Chronicles of Barsetshire Readalong

Friday, February 14, 2014



Through a flurry of Twitter conversations Amanda of Fig and Thistle and I realized that we have never read anything by Anthony Trollope. We both decided it's high time to check out his famous Chronicles of Barsetshire. We are going to read one book each month in the order they were published. We're starting with the first slim novel The Warden in March. 

March: The Warden
April: Barchester Towers
May: Doctor Thorne
June: Framley Parsonage
July: The Small House at Allington
August: The Last Chronicle of Barset

Fun Trollope Trivia:
1) The fourth book in the series inspired Jo Walton's novel Tooth and Claw.
2) Alec Guinness, Obi-Wan Kenobi himself, never traveled without a Trollope novel. 
3) Trollope traveled to Australia in 1871. 
4) George Eliot said she couldn't have "embarked on so ambitious a project as Middlemarch without the precedent set by Trollope in his own novels." 
5) He wrote 47 novels!
 
Obviously if we hate the first 3 books or something we can stop reading them, but that's the plan for now. Read at your own pace, post when you want and share your thoughts on twitter as you go. You can read all of them or just a couple of them. We're planning on posting at the beginning of each month when we start a new book and at the end of each month with a wrap-up post. 

Let us know in the comments if you want to join in the fun! 

13 comments:

Alex (The Sleepless Reader) said...

I've read #2 and #5, so I might join you for the others. They're all on Gutenberg, right?

Anonymous said...

This will be so much fun!

Allie said...

I read The Warden for the Victorian Event I hosted a year or so ago, so I'll probably join up after that one! I've been meaning to read these!

o said...

I'm in! I've read the first two - loved The Warden, hated Barchester Towers BUT I'm willing to give it another go! I'll start in March with you and re-read The Warden.

Cleo said...

I will participate but probably a little later than everyone else. I have The Warden scheduled for May, so I'll be bringing up the rear!

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Alex - Yes! I bought the whole series on kindle for $1.99.

Figandthistle - I'm excited to get started!

Allie - You should! It's a great chance to dive into the others.

O - Yay! I'm glad we'll have people bringing different viewpoints to the books.

Cleopatra - That sounds great! Just join in whenever you want.

Cleo said...

Thanks, Melissa! Here is my post: http://cleoclassical.blogspot.ca/2014/02/chronicles-of-barsetshire-read-along.html

Arenel said...

Oh, it's very tempting! I'll put it on my agenda, and will hope I'll have time for it in March :)

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Ekaterina Egorova - Join in whenever you want! This will be very laid back and hopefully we can encourage each other to keep going.

Anonymous said...

I'm in, I was with the group that Cleo @ Classical Carousel had planned a May start with.

I might start a little early, we shall see how all my reading plans move along.

My opening post, not overly informative, as I haven't read any Trollope either.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Plethora - Great! I tweeted a link to your opening post!

Phinnea said...

I'll at least try to do the Warden. No idea if I'll want to do the rest!

http://ravenscroftcloud.wordpress.com/challenges-2014/

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Phinnea Ravenscroft - Welcome to the readalong! I hope you enjoy The Warden. I hope I like it enough to read all of them!