Barchester Towers

When the old Bishop of Barchester dies, the new bishop is the weak Dr Proudie, completely ruled by his formidable wife and by his oily chaplain, the ambitious Mr Obadiah Slope. Their arrival starts a war in the cathedral close against the high-church party led by Archdeacon Grantly. Meanwhile the widowed Eleanor Bold, now rich, is courted by several suitors, among them Mr Slope, and the Stanhope family returns from Italy with the beautiful, crippled Signora Neroni, who enchants every man she meets.

Published in 1857, this sequel to The Warden is Anthony Trollope's most popular novel, a sparkling comedy of church politics, ambition and romance, in which the battles over the next dean and the wardenship of Hiram's Hospital continue Mr Harding's story. Mrs Proudie and Mr Slope are among the great comic characters of English fiction.