Anthony Trollope - The Last Chronicle Of Barset
"The Last Chronice of Barset" was, oddly enough, my introduction to Anthony Trollope and I can say for sure that my time was not wasted. The story follows a one Mr. Crawley, who is put in quite a precarious position, and whose position affects many others in Barset. Though Mr. Crawley is an obstinate man (as some of the chapter titles even suggest) you can't help but want to side with him throughout the short 800 pages that make up this book.
The story is compelling, the writing is interesting, the characters are descriptive... this is definitely one of the best novels I have ever read. I did not feel out of place starting with the last book in the series. The story in this book alone was so compelling that I didn't feel like I had missed out by not reading the previous book and though a couple characters I wanted to know more about you come to know the characters included within quite well.
Finally, as I mentioned, I am a lover of Proust and I find this book to be very Proustian in it's description of society and community interactions. Trollope doesn't dare go as deep or is not, I dare say, quite as egocentric as Proust is but he offers a lovely little portrait of a community in 19th century England whose descriptions, I think, will be loved by Proustians, as I am one myself.
