big book fear

Following on from my September post, wherein I discussed reading a Victorian novel, so as to participate in BookTube's Victober event, I wanted to post this update and confirm that I chose to read Doctor Thorne (1858) by Anthony Trollope in October. Doctor Thorne is Book three in The Chronicles of Barsetshire, a series of six novels, by Trollope, set in and around the fictional town of Barchester, in the fictional county of Barsetshire. I should mention here that you will also find this series of books referred to as The Barsetshire Chronicles, and also The Barchester Chronicles, but they are all one (or six) and the same thing. The novels do not focus on the same characters in each novel, but characters from previous books can wander into, and out of, other of the stories, since they all live in the same vicinity. I like this aspect of the books. 

Doctor Thorne isn't the first novel I have read in this series. I also read the first book, The Warden (1855) so years ago. I'll admit to finding it a rather dry read, and wasn't in a huge rush to continue the series, especially as the next volume, Barchester Towers (1857), runs to approx 600 pages (depending which edition you buy) and at the time I didn't feel quite up to tackling that. I have alluded to my nervousness about tackling big books before. In fact, The Warden aside, all the rest of the books in this series are real doorstops, and it makes no sense to me now, that I used that reason to skip the second book in the series, but a good while later, then chose to read book three in the series, Doctor Thorne, which has 562 pages. I can best justify this decision by saying that I own a copy of Doctor Thorne and, therefore, it was the work of only moments to lift it down from my bookshelf.

I should add here that I enjoyed the book, and it didn't outstay its welcome, despite its length. I chose to read this book instead of a Dickens novel, that I also own, and I'm pleased that I did. I find Trollope much easier to read than Dickens. His language and style strike me as more contemporary, his dialogue, and certainly his sentences less convoluted. And while his characters aren't so vivid as some you'll find in a Dickens novel, they are well written and rounded. I very much preferred this entry in the series over the first, to the point where it encouraged me to continue with the series. But to continue it in a way that is now in danger of becoming a habit, by skipping the next novel, Framley Parsonage (1861), and jumping straight to the one after that - that's bypassing book four and picking up book five instead, in case you're losing track. What can I say. I'm a repeat offender.

I can't offer any sensible excuse for this behaviour, other than to say that I prefer the cover of book five (see below) - it's a lovely cover, I'm sure you'll agree. Book five is called A Small House at Allington (1862), and it has 665 pages: more than either of the books in the series that I've chosen to skip. Where's the sense? It is what it is, and we are where we are. I'll be tackling Allington early in the new year, once all the season's festivities are over.

Speaking of seasonal, I can't get through the Christmas holidays without rewatching Dickensian, a 20 episode TV series, based on the works of Charles Dickens - I haven't turned my back on him entirely. The conceit of the show is that all of Dickens' characters inhabited London at the same time, so would almost inevitably have walked the same streets, lived cheek-by-jowl, and known each other. So, when a murder occurs, down by the London docks, many characters that we know and love from A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, The Old Curiosity Shop, Martin Chuzzlewit, Oliver Twist, and more, are all drawn into the net of the investigating Inspector Bucket (from Bleak House). I love this series, it draws you right into the Victorian world of Dickens, and his characters. The acting is top draw, and the recreated streets and alleyways of London are beguiling. You can almost smell the unwashed poor, the mutton pies, and the slow, rolling river.