Barchester towers (1905)

Church appointments turn out to involve income, influence, domestic authority and a surprising amount of tactical flirting. Trollope enjoys the distance between Christian professions and the scramble for a comfortable position. You do not need to know the finer points of church factions to recognise the office politics. This is the second Barsetshire novel: The Warden supplies useful background, though the central contest is introduced here. The pleasure is in schemers who never quite hear how pompous they sound.