you read this one?


On the blog//
Book Brief: So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures by Maureen Corrigan
Pages From the Past: My 2001 Reading Journal
Tuesday Intro: Did You Ever Have a Family


Book club meeting//

I hosted our monthly book club meeting on Friday. We generally meet in the morning, but gathered at 4:00 this time and had a near-record ten members attend. There was a very lively discussion of Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Most found it to be a difficult read due to the subject mater, but we unanimously agreed that it was important to do so. My review is here.

Next month we will discuss Out Stealing Horses by Per Pettersen.
Are you in a book club? Which book has generated the best discussion this year?


That's about all from me this week. What's new with you? Did you read anything good last week?

This post will link to It's Monday, What Are You Reading?  hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

#6Barsets: Doctor Thorne and Framley Parsonage

Our #6Barsets Project is proving to be the most enjoyable reading experience I've had in years. Not only have I discovered a new favorite author, I love chatting about books with friends as we read. And I've even managed to stay on schedule through the first four novels! Unfortunately, I have been less conscientious when it comes to following through with blog posts.

Before reading Trollope, I had a vague notion that he was comparable to Dickens. After reading Doctor Thorne and Framley Parsonage, I believe his stories and writing style are actually closer to Jane Austen.

** There are no spoilers for either novel in this post. **

Doctor Thorne can be summed up in a single sentence, a quote which appears repeatedly throughout the novel:

He must marry money!

Money and blood. Blood and money. Nothing is more important in measuring social status and worth during this time period - especially to the family of young Frank Gresham as they struggle financially to maintain their estate and standing in the community.

Problems arise when Frank falls in love with Mary Thorne - penniless, of questionable parentage, and being raised by her uncle, our hero, Doctor Thorne.

I won't say more, but this is a a plot truly worthy of Jane Austen herself.

Doctor Thorne gets a solid 5 star rating from me and will appear on my year-end list of favorites. In fact, I've added it to my list of all-time favorites, too.

On July 1, I moved on to Book 4 of The Barsetshire Chronicles...

In Framley Parsonage, Trollope returns once again to ecclesiastical matters... with a healthy dose of love and marriage, money and status, and, of course, social convention. This was enough to cement my view that Trollope is much more like Austen than Dickens

Framley Parsonage  tells the story of Mark Robarts,  "a young clergyman with ambitions beyond his small country parish of Framley. In a naive attempt to mix in influential circles, he makes a financial deal with the disreputable local Member of Parliament, but is instead brought to the brink of shame and ruin."

Politics plays a more prominent role here than in the previous novels and I got bogged down with the details a couple of times. Perhaps this does not bode well for the Palliser series, as I understand it is more focused on government and less on the church.

As a result, my rating "plummeted" to 4 stars. However, it is still among the best books I've read this year.

Both novels were read/listen combinations. I listen in the car and on my walks, then switch to an ebook to read in the evening. I love this approach to long classics and refer to it as total immersion. Simon Vance is my narrator of choice for British Literature and his performance in these novels was, as always, outstanding.

Up next for September and October is  The Small House at Allington, a novel former Prime Minister John Major declared to be his favorite book of all time. I can't wait to get started.

A Return to Barsetshire

CHAPTER I

The Greshams of Greshamsbury

 Before the reader is introduced to the modest country medical practitioner who is to be the chief personage of the following tale, it will be well that he should be made acquainted with some particulars as to the locality in which, and the neighbours among whom, our doctor followed his profession. 

There is a county in the west of England not so full of life, indeed, nor so widely spoken of as some of its manufacturing leviathan brethren in the north, but which is, nevertheless, very dear to those who know it well. Its green pastures, its waving wheat, its deep and shady and—let us add—dirty lanes, its paths and stiles, its tawny-coloured, well-built rural churches, its avenues of beeches, and frequent Tudor mansions, its constant county hunt, its social graces, and the general air of clanship which pervades it, has made it to its own inhabitants a favoured land of Goshen. It is purely agricultural; agricultural in its produce, agricultural in its poor, and agricultural in its pleasures. There are towns in it, of course; dépôts from whence are brought seeds and groceries, ribbons and fire-shovels; in which markets are held and county balls are carried on; which return members to Parliament, generally—in spite of Reform Bills, past, present, and coming—in accordance with the dictates of some neighbouring land magnate: from whence emanate the country postmen, and where is located the supply of post-horses necessary for county visitings. But these towns add nothing to the importance of the county; they consist, with the exception of the assize town, of dull, all but death-like single streets. Each possesses two pumps, three hotels, ten shops, fifteen beer-houses, a beadle, and a market-place.

Doctor Thorne
by Anthony Trollope

Ah, Mr. Trollope, how I've missed you. After reading several nonfiction titles, what a relief it is to return to Barsetshire. While the opening isn't especially exciting or enticing, the first paragraph makes me feel warm, safe, and happy. I know another wonderful tale is about to be told.

"You must marry money!"

This sentence has appeared at least a couple of times already, so I'm surmising the fourth installment of The Barsetshire Chronicles  will focus on social class, marriage, and money.

As yet, there has been no mention of familiar characters except the Thornes at Ullathorne. And time has elapsed since Barchester Towers  ended.. I'm still trying to work out exactly how much.

Are you ready to return to Barsetshire?

#6Barsets Project: Barchester Towers

Time is running out. We officially begin the third book of our #6Barsets projects, Doctor Thorne, on Friday and I have yet to write anything about Barchester Towers.

But where to begin?

First, you might remember that I experienced a major reading slump earlier this year. Novel after novel was abandoned when I just couldn't get interested in their stories or characters. Some lighter nonfiction finally dragged me from the depths of my reading malaise.

Then on March 1, I began reading Barchester Towers and found myself loving fiction again. Thank you, Anthony Trollope! I have now joined the ranks of Trollope devotees and am definitely hooked on the Barsetshire Chronicles.

Barchester Towers  was my first (and still only) five star read of 2015. Again, it was a print/audio combination and I selected the Simon Vance narration. As far as I'm concerned, he is the  voice of classic British Literature.

 I don't know what else to say other than that I loved everything about Barchester Towers... first and foremost the characters, but also the setting, author's voice, and glimpses into life, love, power, and social structure of the cathedral town.

I was delighted to discover our old friends Mr. Harding, his daughter Eleanor, and the Grantlys had returned in this installment. However,  it was the new characters - Mr. Slope and Mrs. Proudie, in particular - who provided much of the color and drama in Barchester Towers.  I'm already curious to see who turns up in Doctor Thorne.

Barchester Towers was a book I didn't want to end. I was, in fact, slightly bereft upon turning the last page. Audrey's reminder about the BBC adaptation meant my time in Barchester might be prolonged. Happily, the Florida library had a copy available. It was over-acted and slightly melodramatic, but so much fun!

Note to self... I really need to improve my understanding of mythology. Too many references were lost on me. Perhaps a future project?

 And now Doctor Thorne  is ready on my kindle and the audio version (read by Simon Vance) has been downloaded to my phone. Can I wait two more days until May 1 before beginning? I doubt it.

Bottom line: Barchester Towers  has earned a spot on my list of all-time favorites and turned me into a Trollope devotee. I may never read Dickens again.

You're welcome to join us as our #6Barsets project continues with Doctor Thorne.

#6Barsets Project:The Warden

Check my twitter stream, audible app, or kindle homepage this week and it is immediately obvious that I have Trollope on the brain. Along with Audrey and a few others, I am slowly making my way through the six novels comprising the Barchester Chronicles.

The first leg of this journey, The Warden, was completed at the end of January and I now find myself totally engrossed in Barchester Towers. As I have been extremely lax when it comes to timely book reviews (please don't remind me about Sister Carrie!), I never did share my thoughts on The Warden.

The Warden was actually a reread for me. The first encounter occurred ten or fifteen years ago, and my initial thought this time was to wonder whether it was even the same book. Why didn't I enjoy it as much back then?

I won't go into plot details, but the goodreads summary provides a concise overview and hints at a theme for the entire series:

The first of Trollope’s popular Barsetshire novels, set in the fictional cathedral town of Barchester, The Warden centers on the honorable cleric Septimus Harding, one of Trollope’s most memorable characters. When Harding is accused of mismanaging church funds, his predicament lays bare the complexities of the Victorian world and of nineteenth-century provincial life. And, as Louis Auchincloss observes in his Introduction, “The theme of The Warden presents the kind of social problem that always fascinated Trollope: the inevitable clash of ancient privilege with modern social awareness.

Again, I smiled at character names which rival Dickens (Mrs. Goodenough, Abel Handy, John Bold, Sir Abraham Haphazard), and just plain enjoyed a good story.

This time through, I was struck by the impression that Trollope himself must have been good-natured with a sense of humor. I especially enjoyed the chapter entitled "The Warden's Tea Party". In discussing the party itself, Trollope says:

"The party went off as such parties do. There were fat old ladies, in fine silk dresses, and slim young ladies, in gauzy muslin frocks; old gentlemen stood up with their backs up the empty fire-place, looking by no means so comfortable as they would have done in their own arm-chairs at home; and young gentlemen, rather stiff about the neck, clustered near the door, not as yet sufficiently in courage to attack the muslin frocks, who awaited the battle, drawn up in a semicircular array." 29%

And of the party conversation:

"It is indeed a matter of thankfulness that neither the historian nor the novelist hears all that is said by their heroes or heroines, or how would three volumes or twenty suffice! In the present case so little of this sort have I overheard, that I live in hopes of finishing my work within 300 pages, and of completing that pleasant task - a novel in one volume..." 30%

A Trollope biography is definitely in order! I have acquired a copy of Victoria Glendinning's book and plan to read it slowly over the course of this year.

The Warden is very short (just over 200 pages) and Trollope seems to be laying the groundwork or setting the stage. Of course we are meant to love Mr. Harding, but have I been predisposed to think more kindly of the Archdeacon Dr. Grantly, too?

On to the main event... I am positively loving Barchester Towers.

Tuesday Intro: Barchester Towers

Chapter 1

Who Will Be the New Bishop?

In the latter days of July in the year 185––, a most important question was for ten days hourly asked in the cathedral city of Barchester, and answered every hour in various ways—Who was to be the new bishop? 

The death of old Dr. Grantly, who had for many years filled that chair with meek authority, took place exactly as the ministry of Lord –––– was going to give place to that of Lord ––––. The illness of the good old man was long and lingering, and it became at last a matter of intense interest to those concerned whether the new appointment should be made by a conservative or liberal government.

Barchester Towers
by Anthony Trollope

Our #6Barsets Project continues in March/April with the second book in the series, Barchester Towers. I read the first two chapters last night and was delighted when it picked up just a short time after The Warden (which I promise to write about soon) ended.

Here is the blurb from amazon:

Barchester Towers (1857) was the book that made Trollope's reputation and it remains his most popular and enjoyable novel. The arrival of a new bishop in Barchester, accompanied by his formidable wife and ambitious chaplain, Obadiah Slope, sets the town in turmoil as Archdeacon Grantly declares 'War, war, internecine war!' on Bishop Proudie and his supporters. Who will come out on top in the battle between the archdeacon, the bishop, Mr Slope, and Mrs Proudie? 

The livelihood of Mr Harding, the saintly hero of The Warden, is once more under threat but clerical warfare finds itself tangled up in the wayward (and sometimes perverse) desires of the many courtships, seductions, and romances of the book. Who will marry Eleanor Bold? Can any man resist the charms of the exotically beautiful 'La Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni'? Will the oily Mr Slope finally get his comeuppance? John Bowen's introduction examines the literary skill with which Trollope combines comedy and acute social and pyschological observation in this new edition.

I can't wait to continue. Would you keep reading? You're welcome to join us.

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

Tuesday Intro: Reading Barsetshire

Chapter I

Hiram's Hospital

The Rev. Septimus Harding was, a few years since, a beneficed clergyman residing in the cathedral town of ––––; let us call it Barchester. Were we to name Wells or Salisbury, Exeter, Hereford, or Gloucester, it might be presumed that something personal was intended; and as this tale will refer mainly to the cathedral dignitaries of the town in question, we are anxious that no personality may be suspected. Let us presume that Barchester is a quiet town in the West of England, more remarkable for the beauty of its cathedral and the antiquity of its monuments than for any commercial prosperity; that the west end of Barchester is the cathedral close, and that the aristocracy of Barchester are the bishop, dean, and canons, with their respective wives and daughters.

The Warden
by Anthony Trollope

2015 marks Anthony Trollope's Bicentenary and, following Audrey's lead, I have decided to read the six Barsetshire novels over the course of the year. The first installment, The Warden, was originally published in 1855 and is actually a reread for me.

Here is the goodreads summary: 

The book centers on the character of Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity, whose charitable income far exceeds the purpose for which it was intended. Young John Bold turns his reforming zeal to exposing what he considers to be an abuse of privilege, despite being in love with Mr. Harding's daughter Eleanor. The novel was highly topical as a case regarding the misapplication of church funds was the scandalous subject of contemporary debate. But Trollope uses this specific case to explore and illuminate the universal complexities of human motivation and social morality. 

The plan is to read a book every two months:

The Warden  - January/February
Barchester Towers - March/April
Doctor Thorne - May/June
The Small House at Allington - July/August
Framley Parsonage - September/October
The Last Chronicle of Barset - November/December

Have you read Trollope? Are you a fan? Anyone is welcome to read along. We'll see how this goes...

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.