Palliser novels

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The "Palliser novels" are six novels by Anthony Trollope.

The common thread is the wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser and (in all but the last book) his wife Lady Glencora. The plots usually involve English politics in varying degrees, specifically in and around Parliament.

The books are:

The series stands in contrast to Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire, also six novels, which deal with life in a more rural fictional county.

The series is alluded to in Anna Karenina, which deals with a similar theme.

[edit] Adaptations

In 1974 the BBC adapted the Palliser novels as a twenty-six part serial The Pallisers, also using some material from Trollope's Barsetshire novel The Small House at Allington (1864). The series starred Susan Hampshire as Lady Glencora M'Cluskie and Philip Latham as Plantagenet Palliser. Sudeley Castle, once the home of Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII, was the location used for Matching Priory, the Pallisers' country residence.

Other cast members in the adaptation included:

  • Lynne Frederick as Isabel Boncassen
  • Mel Martin as Violet Effingham
  • Roland Culver as the Duke of Omnium
  • Sarah Badel as Lizzie Eustace
  • Jeremy Clyde as Gerard Maule
  • Sheila Ruskin as Emily Wharton
  • Edward Hardwicke as the Prince of Wales
  • John Ringham as Major Tifto
  • Caroline Mortimer as Alice Vavasor
  • Gary Watson as George Vavasor
  • Donald Eccles as Squire Vavasor
  • Kate Nicholls as Lady Mary Palliser
  • Anna Carteret as Lady Mabel Grex
  • Stuart Wilson as Ferdinand Lopez
  • Carolyn Jones as Patience Crabstick
  • Helen Lindsay as Mrs Carbuncle
  • Rachel Herbert as Lady Dumbello
  • Barry Justice as Burgo Fitzgerald

There was also a 12-part BBC Radio 4 "Classic Serial" dramatisation in 2004.