Anthony Trollope

Ralph the Heir.

When Reverend Josiah Crawley, the impoverished curate of Hogglestock, is accused of theft it causes public scandal, sending shockwaves through the world of Barsetshire. The Crawley family desperately try to remain dignified while they are shunned by society, but the scandal threatens to tear them, and the community, apart.

'Of course there was a Great House at Allington. How otherwise should there have been a small house?' The Great House is home to Squire Dale, the Small House to his widowed sister-in-law, Mrs Dale, and her tow unmarried daughters, Lily and Bell. Both girls have two suitors: in Lily's case John Eames, a junior civil servant and 'hobbledehoy', and Adolphus Crosbie, a more senior civil servant and 'swell', in Bell's case Dr Crofts, the worthy but impecunious local doctor, and Captain Bernard Dale, her cousin and Squire Dale's heir. The sisters present a complete contrast in matters of the heart: while Lily quickly falls in love with Crosbie and accepts his proposal of marriage, Bell is far more reserved in her feelings. Meanwhile, Eames becomes entangled with the daughter of the woman who keeps the boarding-house where he lives. With a host of memorable and beautifully described characters, The Small House at Allington is a true classic of Victorian literature.

Framley Parsonage, the fourth book in the Barchester series, was perhaps the book that finally sealed Anthony Trollope's reputation as a novelist of the first order. Mark Robarts is a clergyman with ambitions beyond his small country parish of Framley. In a naive attempt to mix in influential circles, he agrees to guarantee a bill for a large sum of money for the disreputable local Member of Parliament, while being helped in his career in the Church by the same hand. But the unscrupulous politician reneges on his financial obligations, and Mark must face the consequences this debt may bring to his family.

A subtle classic, Dr Thorne, the third book of the Barchester series, is regarded by many as the finest of Anthony Trollope's works. We follow the story of Mary Thorne, niece of the eponymous doctor, as love and social propriety clash. A beautiful and timeless piece of literature, the insights of such a work have lost none of their power over time.

This 1857 sequel to "The Warden" wryly chronicles the struggle for control of the English diocese of Barchester. The evangelical but not particularly competent new bishop is Dr. Proudie, who with his awful wife and oily curate, Slope, maneuver for power. "The Warden" and "Barchester Towers" are part of Anthony Trollope's beloved Barchester series.

The first of Trollope's Barchester series, The Warden represents the beginning of one of the most enduring collections of British fiction. It is, however, an immensely compelling story in its own right, told with the author's usual style and an eye for human weakness. Both a love story and a critique of the social mores of the time, the tale of Reverend Harding, the Warden of the title, is a piece of literature that will perhaps provoke as much as it will entertain.

Here is another of Trollope's splendid galleries of characters: Harry Gilmore, the Squire, Captain Walter Marrable, the Reverend Frank Fenwick and Mrs. Fenwick, who is as good a specimen of an English country parson's wife as you shall meet in any county - good-looking, fond of the society around her, with a little dash of fun, knowing in blankets and corduroys and coals and tea - knowing also in beer and gin and tobacco. Between them, the Vicar of Bullhampton and his wife are acquainted with every man and woman in the parish, including the Balfours, Mary Lowther and the Brattles - the Brattles who live across the meadows at the old mill and who are to figure so prominently in this story, set in a quiet Wiltshire backwater.