A review by samhsiung
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

4.0

I hated the men in this book. I would highly recommend this book if you want an excuse to hate on men. At some point, one of the characters (Mr Arabin) proposes to a girl (Eleanor Bold) merely by calling her “his wife.” Not even a “can you be my wife” or a “will you marry me.” Just a “you are my wife now.” I really wonder if that’s how men proposed to women in the 1800s. It’s important to note that this novel is an anachronistic text, so the narrator (which I feel like is probably just Trollope channeling his inner thoughts on his own characters/writing, though you can never be too sure) does sound very misogynistic in many parts—but was probably actually revolutionarily feminist for the time period. It’s like that whole argument with Twain being satirical and quite anti-racist for his time period even though contemporary standards would deem him a racist. This novel was incredibly character-driven, rather than plot-driven, which I loved so much. Every character had so much depth, even the ones that were pretty irrelevant—and honestly, the most interesting traits about some of these characters were how boring they were, but even that is a sort of depth. I would love to be able to write a boring character that well. I really think this novel would’ve been a much more worthwhile read if it were less dense, but apparently Trollope was paid for every word he wrote, and I guess I would've done the same thing if I was in his position. Also, I did not know there could be so much church drama and so many parts that make up a church (high church, low church, archbishop, warden, diocese). I still don't know what the difference between a bishop and archbishop is and kind of still don't understand what the difference between a diocese and parish is, but my new realization is that maybe I am into novels about petty church drama. Props to my prof for choosing this book to teach.