Framley Parsonage is a novel by acclaimed British author Anthony Trollope which is the fourth volume in his Barsetshire Chronicles series. Trollope was one of the most prolific and successful authors at a time his peers and competitors ranged from Charles Dickens to George Eliot. The Barsetshire Chronicles is a series of novels with interconnecting characters set in a typical British countryside village. Framley Parsonage was preceded by The Warden, Barchester Towers, and Doctor Thorne and followed by The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset. Trollope’s famous and much-admired work ethic is fairly demonstrated by the fact that all six of these novels were published within a twelve-year period during which he also wrote another half-dozen novels having nothing to do with the Chronicles.
Framley Parsonage was originally published as a serial in Cornhill Magazine in 1860 before first appearing as a self-contained novel in 1861. It is a story about the power of big fish in small ponds as it follows the travails of newly arrived vicar Mark Robarts and his dependence upon wealthy Lady Lufton to maintain his position of leadership. When the vicar makes the ill-conceived decision to guarantee a not unsubstantial loan which inevitably is not repaid and puts him in a financial crisis of his own, he seeks assistance from Lady Lufton. She seizes this opportunity to exploit the vicar’s weakened position by wielding her influence over Robarts in the matter of her son, Lord Lufton, desiring to marry Mark’s sister Lucy, whom Lady Lufton does not consider of high enough class to marry into her family.
This is not the only novel by the author to focus its story heavily on a village minister. Trollope stated many times over the years that he was interested in taking these men out of the church to portray their lives as influential social leaders of a community rather than moral instructors. In doing so, he is able to present an unexpected figure at the center of a morally ambiguous and ethically-challenged community of men and woman who are all trying to either attain or maintain their positions of prestige and power within the constricted confines of a simple village.
Although a popular success among readers, the initial critical reception was mixed. Among the recurring criticisms is that the story was far more loosely constructed than the previous books in the series. That it is a continuation of that series also formed the basis of a widely-held opinion that the reappearance of characters in a continuing set of books inevitably has the effect of diluting what made them interesting in the first place. For a time with the rise of Modernism, this and other Trollope novels fell out of favor with both critics and readers. Later twentieth-century reappraisal would hold the book in higher esteem, dismissing much criticism at the time that the story is far too trivial to warrant such length and attention. Modern criticism and suggested that Framley Parsonage reveals itself as a far more accurate reflection of Victorian social morality than many more famous works.
An interesting footnote to this novel is that even as it was still being written in monthly installments published in serial form, arrangements were already being made to mount a stage adaptation to premiere at the legendary Drury Lane. Though ultimately abandoned, the very fact that it was seriously considered does give some indication as to the intimate nature of the storyline.
