Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope

The second of Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire is a joy despite being pretty long and having essentially no plot. the fun is mainly in the characters and their petty scheming - the oleaginous Obadiah Slope is particularly memorable.

I also liked the regular interventions by the authorial voice, which are reminiscent of Sterne. for example, he assures us early on that our heroine will not marry either of her unsuitable suitors, which made me laugh and detracted not a whit from the telling of the tale, as we knew this wouldn't happen anyway.