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Original poster

Where to start with Trollope?

32 replies

WallabyWay · 01/05/2023 13:50

I'm trying to read The Warden and I'm really struggling with it. I find it rather tedious. Are there better Trollope books to start with?

TIA

OP posts:
ItMustBeBedtimeSurely · 01/05/2023 13:56

Try The Way We Live Now, it’s a proper page turner with some excellent characters.

Original poster
WallabyWay · 01/05/2023 13:59

Thank you. I think I'll put The Warden aside for now and try that instead.

OP posts:
AvengingGerbil · 01/05/2023 14:03

Doctor Thorne. TWWLN is an absolute doorstop of a book, so you have to really commit to it! DT is probably my desert island book.

Original poster
WallabyWay · 01/05/2023 14:08

Thank you. I might try reading a few chapters of both and see which I prefer to continue reading.

OP posts:
JaneyGee · 01/05/2023 19:40

ItMustBeBedtimeSurely · 01/05/2023 13:56

Try The Way We Live Now, it’s a proper page turner with some excellent characters.

Agghh…you beat me to it!! I completely agree.

Glad you are trying Trollope OP. A massively underrated writer imo. (Funny how certain very good writers get forgotten. Gissing, Swinburne, Ford Madox Ford, Henry Green, Max Beerbohm, Walter Pater, etc, are also superb, yet all pretty much unread today.)

TonTonMacoute · 02/05/2023 12:35

Big Trollope fan here, but the Warden is boring!

Barchester Towers is the next, so you could easily go on to that and lose nothing.

With both the Pallisers and Barchesters you don't have to read them in order., but there are some references you might miss if you don't. My favourites are A Small House at Allington, and The Eustace Diamonds.

Xiaoxiong · 02/05/2023 12:56

I was going to suggest Barchester Towers too. Mr Slope is such a perfect baddie, I just love how completely awful he is!

I must admit I needed to listen to the warden on audible to get into it.

MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 02/05/2023 13:05

The BBC radio adaptions (dramas not audiobooks) are great, if you struggle with any of the Barchester novels.

badger2005 · 02/05/2023 13:12

I find Trollope lovely and cosy to read... kind of like a Christmas jigsaw puzzle.
I enjoyed TWWLN and the Barsetshire Chronicles, but now I'm into the Palliser novels I'm getting a bit sort of bored or disenchanted. It feels a bit formulaic. I think my irritation surfaces when he describes people's appearance - e.g. 'her nose and chin were perfect', 'his forehead was low', blah blah blah. Do you know what I mean? And the focus on debt (running up debts in clubs, signing bills for other people, minor gambling problems, trying to marry people with fortunes) which I found so fascinating at first, I'm now also finding a bit same-y.
But actually I feel disloyal just saying all of this... I'm looking forward to my lunch-time read of Phineas Finn!

CurlewKate · 02/05/2023 13:14

A Small House at Allington is my favorite!

badger2005 · 02/05/2023 14:05

CurlewKate · 02/05/2023 13:14

A Small House at Allington is my favorite!

But I seem to remember that Lily is John Major's favourite woman in the world... could be off putting. Will just google...

TonTonMacoute · 04/05/2023 16:45

badger2005 · 02/05/2023 14:05

But I seem to remember that Lily is John Major's favourite woman in the world... could be off putting. Will just google...

Show quote history

It would be very silly (and a bit odd IMO) to let something as trivial as that put you off reading a book!

Who the fuck cares what that man thinks about anything?

badger2005 · 04/05/2023 17:18

I was being flippant!

diningiswest · 04/05/2023 17:20

Agreed either TWWLN, which is an epic and excellent book, and very relevant to now, or read the Palliser novels in sequence.

In every novel there will also be at least one chapter which is an entirely gratuitous description of a hunt. Skim that for plot points but don't bother otherwise...

Runningslow · 04/05/2023 17:24

I thought you were talking about Joanna

Booklover40 · 04/05/2023 17:26

I really like “A village affair” and “the rectors wife” - I do find most of the others I’ve read very tedious though. Most of her characters are utterly contemptible and irritating.

Booklover40 · 04/05/2023 17:27

Oops just realised - I thought you were taking about Joanna too!

Saschka · 04/05/2023 17:50

diningiswest · 04/05/2023 17:20

Agreed either TWWLN, which is an epic and excellent book, and very relevant to now, or read the Palliser novels in sequence.

In every novel there will also be at least one chapter which is an entirely gratuitous description of a hunt. Skim that for plot points but don't bother otherwise...

Oh I love that about him! Like Murakami always had an extended description of cooking beef with green peppers, and feeding his bloody cat 🤣

RegimentalSturgeon · 05/05/2023 00:04

Not one to start Trollope with, but He Knew He Was Right. A red flag on every page, pretty much 🚩

Lily Dale needs shaking until her teeth rattle, imo. Which has nothing to do with HKHWR.

TonTonMacoute · 05/05/2023 19:43

In every novel there will also be at least one chapter which is an entirely gratuitous description of a hunt. Skim that for plot points but don't bother otherwise...

Not every novel tbf! I did find it interesting that you could order a horse to be sent by train to where you were going hunting though.
Before the Internet too!

Pallisers · 05/05/2023 20:09

I would go straight to Barchester Towers. I re-read it recently and it made me laugh all over again.

The American Senator is good too - but skip the american senator's musings on English politics and society (and you may want to skim the hunt too). I loved Dr. Thorne too. Well actually, as you can tell from my name, I love all Trollope and I think he is underestimated. He wrote very real characters living very believable lives.

I absolutely agree that Lily needs to be shaken. She is even worse in The Last Chronicle - which is a magnificent read.

Sophie1980 · 05/05/2023 20:57

Another voice for the BBC Radio 4 dramatizations they were very good and moved it all along at a decent pace. They used to be on CD, I don't know what format is available.

Saschka · 05/05/2023 21:05

Pallisers · 05/05/2023 20:09

I would go straight to Barchester Towers. I re-read it recently and it made me laugh all over again.

The American Senator is good too - but skip the american senator's musings on English politics and society (and you may want to skim the hunt too). I loved Dr. Thorne too. Well actually, as you can tell from my name, I love all Trollope and I think he is underestimated. He wrote very real characters living very believable lives.

I absolutely agree that Lily needs to be shaken. She is even worse in The Last Chronicle - which is a magnificent read.

I think if you assume Lily has shagged whatsisname (which is heavily hinted at), her belief that she is ruined and can’t in good conscience marry anyone else makes a bit more sense.

Though she is still a massive drip.

Pallisers · 05/05/2023 21:23

No way did Lily shag yer man. She kissed him and that was it. She always reminds me of Madeline Basset in the wooster books - every time god sneezes a flower is born etc. Still, Augustus (was it augustus?) got the best karma/revenge fate in the history of romances.

diningiswest · 06/05/2023 07:10

Not every novel tbf! I did find it interesting that you could order a horse to be sent by train to where you were going hunting though.
Before the Internet too!

@TonTonMacoute My even more bemusing recent discovery - from reading too much about the lives of v aristocratic young women - is that you could, if you were stuck at a rural station, order a special train to come as though it were a taxi.