“Having learned that the Barsetshire Chronicles of Angela Thirkell were inspired by Anthony Trollop's novels, indeed going so far as to adopt some of Trollop's character names and places, I was inspired to find Trollope's work. My local library only has this edition, in which Trollope scholar and expert Michael Hardwick has drastically abridged the original 16 volume, more than million and half words of Trollope's six Pariamentary Novels into one very succinct and readable volume by omitting multiple repetitions, digressions, redundant subplots and eminently expendable verbiage and punctuation. It is a masterful abridgement. I am thoroughly enjoying Trollpe's exploration of mid-Victorian "faults and vices,-as also the virtues, the graces, and the strength of our highest classes." as he presents Plantagenet Pallister, politian and heir to the great Duke of Omnium, and his beautiful, vivacious young wife, lady Glencora, and their contemporaries- colleagues, allies and rivals.
This fine adaptation, containing only Trollope's own words, with a few exceptions to maintain storyline and clarity, will encourage me to seek out copies of the original, unabridged six Parliamentary novels: Can You Forgive Her?; Phineas Finn: The Eustace Diamonds; Phineas Redux; The Prime Minister; and The Duke's Chilfren. Well done, Michael Hardick, You have indeed made Trollope inviting and readable to modern readers a century and a half after the originals were penned!”
