Last Chronicle of Barset (version 2), The by Anthony Trollope (1815 - 1882)

LibriVox reader Nicholas Clifford calls this Trollope's best novel in his introduction to the collaborative version of this fine novel - and he is right! A wonderful study of its central character, the proud, irascible, tormented, poverty-stricken clergyman, Josiah Crawley, who pays a heavy price for his human failings when he is brought to trial for the alleged theft of a cheque for twenty pounds. The trial is the source of much grief for his long-suffering family, not least his wife Mary and daughter Grace (the novel's romantic heroine), whilst the Reverend Crawley reminds us more and more of a mad King Lear on the heath. (Summary by Steve Gough)