Reviews

The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope

persey's review against another edition

4.0

It feels a bit mournful to say goodbye to Barsetshire. The characterizations, dialogue and descriptions in this installment were stellar; the plotting involved some retreads but no matter. Trollope surprised me once at that; for the rest, it all worked out as expected.

mary_juleyre's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

barry_sweezey's review against another edition

Chronicles of Barsetshire #6

wjcsydney's review against another edition

5.0

My favourite of the Barchester novels. I've been "reading" them (on audiobook) for just over a year and had to keep pausing The Last Chronicle as I approached the end because I didn't want the series to finish. I was in floods of tears at the death of Mr Harding - I've never read a better account of dying. It was just perfect. And the Mr Bunce detail - floods of tears again.
Rev Crawley was a difficult character to warm to but by the time Archdeacon Grantly had welcomed him and poked him in the ribs, I was in tears again.
Still infuriated at Lily Dale - but that makes the series more true to life.
Barchester, I will miss you. The Pallisers await me.

tlsouthard's review against another edition

5.0

Such a great book. Trollope is just my favorite. Clear-eyed about people, both their goodness and their faults. This book was absolute genius. How we can spend so many pages with Josiah Crawley and still be sorry when it's over will prove that. He is both impossible to like and impossible not to love. He is so HUMAN. So full of contradictions, so prideful, so humble. Such a mix of utterly human foibles and goodness. So incredibly frustrating. Any writer who can write a character like Josiah Crawley is a master.

On the other hand, there is Lily Dale, who is supposed to be the height of Trollope's skill and his favorite character. And I wanted to slap her. Foolish, foolish woman.

I am so sorry to be finished with Barchester. It is likely that I will soon just begin the series again. Perhaps after I finish the last two Palliser novels. Trollope fangirl. That's me.

tculp's review against another edition

5.0

Ok, friends, this is a seriously great wrap-up to a classic series. As far as I know, Trollope is the only well-known Victorian British novelist that wrote in series - he has two. This is the end of the Chronicles of Barset series - #6. In the first 5 novels, we see some recurring characters distantly. The first 2 are more connected, but then the stories are pretty independent except for glances, small updates, and mentions of characters you’ve seen before, who all live in the same county. In this last one, he brings them all together. It is absolutely delightful. It was 30 hours on audio, and when I started it, I thought “this better be good,” but I was entranced and giggling the whole time. I’ve read the first 2 in his other series, and now I must go read the rest of those.

sammystarbuck's review against another edition

3.0

Not a very taxing story, but not hugely gripping either. It's really all about the characters and their - often odd - ways of thinking, more than any actual plot.
Maybe it would have meant more to me if I'd read the preceding books, but it wasn't as if anything was hard to follow having not done so.

It passed a few days in a relatively easy fashion.

petrauusimaa's review against another edition

5.0

As every novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire, this is a slow burner. Only in the end I realised how skilled Trollope is keeping everything together despite having so many stories to tell. The characters, especially the whole Crawley family, grew slowly on me and I am very pleased how everything turner out. Definitely one of my favourites from the series and a very good conclusion for the stories that I have been following while reading The Chronicles of Barsetshire.

cpcabaniss's review against another edition

4.0

"Why should any one weep for those who go away full of years, - and full of hope?"

I am very happy to say that where The Small House at Allington fell short for me, this final installment, The Last Chronicle of Barset delivered.

The balance between perspectives was handled in such a way that it flowed easily from one to the other. The characters, though still flawed, were presented in such a way that it wasn't infuriating.

What I appreciated most in this was the thoughts around miscommunication. Some rather devastating things happened due to a lack of communication and some were prevented from going so far as they might by everything being finally found out. We may think that we don't fall into these traps now because we have such easy communication, we don't have to wait for a letter to travel halfway around the world, but can instead send an email or call or video chat. But we still fall into the same traps, just in different ways. Our ways of communicating may have improved, but the quality of communication has not.

A great conclusion to the series and it makes me eager to try more Trollope in the future.

sashahawkins's review

emotional lighthearted reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0