Barchester Towers

The quiet cathedral city of Barchester is thrown into comic uproar when a new, low-church bishop arrives with his domineering wife and the oily, ambitious chaplain Mr. Slope, igniting a war over church politics, patronage, and the hand of a wealthy young widow. Trollope’s beloved satire of clerical rivalry is warm, witty, and irresistibly readable, peopled with some of his finest comic creations. The most popular of the Barsetshire novels, Barchester Towers gently skewers ambition and hypocrisy while celebrating decency and good humor. Delightful and sharply observed, it is a perfect entry into Trollope’s richly imagined cathedral world and one of the great comic novels of the Victorian age.