Chronicles of Barsetshire - Continued

When I last wrote about my reading Chronicles of Barsetshire, I had finished reading the first two novels in the series (The Warden and Barchester Towers ) and I had read about 25% of the third novel in the series, Doctor Thorne . At the time of that writing, I had a good impression of the third novel, although now, having read it entirely, my opinion of the novel isn't quite as high.

At about the half-way point in the novel, the ending became obvious and trying to get to the end, while pretty much knowing how it would all end became a bit tedious. It was obvious that Mary Thorne would inherit a fortune and all would be well.

Many of the characters who were supposed to be "heros" in the novel began to rub me the wrong way. Most accepted that Mary Thorne was less than an acceptable person due to her questionable birth and her poverty. Mary even accepted that opinion herself. The only person who was not of that opinion was the squire's son Frank Gresham.

In many ways, Frank is the most likeable character in the novel - at least up to the point of his treatment Mr Moffit. Frank and his friend track down Mr. Moffit and whip him within an inch of his life. I could not agree with Frank's motive for beating Moffit, although most of the characters in the novel seemed ok with it - I presume that when writing the novel, Trollope was fine with it as well.

The novel is over 375 pages long, much of which Trollope would have done well to edit out.

I've moved on to book four, Framley Parsonage and we're back to seeing the lives of clergymen in the Church of England. So far, no problems.