The Last Chronicle of Barset
by Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was a skilled satirist, with an unshakable insight into the most intimate details of human behavior and a metaphorical understanding of the anxieties of nineteenth-century English novels. In The Last Chronicle of Barset, Mr. Crowley, Hogglestok's curator, falls into a deep debt, inflicting pain on himself and his family. Worse, he is accused of theft, cannot remember where he got the fake check he allegedly stole from, and must be prosecuted. Trollope's mighty portrait of this intricate man – gloomy, thoughtful and proud – moves from one cruel humiliation to another – reaches tragic proportions.
