Barchester Towers (1857) is the second of the six Chronicles of
Barsetshire, the work in which, after a ten years' apprenticeship,
Trollope finally found his distinctive voice. In this his most popular
novel, the chronicler continues the story of Mr. Harding and his
daughter Eleanor, begun in The Warden, adding to his cast of characters
that oily symbol of 'progress' Mr. Slope, the hen-pecked Dr. Proudie,
and the amiable and breezy Stanhope family. Love, mammon, clerical
in-fighting and promotion again figure prominently and comically, all
centred on the magnificently imagined cathedral city of Barchester. The
central questions of this moral comedy - Who will be warden? Who will be
dean? Who will marry Eleanor? - are skilfully handled with the subtlety
of ironic observation that has won Trollope such a wide and appreciative
readership over the last 140 years. For this new edition, John
Sutherland has contributed an introduction and extensive notes, as well
as a chronology of the novel's composition and current events, and a
note on Trollopian names.