Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope » It’s hard to believe that I read this book. Before all, I have to explain why: I’m not a native speaker, and the edition I read was in English… from the 19th century. It was a gift I got during my time in Birmingham (from a Trollope fan!), and I faced this reading as a challenge to my learning. When possible, I do prefer to read books in their original language - so I just read some Gabriel García Marquez’s books in Spanish, for example, and a few in English. Obviously, I take a longer time than I usually do when I read in Portuguese (my native language), and I don’t like to stop every minute to check a word on the dictionary. My main concern is getting the meaning, learning some new words and enjoying the story.
The “challenge” started about 8 months ago - during this time, I did three long pauses, when I read another book in English (Once While Travelling) and got involved with a books’ project here in Brazil. My main difficulty, however, was not the language when I started reading the book, but the understanding of the mentality and social relationships at that time in England. The context is the changing on the clerical world of Barchester when the bishop died.
What I enjoyed the most on the plot was the “possible husbands” for Eleanor Bold and, mainly, the Stanhope family - to me, their appearance on the city causes confusion and some schemes between the characters, what made the plot wittier to me. Because the book was a personal challenge, I don’t feel as I could recommend it or not. In future, when I’d improved my English and know more about England’s history, I would read this book again, to see this story with different eyes.
