Barchester Towers.: Introduction by Ruth Rendell. Illustrations by Alexy Pendle.

It may be a peculiar taste for this day and age, but I love a good, long Trollope novel. To romp in the cathedral town of Barchester is to enter a world in partnership with the man who created it, as Trollope pauses every so often to describe why the story is proceeding in such or such a direction and to expound on the difficulties of novel-writing. This novel is a continuation of his first Barchester story, "The Warden," and good Dr. Hardy, though no longer the main character, still offers his quiet wisdom to ensure that all ends well. His darling daughter, the widow Eleanor Bold, is the juicy plum sought after by three of the story's male leads: the evil Mr. Slope, the rather amoral Bertie Stanhope, and, of course, the hero, Mr. Arabin. The other villain in the story, the bishop's wife, is the best argument for Roman Catholic priestly celibacy that I've ever encountered. The reader becomes so immersed in this Victorian ecclesiastical milieu that he or she can even overlook sentiments like "He had that nice appreciation of the feelings of others which belongs of right exclusively to women." As one begins to talk to oneself in the speech patterns of the upper-class Victorian English, it is time for the 563 pages of the novel to come to an end. It is nice to know, however, that there is a vast supply of Trollope novels to turn to whenever a respite from the stress of living in the 21st century is required.