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Barchester Towers

Drawing Room Drama and Religious Reactions Author: Anthony Trollope In Trollope’s second installment in The Chronicles of Barsetshire, the little town of Barsetshire is alive with drawing room intrigue, this time set along the lines of respectable holy war. The long-lived Bishop of Barchester has recently vacated his post and this life, resulting in a scramble for primacy among the backstabbing candidates. This results in a brand-new bishop, the lamentable (and viciously hen-pecked) Dr. Proudie, who is disgustingly low church and comes with his sidekick and supporter, the Reverend Slope. As Slope fights Mrs. Proudie for the right to rule the [...]

2022-12-20T08:42:00-07:00December 12th, 2022|Tags: , , , , , , |

Age of Innocence

A So-So Classic with Unlikable Characters Author: Edith Wharton Newland Archer, former lover of a married woman, has sown his wild oats. He is ready to settle down, yet he hopes that his new wife, May Well, will be open to his ideas. Despite having chosen May and wooed her for her societal prestige, her cosseted goodness, her forced innocence, he has ideas about the liberation of a woman’s mind. He is at war with himself – with what he says he wants and what he really wants. But he realizes none of this. Enter the Countess Olenska, a distant relative [...]

2022-09-26T18:27:42-07:00September 26th, 2022|Tags: , , , |

Picture of Dorian Gray

The Price of Pleasure Author: Oscar Wilde Would you commit a crime if there was a guarantee that you would never be caught? Would you experiment with all manner of evil and decadence if your face never revealed the cost of experience? Young Dorian Gray is a blank slate. He is a beautiful man – a man so beautiful that he captures the imagination of Basil Hallward, a painter always in search of the perfect muse. But when Dorian meets Basil’s friend, Lord Henry, the impressionable young man is captivated by the cynicism, the depravity, the silken promise of living an [...]

2022-09-17T14:59:55-07:00September 17th, 2022|Tags: , |
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