Page:The Last Chronicle of Barset Vol 2.djvu/424



“There is a moral, and, as we take it, a very high, and in these present days a very rare moral, in Mr. Trollope’s tale, which strikes us as one of the healthiest, and, without soaring very high, one of the noblest for ordinary men which has been written for many a day. ‘The Claverings’ has, as we believe, a higher moral and a more perfect artistic unity than any of Mr. Trollope’s previous tales. There is scarcely a touch in it which does not contribute to the main effect, both artistic and moral, of the story, and not a character introduced, however slightly sketched, which does not produce its own unique and specific effect on the reader’s imagination.”—Spectator.

“This is one of the very pleasantest of Mr. Trollope’s novels.” Illustrated Times.

“Mr. Trollope has written nothing more true or entertaining than this admirable representation of our modern social world, with its special temptations, special vices, and special kinds of retribution. It is not so much a story, though it has a certain current of story quite sufficient to lead the reader on, as a fragment of complicated social strategy, that he describes in these pages,—and describes with a delicacy of observation and a moral thoughtfulness, which matters apparently so trifling probably never before received. These are the before received. themes which Mr. Trollope embodies for us in pictures of wonderful skill, fidelity, and humour.”—Spectator.

“It would be absurd to waste any time in narrating the events of a story every detail of which must already be perfectly familiar to at least the great majority of our readers. We have literally nothing to do but to praise.”—Spectator.

“One of the best novels of the day.”—Examiner.

“We regard this work of Mr. Trollope as matchless in its way, being so perfectly pure and yet so manly, such fitting food for men, but with no odour and no savour that shall hurt the tenderest maiden. Framley Parsonage is about the most healthy and most masculine book that has been published in these later times, which to our thinking is the highest term of praise to be awarded to any work whatever.”—London Review.