Barchester Towers

The old bishop dies, and the new one arrives with a wife who intends to run the diocese and a chaplain who intends to run the wife - while the cathedral close closes ranks. Trollope wrote before breakfast for three hours by his watch, at 250 words a quarter-hour, and produced the funniest ecclesiastical war in English: Mrs Proudie and Mr Slope are the reason people still read the Barsetshire novel...