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Framley Parsonage

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Framley Parsonage

By: Anthony Trollope
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Mark Robarts, a young vicar, is newly arrived in the village of Framley. With ambitions to further his career, he seeks connections in the county's high society. He is soon preyed upon by a local member of parliament to guarantee a substantial loan, which Mark in a moment of weakness agrees to—despite knowing the man is a notorious debtor—and which brings him to the brink of ruin. He must face the awful reality this loss will bring his family.

Meanwhile, Mark's sister, Lucy, is deeply in love with Lord Lufton, the son of the lofty Lady Lufton. Lord Lufton has proposed, but Lady Lufton is against the marriage, preferring that her son choose the coldly beautiful Griselda Grantly.

The novel will conclude with four happy marriages, including one involving Doctor Thorne, the hero of the preceding book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series.

One of Trollope's most popular novels, Framley Parsonage depicts nineteenth-century country life beautifully, crafted with acute insight into human nature.

(P)2007 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Comedy Romance
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Critic reviews

“I wish Mr. Trollope would go on writing Framley Parsonage forever. I don’t see any reason why it should ever come to an end, and everyone I know is always dreading the last number.”

(Author Elizabeth Gaskell to George Smith, publisher of the Cornhill, March 1, 1860)

“The story is thoroughly English, and is told with a tremendous exuberance—particularly in its depiction of the ointment heiress Martha Dunstable—which betrays the author's joy in finding himself once more in the environs of Barchester.”

(Antonia Fraser)

“Nothing is out of place in Framley Parsonage. Harold Smith’s politics, Sowerby’s rascalities, the social pleasures of the Chaldicotes set, the dinner party of the Duke of Omnium, belong to the central themes as truly as the diseases and penury of the Crawleys or the ointment of Lebanon of Miss Dunstable.”

(Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist)
All stars
Most relevant
Simon Vance is great as always, but some female voices almost slipped into caricature, and Mrs Crawley was almost portrayed as someone of limited intelligence and understanding - despite her being one of the most poignant and complex characters in the book.
Nonetheless - Simon Vance still reads this brilliant book, brilliantly overall.
The light and humour that Trollope cast on his characters' very human stories 160 years ago, are still as spot on and gripping as anything you could find in the headlines today.
So it's great that Audible now offer this book free to members.

80% great read by Simon Vance is still 100% by me

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Throughout the series Simon Vance has taken all his characterisations from 1950's British films. Here he also gives one minor character a Scottish accent in an early chapter, to speak a dialect no Scot ever spoke. By the end she has a more realistic Mummerset instead. Mark Robards is too old, and Mrs Crawley, a gentlewoman living a hard and poverty-stricken life, is given a working class accent thus distorting her completely. Oh dear.

Dreadful characterisations of Trollope's people

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