Final stretch

 After yesterday's meeting of the Trollope Society to discuss the final chapters of The Kellys and the O'Kellys, my attention now turns to the last title of this year's reading list, Ralph the Heir.  This is one of Trollope's later novels, published in 1871. It is the story of two men who compete with each other to inherit a large estate, while both coincidentally named Ralph.  Finances and inheritance are common themes in Trollope's novels, as are politics.  This one mentions a situation very closely drawn from the authors personal experience when he ran for election to Parliament.  He was unsuccessful, but the campaign did expose some corruption in the election process.

After the main part of yesterday's meeting, part of the group remained to discuss next year's reading list, a topic I am very interested in.  The Trollope Society instituted The Big Read in 2020, and is the ongoing effort to read and discuss all the many novels published by Anthony Trollope.  In all the time since, the group has covered most of Trollope's works, and only a handful of short or lesser-known books remain.  So what does next year look like?  Possibilities that were discussed were reading the remaining minor works, perhaps expanding to secondary works like Trollope's non-fiction writings, or works by his relatives.  Or, the one that most appealed to me, returning to his best known book series, The Chronicles of Barsetshire and the Palliser novels.  I joined the Trollope society in early 2025, by which time they'd already covered these books which I had read and knew fairly well.  I've always wanted to hear the thoughts of the wider group, many of whom have a much deeper knowledge of Trollope the I do, on these books that I love.  That now seems to be a feasible possibility for next year's reading list.  I'm not sure who will make the final decision and when it will be made.  But I'm happy it's under consideration.