Framley Parsonage Read Online Free Page A

springs to mind about the Church of England providing in its clergy a resident gentleman in every parish in the country. Mark Robarts learns through his dangersand mistakes, and becomes qualified for this important Victorian role.
    Mark’s temptation is tuft-hunting and an ambition to advance himself outside the sheltered existence of Framley. Another double-ness of narrative tone can be seen in this connection.
Framley Parsonage
is a comedy which celebrates the small, conservative, rural society of Barsetshire though it perceives pain and injustice,such as that which Crawley suffers, even in this protected world. The moral, political, theological and financial threats all come from London, the centre of fashion, power and speculation. The narrator and his ideal reader understand and enjoy this larger world: the narrator indeed belongs to it, and from it he judges Framley matters as unimportant and charming, even while putting special value onthe country virtues which in the end are triumphant. A comparison with
Mansfield Park
, another novel which shows the moderation of genteel country life invaded by the corruption of the capital, reveals a crucial difference in narrative stance. Jane Austen’s narrator is more intelligent and more knowing than her characters, but is not herself part of the dangerous London world. Trollope’s narrator,on the other hand, is, and his own particular knowing tone adds a further piquancy to the old conflict between Town and Country values. The public of 1860, moreover, read
Framley Parsonage
with an awareness that cities like Barchester werenow only a few hours away from the capital by railway, and that local power, local politics and local customs were being overwhelmed by the forces of Londoninfluence and central government. 22
    The chief problem which Mark brings on himself and his family is debt, something with which Trollope was personally well acquainted from his imprudent youth. Unlike the modern reader, he knew all about the drawing and endorsing of bills, and the discounting of them on the London money market. Once Mark has accepted the bills which Sowerby has drawn up, theyact as promissory notes by which Mark engages to pay certain sums at certain specified dates to whomsoever holds the bills at those dates. Since Mark is not known to be in debt, and has a good income and a position to maintain, as can readily be confirmed from the Clerical Directory, his signature is valuable, as was Lord Lufton’s before him. Sowerby, whose own signature is now valueless, will havebeen able to obtain good sums for the bills which Mark has accepted. The bill-discounter, Tozer, will then have raised money on each bill by putting it up as security for loans from any number of investors, who expect repayment with profit at the date on which the bill falls due. The image of the small investor given confidence by seeing a clergyman’s name on a bill is used by Tozer to add to Mark’sdiscomforts. Sowerby is clearly dishonest in misrepresenting the second bill to Mark as though it will cancel the first (which, as a more experienced man than Mark would know, it cannot), but it is not obvious that the Tozers have acted irregularly, even though Mark and Lord Lufton bluffly assume that they have, from an ancient prejudice against moneylenders. It is characteristic of fictionof this period that the professional money-lender should be presented as lucky to escape the law, when the true crime lies with a well-born character whom nobody dreams of prosecuting for fraud. Mark of course is silenced by his own disgrace. A key moment occurs when he realizes just how deeply he is implicated in irregularities, and that he will be thought guilty of simony in acquiring his prebendarystall as a ‘consideration’ for accommodating Sowerby. 23 Trollope’snarrator loves proverbs, and one of his favourites – that you cannot touch pitch and not be defiled – is fully exemplified by Mark’s story. As usual in Trollope