Scandal strikes the peaceful cathedral town of Barchester when Septimus Harding, the warden of charitable foundation Hiram’s Hospital, is accused of financial wrongdoing. A kindly and naive man, he finds himself caught between the forces of entrenched tradition and radical reform amid the burgeoning materialism of Britain in the 1850s. The deeply insightful portrayals of figures such as the booming Archdeacon Grantly and the beautiful Eleanor Harding are at the heart of this moving and deliciously comical tale. The Warden launched the enduringly popular Barsetshire Chronicles series of six novels and won Anthony Trollope a seat in the pantheon of great literary figures.

This epic drama follows several generations of the Palliser dynasty, as they navigate the twists and turns of political and high society in Victorian England.

Wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser and beautiful, spirited Lady Glencora embark on an arranged marriage, despite her passion for the dashing but debt-ridden Burgo Fitzgerald. As her husband rises through the ranks of government, she becomes a faithful wife and mother – but her children face the same fateful choice between love and duty.

Meanwhile, young Irish barrister Phineas Finn is introduced to the temptations of London life when he wins a seat in Parliament. He catches the eye of several society ladies, but fails to win their hearts. Rumours about his love life threaten his political career – and worse trouble is in store for him?

Based on the six Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope, this captivating adaptation stars Ben Miles as Plantagenet, Sophie Thompson as Glencora, Conleth Hill as Phineas and David Troughton as the Narrator, with a star cast including Bertie Carvel, Juliet Stevenson, Greg Wise and Rachael Stirling.

Duration: 11.5 hours approx.

Trollope’s comic masterpiece of plotting and backstabbing opens as the Bishop of Barchester lies on his deathbed. Soon a pitched battle breaks out over who will take power, involving, among others, the zealous reformer Dr Proudie, his fiendish wife and the unctuous schemer Obadiah Slope.

Barchester Towers is one of the best-loved novels in Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire series, which captured nineteenth-century provincial England with wit, worldly wisdom and an unparalleled gift for characterization.

The second book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.

Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie, Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her for the aristocratic Lady Alexandrina. Although crushed by his faithlessness, Lily still believes she is bound to her unworthy former fiancé for life and therefore condemned to remain single after his betrayal. And when a more deserving suitor pays his addresses, she is unable to see past her feelings for Crosbie. Written when Trollope was at the height of his popularity, The Small House at Allington contains his most admired heroine in Lily Dale – a young woman of independent spirit who nonetheless longs to be loved – and is a moving dramatization of the ways in which personal dilemmas are affected by social pressures.

Anthony Trollope’s series of witty and gently satirical stories of provincial life are set in the fictional town of Barchester and its surrounding county of Barsetshire. The canvas is broad and colourful, with a set of iconic characters in whose lives we become intimately involved as they grow up, grow old, and fall in or out of love and friendship, across the years.

The Warden: The gentle Mr Harding finds his peaceful life disrupted, when his would-be son-in-law calls into question the large income he receives as warden of Barchester alms house.
Barchester Towers: The cathedral town is changing again, with the arrival of a new Bishop, his wife and his Chaplain from London throwing all Barchester into disarray.
Dr Thorne: When young heir Frank Gresham expresses his desire to marry Mary, her uncle Dr Thorne realises that a secret he has concealed for so long can no longer stay secret.
Framley Parsonage: Mark Robarts, the young vicar of Framley, cannot resist the lure of celebrity beyond his own village. But his ambitious pursuits will lead him to risk his devoted wife and children, as well as his sister’s happiness.

This 1857 sequel to The Warden wryly chronicles the struggle for control of the English diocese of Barchester. It opens with the Bishop of Barchester lying on his death bed; soon a battle begins over who will take over power, with key players including the rather incompetent Dr Proudie, his fiendishly unpleasant wife and his slippery curate, Slope. This is a wonderfully rich novel, in which men and women are too shy to tell each other of their love; misunderstandings abound; and Church of England officials are only too willing to undermine each other in the battle for power.

One of Trollope’s best-loved novels, it is a dazzlingly real portrayal of nineteenth-century provincial England peppered with humour, wisdom and extraordinary characters.

Trollope’s witty, satirical story of a quiet cathedral town shaken by scandal – as the traditional values of Septimus Harding are attacked by zealous reformers and ruthless newspapers – is a drama of conscience that pits individual integrity against worldly ambition. In The Warden Anthony Trollope brought the fictional county of Barsetshire to life, peopled by a cast of brilliantly realised characters that have made him among the supreme chroniclers of the minutiae of Victorian England.

The first book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.

The Penguin English Library – 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.