Trollope on compact disc

Among the well-known names are Robert Hardy, reading the moving passage of Mr Harding's funeral from The Last Chronicle of Barset, Simon Callow describing an ambitious young clergyman in Framley Parsonage or Gabriel Woolf reading Trollope's most celebrated scene, Mrs Proudie's reception in Barchester Towers. The three novels just mentioned are part of the Barsetshire series, but Trollope's other great series of novels, the Palliser or Parliamentary novels, is well represented with Harriet Walter reading from The Prime Minister and Dorothy Turin reading from Can You Forgive Her? One of the many merits of this selection, however, is the welcome attention given to lesser known works such as Is He Popenjoy? where Ian Richardson reads how an outraged clergyman knocked a dissolute Marquis into a hotel fireplace while Geraldine James effectively conveys a young girl's reactions to a ball in Rachel Ray. The choice of different voices is important because it reveals the many-sided nature of Trollope's genius. Thus the first reading, that from The Macdermots of Ballycloran by T.P. McKenna gives an appropriate Irish lilt to a description of a run-down mansion from Trollope's first novel.

Naturally those who are new to Trollope or those who know only a few of his works can gain much pleasure and knowledge from this set. Yet even those who know the novels intimately - such as people like myself who have spent years studying Trollope and writing about him - can learn a great deal by listening to Trollope. By listening, far better than by reading, you are made aware of how he uses a layer of small details - a hand on a carriage door, a broken-down roof, a distressed Bishop being unshaven - to build his ever-sympathetic picture of human behaviour. It also allows the informed listener to speculate on the nature of his creativity. I am more convinced than ever after listening to these discs that Trollope read his work aloud to himself and that he must often have acted out the dialogue. And I am also more convinced that his wife Rose helped him greatly. The description of Mrs Proudie's dress, with all its complicated parts, could not have been done by any man alone, unless he were a dress designer. Rose Trollope was a talented needlewoman and I am sure she must have added her touch to her husband's manuscript when she prepared readable copy for the printer. Sometimes a device by one of the readers forces one to think anew about even the most familiar characters: thus Prunella Scales in Doctor Thorne gives Mrs Proudie a slight Scottish accent. Virtually no one remembers that Mrs Proudie is the niece of a Scottish Earl.

These two discs provide 150 minutes of great listening pleasure. The sound and engineering is excellent, with two such experienced men as Timothy West and Tim Gebbels, who has worked as a BBC Radio Drama producer, producing the discs. Music can often be annoying on sets like this - that was the one fault of the similar set from Shakespeare arranged by the Prince of Wales. Here on the Trollope discs we have some short pieces on the cello, Trollope's favourite instrument, and one so closely identified with Mr Harding in The Warden. Indeed my only unfulfilled wish for this set is that we would have had some more cello.