I know what you mean about the other, unwritten novels - I said something similar the other day, in reply to someone on LJ, about Phineas Finn, another Trollope novel.
Yes, I've read all the Barsetshire novels. Do I recommend them? Mmmm.. The trouble is that Trollope has such a pronounced voice, and if you don't like his voice (and I think you don't) then you probably wouldn't enjoy the series. His strengths are all there - the rather world-weary examination of the actual day-to-day mechanics of trivial corruptions and downfalls, cased in easy-to-read, usually happy-ending, love-stories (because Trollope was writing for a market he knew very well, not to make high art). The corruptions are all petty - debts, attempted entrapment into marriage, hypocrisies, drunkenness - and he's pretty shameless about letting his heroes and heroines escape the consequences of their follies; he lets the reader off lightly, for the most part. I like The Last Chronicle very much, but then - I like Trollope's voice!
Re: The Stanhopes
Yes, I've read all the Barsetshire novels. Do I recommend them? Mmmm..
The trouble is that Trollope has such a pronounced voice, and if you don't like his voice (and I think you don't) then you probably wouldn't enjoy the series. His strengths are all there - the rather world-weary examination of the actual day-to-day mechanics of trivial corruptions and downfalls, cased in easy-to-read, usually happy-ending, love-stories (because Trollope was writing for a market he knew very well, not to make high art).
The corruptions are all petty - debts, attempted entrapment into marriage, hypocrisies, drunkenness - and he's pretty shameless about letting his heroes and heroines escape the consequences of their follies; he lets the reader off lightly, for the most part.
I like The Last Chronicle very much, but then - I like Trollope's voice!