Barchester Towers. by Trollope, Anthony - 1857

London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857. Rare first edition of one of Trollope's most important novels with "tattooed" for "tabooed" on page 269, line 24 in the second volume. Octavo three volumes bound in three quarters morocco over marbled boards, elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, red and green morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, all edges speckled red. Without the half-title to volume one or advertisements. In very good condition. Barchester Towers is the second novel in Trollope's series known as the "Chronicles of Barsetshire". Among other things it satirises the antipathy in the Church of England between High Church and Evangelical adherents. Trollope began writing this book in 1855. He wrote constantly and made himself a writing-desk so he could continue writing while travelling by train. "Pray know that when a man begins writing a book he never gives over", he wrote in a letter during this period. "The evil with which he is beset is as inveterate as drinking - as exciting as gambling." In his autobiography, Trollope observed "In the writing of Barchester Towers I took great delight. The bishop and Mrs. Proudie were very real to me, as were also the troubles of the archdeacon and the loves of Mr. Slope". When he submitted his finished work, his publisher, William Longman, initially turned it down, finding much of it to be full of "vulgarity and exaggeration." Recent critics offer a more sanguine opinion, "Barchester Towers is many readers' favorite Trollope", wrote The Guardian, which included it in its list of "1000 novels everyone must read."