'Mr Slope flattered himself that he could out-manoeuvre the lady...he did not doubt of ultimate triumph.'

Barchester Towers (1857) was the book that made Trollope's reputation and it remains his most popular and enjoyable novel. The arrival of a new bishop in Barchester, accompanied by his formidable wife and ambitious chaplain, Obadiah Slope, sets the town in turmoil as Archdeacon Grantly declares 'War, war, internecine war!' on Bishop Proudie and his supporters. Who will come out on top in the battle between the archdeacon, the bishop, Mr Slope, and Mrs Proudie?

The livelihood of Mr Harding, the saintly hero of The Warden, is once more under threat but clerical warfare finds itself tangled up in the wayward (and sometimes perverse) desires of the many courtships, seductions, and romances of the book. Who will marry Eleanor Bold? Can any man resist the charms of the exotically beautiful 'La Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni'? Will the oily Mr Slope finally get his comeuppance? John Bowen's introduction examines the literary skill with which Trollope combines comedy and acute social and pyschological observation in this new edition.

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Anthony Trollope (24 April 1815- 6 December 1882) was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire

John Bowen has written widely on nineteenth-century fiction and his publications include Other Dickens: Pickwick to Chuzzlewit (OUP, 2000) and Palgrave Advances in Charles Dickens Studies (2003), co-edited with Robert L. Patten. He has edited Dickens's Barnaby Rudge for Penguin and Trollope's Phineas Redux for Oxford World's Classics (2011).