Trollope's witty, satirical story of a quiet cathedral town shaken by scandal — as the traditional values of Septimus Harding are attacked by zealous reformers and ruthless newspapers — is a drama of conscience that pits individual integrity against worldly ambition. In The Warden Anthony Trollope brought the fictional county of Barsetshire to life, peopled by a cast of brilliantly realised characters that have made him among the supreme chroniclers of the minutiae of Victorian England. It is the first book in The Chronicles of Barsetshire, and its sequel is Barchester Towers, also available in The Collector's Library.

Trollope's comic masterpiece of plotting and backstabbing opens as the Bishop of Barchester lies on his deathbed. Soon a pitched battle breaks out over who will take power, involving, among others, the zealous reformer Dr Proudie, his fiendish wife and the unctuous schemer Obadiah Slope, the smooth Archdeacon Grantly and his father-in-law, the saintly Mr Harding. Barchester Towers is one of Trollope's best-loved novels and captures nineteenth-century provincial England with wit, worldly wisdom and an unparalleled gift for characterisation.

Henry Jones, an unprepossessing London insurance clerk, knows that his uncle has disinherited him. The old man's will, made out at the last minute in favour of Henry's charming cousin Isabel Brodrick, lies neatly folded in a well-thumbed volume of sermons in his book-room; Henry saw him put it there before he died. Unfortunately nobody else knows where the will is, and Henry stands to lose everything by making the knowledge public. Cousin Henry, first published in 1879, is one of the most unusual and intriguing of Trollope's shorter novels and its unlikely hero is a timid coward consumed by guilt. But Trollope's handling of his character and dilemma is masterly in its insight and compassion; he knew he had nothing quite like it elsewhere in his fiction.

Mrs Proudie, the warlike wife of the new Bishop of Barchester, brings the Reverend Slope into the Bishop's Palace to help dominate her husband and rule the local clergy. But Slope is a snake in the grass, determined to find a rich wife, to win advancement for himself, even to fight Mrs Proudie if necessary. Their battle becomes a furious dance, involving rich, pretty Widow Bold, angry Archdeacon Grantly, man-eating Signora Neroni, gentle Mr Harding, confused Parson Quiverful and his fourteen noisy children. This classic comic story is Trollope's most famous novel.

With an Introduction by Joanna Trollope. Trollope's delightful novel recounts the fortunes of Doctor Thorne, an upright and principled country doctor, and his niece Mary. She falls in love with Frank Gresham, heir to the heavily mortgaged Greshambury estate, but he is constrained in his choices by the need to marry well so that he can restore the family fortunes. The vicissitudes of Mary and Frank's courtship are lovingly detailed with all the wit and satire that show Trollope at his finest. In this social comedy, full of snobbery, hypocrisy and self-seeking, we meet characters from the city and cathedral of Barchester, and are introduced to the grandiloquent de Courcy family, whose pretensions mark its members among the author's most felicitous creations, as well as the down-to-earth heiress Miss Dunstable and the deplorable Sir Roger Scatcherd.

The fourth of Trollope's Palliser novels, this text tells the story of Phineas Redux, who returns to politics only to find that a series of quarrels hamper his progress. The beautiful and enigmatic Madame Max Goesler, familiar from earlier political novels, plays her part in this tale.

This story deals with the imperfect workings of the legal system in the trial and acquittal of Lady Mason. Trollope wrote in his Autobiography that his friends considered this the best I have written.

Trollope relates his life from the influence of his childhood and mother, to the time he spent in the Post Office and the motivation behind his literary career.

This is a reissue of the previous World's Classics edition in the new, larger format and with the series name changed to Oxford World's Classics.

Designed for both general readers and students of English literature at all levels, this edition of Trollope's novel contains an introduction, notes and comments on the text.

Barchester Towers, Trollope's most popular novel, is the second of the six Chronicles of Barsetshire. The Chronicles follow the intrigues of ambition and love in the cathedral town of Barchester. Trollope was of course interested in the Church, that pillar of Victorian society — in its susceptibility to corruption, hypocrisy, and blinkered conservatism — but the Barsetshire novels are no more 'ecclesiastical' than his Palliser novels are political. It is the behaviour of the individuals within a power structure that interests him. In this novel Trollope continues the story of Mr Harding and his daughter Eleanor, adding to his cast of characters that oily symbol of progress Mr Slope, the hen-pecked Dr Proudie, and the amiable and breezy Stanhope family. The central questions of this moral comedy — Who will be warden? Who will be dean? Who will marry Eleanor? — are skilfully handled with that subtlety of ironic observation that has won Trollope such a wide and appreciative readership.

Plantaganet Palliser, Prime Minister of England — a man of power and prestige, with all the breeding and inherited wealth that goes with it — is appalled at the inexorable rise of Ferdinand Lopez. An exotic impostor, seemingly from nowhere, Lopez has society at his feet, while well-connected ladies vie with each other to exert influence on his behalf — even Palliser's own wife, Lady Glencora. But when the interloper makes a socially advantageous marriage, Palliser must decide whether to stand by his wife's support for Lopez in a by-election or leave him to face exposure as a fortune-hunting adventurer. A novel of social, sexual and domestic politics, The Prime Minister raises one of the most enduring questions in government — whether a morally scrupulous gentleman can make an effective leader.