Positive opinion on the last book you read?
I'm taking advantage of this opportunity to gush about Framley Parsonage.
Mark Robarts is an interesting, if somewhat infuriating, main character. He's a young, well-liked clergyman with a good income and a good wife, who's good friends with his patroness. But his ambition for high society leads him into debts that almost destroy everything. He's not the complete wide-eyed youngster, but he's still young, and can easily be taken advantage of by experienced swindlers, and I like that it explored how a man can continue to mature even after he's a full-blown married-and-settled family man.
Once his sister Lucy showed up is when I was really onboard. I heard someone describe her love story as a better version of the one in Doctor Thorne, and that was so right. It's still the story of a poor, lower-class girl who falls in love with a titled lord whose mother wants him to marry someone more suitable, but it's so much more interesting in every way. We get to see Lucy and Lord Lufton meet each other, and he's charming, and they're charming together. She's quiet and unassuming in public, but very witty in one-to-one conversation. And that's what he falls in love with! Because he's willing to take the time to get to know her! It's so cute.
But what I really love is that the really important relationship here is the one between the romantic heroine and her future mother-in-law. Because Lady Lufton isn't just some Lady Catherine style fire-breathing gorgon. She's a kind woman who genuinely loves her son, and has to figure out how to react when he wants to marry someone very different from the type of wife she envisioned for him. How often do you see that kind of dynamic?
Miss Dunstable! By far my favorite character from Doctor Thorne makes a triumphant return here, and it's so fun to see her story continue. She still gets to be loud and friendly and sensible and waltz across every social boundary and throw money at every problem, but we get to explore her more as a human being. She's in a society that values her only for her money and encourages the worst sides of her nature. How can she hold onto the truly kind, honest, loving person that she is underneath?
There's such a prominent theme of friendship. Valuing the friends you have, but more importantly, trusting them to help you in your problems.
What really sold me on the book and the themes was the Crawley plotline. We contrast Mark--the young clergyman who has been given a plush position and is wasting it--with Mr. Crawley, a devout clergyman struggling to support his wife and children on a poor salary. Mr. Crawley wants to push away his richer friends because his pride won't let him accept charity, but that's portrayed as wrong, and those friends keep persisting in offering help because they're his friends and that's what friends do.
And there are just so many cameos from other books? The Granteys and Proudies from Barchester are back on the scene, as antagonistic as ever. Mr. Harding gets to have one scene of being a fantastic grandpa (even if his granddaughter doesn't appreciate how sweet he is). Most of the cast of Doctor Thorne is still hanging out with Miss Dunstable, you get a much different picture of the Duke of Omnium, Mr. Arabin shows up to knock some sense into Mr. Crawley. It just enhances the world so much and makes these people feel like real people with real lives.
Maybe this one isn't all that different from the other books in the series, but it's the one where the fact that it is a series really started to pay off and turned this series from something I slog through for the sake of the characters into something that I'm genuinely enthusiastic about.
