Anthony Trollope, página 2 de 28

It will be necessary, for the purpose of my story, that I shall go back more than once from the point at which it begins, so that I may explain with the least amount of awkwardness the things as they occurred, which led up to the incidents that I am about to tell; and I may as well say that these first four chapters of the bookthough they may be thought to be the most interesting of them all by those who look to incidents for their interest in a taleare in this way only preliminary.

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 andlet us adddirty 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.

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.Early in life Mr Harding found himself located at Barchester. A fine voice and a taste for sacred music had decided the position in which he was to exercise his calling, and for many years he performed the easy but not highly paid duties of a minor canon. At the age of forty a small living in the close vicinity of the town increased both his work and his income, and at the age of fifty he became precentor of the cathedral.Mr Harding had married early in life, and was the father of two daughters. The eldest, Susan, was born soon after his marriage; the other, Eleanor, not till ten years later.At the time at which we introduce him to our readers he was living as precentor at Barchester with his youngest daughter, then twenty-four years of age; having been many years a widower, and having married his eldest daughter to a son of the bishop a very short time before his installation to the office of precentor.

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 waysWho 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.It was pretty well understood that the outgoing premier had made his selection and that if the question rested with him, the mitre would descend on the head of Archdeacon Grantly, the old bishops son. The archdeacon had long managed the affairs of the diocese, and for some months previous to the demise of his father rumour had confidently assigned to him the reversion of his fathers honours.

Published posthumously in 1884, An Old Mans Love was Anthony Trollopes last completed work. A classic tale of romance and rivalry, it follows the intertwining stories of young orphan Mary Lawrie, the object of her romantic affections the penniless John Gordon, and elderly bachelor William Whittlestaff. All heartsore from being jilted at some point in their lives, will any of the three find love and happiness again? A love triangle with a twist, there is plenty of humour as well as anguish and romance in this simple short story from Trollope.

This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.The Chronicles of Barsetshire (or Barchester Chronicles) is a series of six novels by the English author Anthony Trollope, set in the fictitious English county of Barsetshire (located approximately where the real Dorset lies) and its cathedral town of Barchester. The novels concern the dealings of the clergy and the gentry, and the political, amatory, and social manuvrings that go on among and between them.The novels in the series are:The Warden (1855)Barchester Towers (1857)Doctor Thorne (1858)Framley Parsonage (1861)The Small House at Allington (1864)The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867)

This was Trollopes last novel. He had / not quite completed it when he died in 1882.

(Author Note: the following 5 eBooks, #3762-3766, are all by the American / Novelist and Historian, Winston Churchill)