In the fourth audiobook in Anthony Trollope's series known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, the values of a Victorian gentleman, the young clergyman Mark Robarts, are put to the test. Though he lives a comfortable life, has a doting wife, children and a patroness in Lady Lufton, his ambitions stretch beyond...
the little village of Framley. Through a combination of naivety and social climbing, Robarts is compromised and brought to the brink of financial and social ruin by the disreputable politician, Sowerby.
Meanwhile, a romance develops between Mark's younger sister, Lucy, and Lady Lufton's son. He proposes, but the marriage is firmly opposed by his mother. Lucy recognises the difference in their social positions, which forces her to reject Lord Lufton's proposal unless his mother asks her to accept him.
Working with the prose of one of the most successful and respected English novelists of the Victorian era, narrator Timothy West captures Trollope's customary humour, offsetting the drama of the tale with great compassion.
Like all in the Barsetshire series, it is an extraordinarily evocative picture of everyday life in 19th-century England that delves deep into the social issues of the time.
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