Barchester Towers (1857), Anthony Trollope's second novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, satirizes clerical politics in the fictional cathedral town of Barchester. When Dr. Proudie is appointed bishop, the established order is disrupted by his domineering wife and the ambitious chaplain Obadiah Slope. Power struggles erupt between the evangelical newcomers and the traditional High Church faction led by Archdeacon Grantly. Meanwhile, the young widow Eleanor Bold becomes the object of competing courtships, including that of the scheming Slope. Trollope weaves comedy, romance, and keen social observation into this beloved portrait of Victorian church society, ending with hypocrisy exposed and virtue rewarded.
