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Title: The Last Chronicle of Barset

Author: Anthony Trollope

Narrator: Timothy West

Format: Unabridged

Length: 30 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-01-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 277 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Exclusively from Audible

In the last and most complex of the Barsetshire audiobooks, many of Trollope's best-loved characters appear, but the mood of the recording is darker and more uneasy than in earlier volumes.

At the heart of the audiobook is the penniless Reverend Josiah Crawley, first encountered in Framley Parsonage, who in the opening of the story is accused of theft, creating a public scandal that threatens to tear the community apart. As well as this central mystery we find Johnny Eames attempting to woo Lily Dale and the now grown-up Major Henry Grantly falling in love with Reverend Crawley's daughter, Grace, against the wishes of his father, the Archdeacon. The Bishop Proudie and his formidable wife also receive their most dramatic portrayal with Mrs. Proudie finally meeting her match.

This final volume manages to resolve many threads started in the first volume and is a fitting conclusion to the series.

The Last Chronicle of Barset is considered by many, including Trollope himself, to be his best work. A prolific and respected novelist of the 19th-century he created 47 novels and many short stories that have continued to be popular and well-loved.

Narrator Biography

Timothy West is prolific in film, television, theatre, and audiobooks. He has narrated a number of Anthony Trollope's classic audiobooks, including the six Chronicles of Barsetshire and the Palliser series. He has also narrated volumes of Simon Schama's A History of Britain and John Mortimer's Rumpole on Trial.

West's theatre roles include King Lear, The Vote, Uncle Vanya, A Number, Quarter, and Coriolanus and his films include Ever After, Joan Of Arc, Endgame, Iris and The Day of the Jackal. On television, Timothy has held the regular role of Stan Carter on EastEnders (BBC), as well as appearing in Broken Biscuits (BBC), three series of Great Canal Journeys, Last Tango in Halifax; Bleak House, Bedtime and Brass.

Members Reviews:

The Clever Mr. Trollope

This is one of the few Trollope novels I had not read. It re-introduces several characters from earlier Barchester Chronicles, wrapping up their storylines. But, to be honest, I had encountered them so many years ago, I couldn't really remember them. So I am pleased to report that this book holds up entirely on its own, as a lovely, comic and touching conclusion to Trollope's clerical novels. I found myself walking miles further because I was on tenterhooks about the fate of these gentle (or ambitious or exasperating) characters, shrewdly characterized by Timothy West. And it contains a long passage about the end days of an aging cleric, whose goodness, mildness and acceptance are both utterly believable, and piquantly contrasted with those among whom he lives, that I pulled over to weep. Whereas Dickens often portrays goodness as treacle, Trollope never loses sight of his characters as people in a closely observed world.

A touch bleak but all the ends neatly tied off

I have listened to all six of the Chronicles one after the other with no other books read or listened to between them. One could almost say it was a baptism by complete immersion. That it might have been, but it has meant that it has convinced me that Trollope was a man of total brilliance.

I was in search of a new Jane Austen or rather of gentle comedy of manners in a historical setting.