CHRISTMAS AT THOMPSON HALL

Classic Fiction Short Stories & Anthologies

By Anthony Trollope

Synopsis

Mostly set in the imaginary county of Barsetshire, this collection of stories depict the festive period with all Trollope's trademark zest, humour, and cheerfulness. They offer rich and psychologically acute portrayals of the middle class and gentry of Victorian England at Christmas time.

Sample Player

Narrator	John Hobday
Length	5hrs 30mins
Catalogue No.	11074
Publisher	Penguin Classics; 2014

Other audiobooks by Anthony Trollope

AYALA'S ANGEL

After the death of her father, Ayala is faced with a choice of three suitors, but which one will she choose?

BARCHESTER TOWERS

Part 2 of the series. Sequel to 'The Warden' (7942). When evangelical Dr Proudie is appointed Bishop of Barchester a struggle develops for control of the diocese. Mrs Proudie's overbearing behaviour makes matters worse.

CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?

First book of the Palliser novels. Alice Vavasor is reluctant to marry the man she truly loves because his style of life doesn't fit with her idea that people should make something useful of their lives. She becomes engaged to her cousin but can't forget the man she truly loves.

COUSIN HENRY

Henry Jones, an unprepossessing London insurance clerk, knows that his uncle has disinherited him. The old man's will made out at the last minute in favour of Henry's charming cousin Isabel Brodrick, lies neatly folded in a well-thumbed volume of sermons in his book-room; Henry saw him put it there before he died. Unfortunately nobody else knows where the will is, and Henry stands to lose everything by making the knowledge public.

DOCTOR THORNE

Third book in the series. Sequel to: 'Barchester Towers' (7360). Doctor Thorne adopts his niece Mary, keeping secret her illegitimate birth as he introduces her to the best local social circles. She meets and falls in love with Frank Gresham - heir to a vastly mortgaged estate and looking for a wealthy wife. He is unaware that Mary is to inherit a large legacy that will make her acceptable to the middle-class society to which he belongs.

DR WORTLE'S SCHOOL

Set against a background of diocesan and parochial life, this is the story of Mr Peacock, a schoolmaster, threatened with blackmail by the brother-in-law of his wife.

THE DUKE'S CHILDREN

6th Palliser novel. Sequel to 'The Prime Minister' (7422). The death of the Duchess leaves the Duke of Omnium in charge of his three wilful children.

THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS

Third of the Palliser Series. Sequel to 'Phineas Finn' (7418). When Lizzie Eustace acquires an expensive diamond necklace she maintains it was a gift from her late husband. Eustace family lawyers disagree, and insist she gives it up. She is driven to desperate acts to keep the jewels, causing gossip and scandal.

FRAMLEY PARSONAGE

Fourth book in the series. Sequel to 'Doctor Thorne' (7366). The ambitious young clergyman in the small country parish of Framley foolishly guarantees a loan for the local MP, a notorious debtor.

HARRY HEATHCOTE OF GANGOIL

Using conventions of the Christmas story established by Dickens in the late 1840s, Trollope relates the problems facing a young sheepfarmer in outback Australia. Harry Heathcote thwarts the envious ex-convict neighbours who harbour his disgruntled former employees and attempt to set fire to his pastures.

HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT

Louis Trevelyan unjustly accuses his wife Emily of a liaison with a friend of her father's. Gradually his jealousy and suspicion deepen into madness.

THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET

Final book in the series. Sequel to 'The Small House at Allinghton' (7426). The story of the courtship between the daughter of the Rev. Crawley and the son of the wealthy Archdeacon Grantly.

MALACHI'S COVE AND OTHER STORIES AND ESSAYS

The atmosphere of place, the subtlety of human personality, and variety of incident make these stories an enjoyable read.

PHINEAS FINN

2nd book in Palliser Series. Sequel to 'Can You Forgive Her?' (7363). Phineas is young, Irish, attractive, ambitious and adaptable. This story reveals the splendour and absurdity of parliamentary proceedings and compromise of the party system in the mid nineteenth century.

PHINEAS REDUX

The fourth of the Palliser novels. Sequel to 'The Eustace Diamonds' (7370) Phineas Phinn returns to politics but finds that his progress is impeded by a series of quarrels. Phineas is drawn into a web of suspicion; eventually to find himself in the dock, charged with murder.

THE PRIME MINISTER

5th in Palliser Series. Sequel to 'Phineas Redux' (7419). Plantaganet Pallister, Duke of Omnium, is a scrupulously honourable English gentleman, but can he make an effective Prime Minister? Presiding over a coalition government, and interacting with the upper echelons of the Establishment, must political reality take over from ideology?

SIR HARRY HOTSPUR OF HUMBLETHWAITE

On the death of his son, Sir Harry Hotspur had determined to give his property to his daughter Emily. She is beautiful and as strong-willed and high-principled as her father. Then she falls in love with the black-sheep of the family.

THE SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON

5th book in the series. Sequel to 'Framley Parsonage' (7372). Lily Dale lives with her sister and mother in a small house in Allington. Lily is engaged to Adolphus Crosbie, a self-seeking social climber who abandons Lily to marry Lady Alexandrina de Courcy. After this Lily devotes herself to her mother.

THE THREE CLERKS

The Three Clerks is Trollope's first important and incisive commentary on the contemporary scene. Set in the 1850s, it satirizes the recently instituted Civil Service examinations and financial corruption in dealings on the stock market. The story of the three clerks and the three sisters who become their wives shows Trollope probing and exposing relationships with natural sympathy and insight. The novel is imbued with autobiographical warmth and immediacy, the ironic appraisal of politics and society deftly balanced by romantic and domestic pathos and tribulation.

THE WARDEN

1st book in Barchester Series. In Barchester a scandal breaks concerning the financial affairs of a Church-run almshouse. The well-meaning warden, Septimus Harding, finds himself pitted against Dr John Bold, a zealous reformer, and his daughter's suitor. An affectionate and witty view of the workings of the Church of England.

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW

Augustus Melmotte has the reputation of being a great financier, but when it is revealed that his prize speculation is a huge confidence trick he is socially disgraced - and commits suicide. The sordidness of his affairs affects his daughter's chances in the marriage-mart.