Happy Birthday Anthony Trollope!

Barbara Murray as Madame Max Goesler

My Number One favorite author is Anthony Trollope (4/24/1815-12/6/1882). Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire. He also wrote perceptive novels on political, social, and gender issues, and on other topical matters. My favorite series of books written by Trollope, are derived from characters created in the Chronicles of Barsetshire and were made into a BBC series called The Pallisers. It was a terrific story of the upper classes in the political world in Great Britain of the mid 19th century. It featured one of my favorite, albeit obscure, characters in literature, Madame Max (Marie) Goesler later Mrs. Phineas Finn. She is a smart, self-confident, selfless, dedicated and strong woman who always took the bull by the horns and never said 'die'. In the TV series she was played to perfection by Barbara Murray. I've always loved her portrayal of the character and after reading the Palliser Novels (as they are called) I can see that Trollope felt that she was a terrific woman as well. 

The Pallisers DVD collection is available via the 'CLAMS' system on Cape Cod. I highly recommend it if you don't want to read the books. The DVD series is a great way to get introduced to the characters of the novels and if you decide to read them be prepared for a long read. The six novels span several thousand pages.