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Anthony Trollope was born on 24 April 1815 and attended both Harrow and Winchester schools. His family were poor and eventually were forced to move to Belgium, where his father died. His mother, Frances Trollope, supported the family through writing. Trollope began a life-long career in the civil service with a position as a clerk in the General Post Office in London – he is also credited with later introducing the pillar box. He published his first novel, The Macdermots of Ballycloran in 1847, but his fourth novel, The Warden (1855) began the series of 'Barsetshire' novels for which he was to become best known. This series of five novels featuring interconnecting characters spanned twenty years of Trollope's career as a novelist, as did the 'Palliser' series. He wrong over 47 novels in total, as well as short stories, biographies, travel books and his own autobiography, which was published posthumously in 1883. Trollope resigned from the Post Office in 1867 and stood for Parliament as a Liberal, though he was not elected. He died on 6 December 1882.
Barchester Towers stands alone, in common with every novel in the Barsetshire series of which it is the second. It tells the story of the struggle for a cathedral town's soul between the new bishop's reforming wife Mrs Proudie (a telling name for a woman rightly remembered as one of the great creations of Victorian fiction) and her scheming cohort, the chaplain Obadiah Slope, and the conservative forces of Barchester who are led by Archedaecon Grantly, the late bishop's son. This comic novel, with its romantic subplots, made Trollope's name with the Victorian reading public and its inspired charaterization and depiction of the clash between old and new make it every bit as readable today. (Kirkus UK)
