Framley Parsonage (2006)

Do You like book Framley Parsonage (2006)?

One can seldom go wrong by taking a Trollope novel on holiday. His style, his wit, and his psychological perceptiveness always delight and allow one to pick up the book in odd moments and be instantly transported. This novel, like several of his others and like the novels of Dickens – in comparison with whom I find Trollope to be gentler and less socially biting, or at least more subtly so – was serialized in monthly publications of the time, and each chapter is thus rather self-contained. Trollope is able skillfully to weave several subplots that are distinct although related, and chapters jump from one to another. He is not averse to interjecting editorial comments and paragraphs, all enhancing the ambiance of his times. Unlike Dickens and George Eliot, he writes about his contemporary society and its foibles rather than digging into the recent past. I find him particularly incisive in his understanding of late 19th-century British politics, a politics that is uncannily like our own in its stridency, pettiness, and venality; indeed, if historical details were hidden, there would be little that is unrecognizable today. In his novels, Trollope exploits issues of class and gender, issues that were under increasing question and pressure in his day, and his observations vividly portray the cusp of change that his society was experiencing. Thus, reading his work is not only a relaxing and delightful experience in itself, but it also provides a perceptive view into his life and times.
—Bruce

Framley Parsonage is not the continuation of the story of Doctor Thorne the way that Barchester Towers was of The Warden, but they have a good deal in common more than characters and setting.Mark Robarts is a clergyman, not yet thirty, who has benefited from the patronage of his friend's mother, Lady Lufton. She chose him a devoted and capable wife and granted him the comfortable living of Framley at £800 a year. He lives perhaps too respectably, with a large household and a pony-chaise - things on the edge of propriety for a gentlemen of his standing and only just within his means. He has ambitions to move into even higher circles, even at the expense of his patroness' good opinion. With good intentions, he naively signs a note for dissolute politician Mr. Sowersby. The debt falls on Mark and he has to deal with the consequences towards not only his reputation but the happiness and security of his family. This conflict (view spoiler)[Mark's refusal to so anything at all about it (hide spoiler)]
—Myles

My literary education is mostly a haphazard, scattershot mess, so my prior knowledge of Anthony Trollope was limited to the fact that he was an extremely prolific Victorian author. I was not disappointed by Framley Parsonage, and I found it a steady, gentle read. I really enjoyed the tone, and the humor was quite often just perfect: soft at times and sharp at others, it was always character-driven humor. The characters were memorable and sympathetic; even when I found myself crying out, "Mark, you fool!", I could still, almost painfully, understand why he did what he did. Trollope's got a good hand at demonstrating multi-faceted humanity, so that these characters can still feel so real, so many years later. No one's perfect or depicted in completely rosy-tinged terms, but no one's evil, and even the worst-behaving of the characters were complicated people. I did get bored during long stretches of politics talk and during some of the many, many classical references, but the narrative would always switch back to something more interesting in due time. My very favorite element of the book, probably unshockingly, was the relationship between Lord Lufton and Lucy Robarts, but I loved so many of the characters, particularly the female characters. Lucy! Lady Lufton! Miss Dunstable! Fanny! Mrs Proudie, my goodness. I even loved Griselda, seriously!
—Megan