50 episodes listed below
Barchester's clergy go to war, one chapter at a time.
This is Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers as a public-domain LibriVox recording, one chapter to an episode, with different people credited on the early chapters. An old bishop's death, the archdeacon's lost hopes and the arrival of Dr. Proudie and his severe chaplain, Mr. Slope, turn a cathedral city against itself.
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Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers is presented here as a public-domain LibriVox recording, with each episode holding one chapter of the novel. The credits change early on. Andy Minter is named on chapters 1 and 3, Eva Harnick on chapter 2, and Catherine Eastman on chapter 4, which is dated December 2006. So the voice changes even though the story does not. That story is a contest for influence in a cathedral city. It starts at a deathbed. The old bishop of Barchester dies with Mr. Harding and the archdeacon beside him, hands clasped and tears falling, and Trollope follows the scene at once with a frank account of what the archdeacon wanted: lawn sleeves, a seat among the peers, the pleasure of being called 'my lord'. None of it happens, and Dr. Proudie is consecrated instead. The new bishop dreams of Lambeth and plans to keep London as his real home, and he brings Mr. Slope as his domestic chaplain. Chapter 4 belongs to Slope, and the portrait is merciless: the severe looks, the anathema lurking in the corner of his eye, his horror of Puseyites and high-pitched church roofs, and the 'pawing, greasy way' that will not make him popular with a large circle. The narrator is half the entertainment. He declines to describe the new bishop's installation because he does not precisely understand what one involves. He passes on a rumour that Slope descends from the physician who attended the birth of Mr. T. Shandy. He takes it for granted that the listener remembers how Mr. Harding suffered under an attack in the columns of the Jupiter. Hiram's Hospital supplies a quieter thread. Parliament passes a bill governing it with little notice, because the nation is worried about a looming war, and everyone assumes the wardenship will return to Mr. Harding, who meanwhile lodges over a chemist's shop in the High Street. Social calls soon turn hostile. By the end of 'A Morning Visit', which includes talk of the bishop's horses still in London and his committee work, the archdeacon and the precentor walk back into the close in silence, with a storm clearly coming. The next chapter is titled simply 'War'. The archdeacon cries 'Good heavens!' with his anger rising off him like steam. The bishop's household dislikes him just as much, and the narrator notes that Mr. Slope had decided to hate him in advance. Even a blessing goes wrong: the shaken bishop delivers it far worse than he had rehearsed it in his study. Chapter 1 is the place to start, because the deathbed and the archdeacon's disappointment are where the rivalry begins.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants a classic novel read aloud one chapter at a time and enjoys a narrator who treats clerical ambition with dry amusement. It also suits someone who doesn't mind the reading voice changing between chapters.
What sets it apart: Its chapters come from a public-domain LibriVox recording credited to more than one person, so the voice changes along the way. What stays constant is Trollope's narrator, who openly mocks the ambitions of the clergy.
Second in the series of novels set in the fictional cathedral town of Barchester, the reader is treated to a hilarious, if unseemly, competition for domination of the diocese! The contenders in Barchester Towers are Mrs. Proudie the wife of the mild, sadly henpecked bishop and Mr. Slope his slimy and devious chaplain. When the beloved former bishop suddenly dies, a complete outsider is brought in to take his place. Instead of the bishop's son, Archdeacon Grantly, whom the entire parish was expecting, a more low-church minister, Bishop Proudie is given the post. The battle lines are immediately drawn between the High Church in the form of the Grantlys and the Low Church represented by the Pro…
Five bows for the bishop's horses, and you know this visit has gone beautifully wrong.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A bishopric turns family expectation and party politics into a quietly exact study of ambition.
Barchester Towers begins with a church appointment carrying the weight of a public crisis. After old Dr. Grantley dies, Barchester spends ten days weighing whether the next bishop will arrive through a Conservative or Liberal government.
A charitable institution becomes a dryly comic test of law, money, and private consequence.
Hiram's Hospital becomes a study in charitable reform, public pressure, and the odd machinery that decides private lives. Mr. Harding's resignation, John Bold's lawsuit, and a parliamentary bill all hang over an institution now being rearranged into something more modern, at…
A new bishop brings London ambitions to Barchester, where money, display, Mrs. Proudy, and Mr. Slope start to matter.
Dr. Proudy comes to Barchester with his eyes still fixed on London. His arrival has the shape of a formal installation, though the meaning of the ceremony remains deliberately hazy, and that uncertainty becomes part of the satire.
A severe chaplain turns Sabbath doctrine into social power, one household at a time.
Reverend Mr. Slope arrives as a portrait of religious severity joined to social ambition. His origins remain uncertain, though rumor supplies a possible lineage, and his path runs through Cambridge to a new district church near Baker Street.
A morning call turns horses, church appointments, and household pride into a forecast of the Archdeacon's fury.
Certainty sets the tone as Mr. Harding expects Dr. Prouty to restore him to the hospital wardenship, even as Barchester readies itself for a bishop whose opinions sit uneasily with its own.
Dr. Grantley hands Mr. Harding a telegraph message that says, "The Bishop of Barchester is dead."
Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, Chapter 2, follows Hiram's Hospital after Mr.
"Dr. Proudy was not the man to allow anything to be omitted that might be becoming to his new dignity."
Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Towers chapter 4, “The Bishop’s Chaplain,” follows Mr.
In "A Morning Visit," Mr.
"No one but a preaching clergyman" can compel an audience "to sit silent and to be tormented."
The Stanhopes would visit you in your sickness, provided it were not contagious, and bring you oranges and French novels.
Bishop Proudie flees Barchester after Mr.
A LibriVox recording of Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, Chapter 29, where the Archdeacon prepares for a serious interview with Eleanor.
A reading of Chapter XLII from Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, describing the waning moments of Mrs.
A reading of Chapter 43 of Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, where Mr.
A reading of Chapter 44 of Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, focusing on Mrs.
A reading of Chapter 45 of Barchester Towers, focusing on the Stanhope family's anxious return from Ullathorne.
A LibriVox recording of Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, Chapter 46, featuring Mr.
A LibriVox recording of Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, Chapter 47, detailing the suspense over who will be the new dean of Barchester.
Mr.