Sean's Reviews > Doctor Thorne

For God sakes, Frank must marry money!!!! Trollope reiterates this necessity over and over again in this third novel in Barchester Chronicles series. This is series of six novels that keep getting longer and longer with each book. At the end of Doctor Thorne and we are left exactly in the middle of this great series which is reputed to be one of Trollope’s finest work.

This volume in the series steers away from much of the church politics and intrigue that are involved in the first two books, The Warden and Barchester Towers. This book is probably more similar to Jane Austen’s work concerning marriages, inheritance, and paranoia concerning scandals within the upper tiers of Victorian era aristocracies.

Trollope writes well here as always but the story itself, in my opinion, is not so memorable. The story moves away from Barchester and focuses on the wealthiest family in Greshambury. The son Frank, pitted between pursing women of wealth or his true love, an orphan who is penniless is subject of much controversy throughout the village. This type of subject is very characteristic of 19th century Victorian novels. This book offers nothing particular noteworthy to the genre but it is an interesting read containing all of Trollope’s beloved prose. Doctor Thorne is a good effort by Trollope standards but not his best.