I'm in Trollope

[Psycheinaboat]

I want to begin reading Anthony Trollope, but I don't know which novel to read first. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[aeroport]

I had the very same question a few months ago, and my boss told me to go with "The Warden". It's the first of a series, I think, but I never went on due to lack of time. The book's pretty funny, not very long, and got me interested in him, so I would recommend it.

[Idril]

I love Trollope! In fact I'm just finishing up Prime Minister which is the 5th book in the Palliser series. I haven't been really impressed with this particular book but the previous 4 in the series were fabulous, the character of Phineas Finn has become one of my favorite literary characters, a truly fascinating man. The first Trollope book I read was The Way We Live Now which is nice because it's a stand alone book so there isn't any real commitment and it's a good indication of his writing style and voice. If you want to give the Palliser series a try, and depsite the lack luster effort of The Prime Minister, I highly recommend it, Can You Forgive Her? is the first book in that series.

[Psycheinaboat]

Thanks to both of you. I think The Warden and The Way We Live Now are top of my list.

[Idril]

Good choices. I hope you'll let us know what you think of them when you're done.

[Truthlover]

Right now I'm about one-fourth the way through Orley Farm. This book was considered by personal friends of Trollope to be his best novel. I have read the Barset Chronicle series, as well as The Way We Live Now. I do agree with Trollope's friends about Orley Farm even though for personal reasons I liked the comedy Barchester Towers more. Orley Farm is an incredible in-depth psychological study of how a woman deals with guilt. I cannot understand why it is not on the list of Trollope's books on this web site. It is not a comedy. I highly recommend it, and suggest the reader write down the names of the characters as they appear, because the number of characters in this 800-page novel can get as confusing as in Dostoevsky's novels. Also, one must concentrate more at the beginning of the novel to understand the layout of the problem. But then the story truly seizes your attention. A lot about the hidden motives in our lives are here to be discovered.

[neilgee]

Trollope when he was in his stride was a masterful story teller. He wrote like a metronome so many words a day, wind, rain or shine and whether he felt like it or not so I would imagine that not everything he wrote is going to be of the same standard.

I've read four of his novels now: Can you forgive her? which I don't think has aged particularly well and seemed abit silly to me reading it a hundred or so years out of time. The Warden was abit better, but found it hard to get involved with the characters, but Barchester Towers was a brilliant novel. It describes a microcosm of society so well and I found myself wanting to read on to find out if the character's plans worked out, although it is quite a slow read. The other work I loved was Trollope's autobiography, picked up for a pound in a second hand shop. Trollope is so readable at his best and this one was just pure pleasure from cover to cover.

Incidentally, from his autobiography I gleaned that Trollope himself rated Dr Thorne quite highly so I might go for that one next.