A contemptible bunch of so-called dignitaries in Trollope's Framely Parsonage

After a spell of reading obscure, sometimes inscrutable European fiction I have plunged into the warm bath of Trollope, clasic 19-th-century British fiction with a wry, self-effacing narrator and lots of gossip about the happenings among the clergy and gentry of a small English countryside community (Barchester), starting (for the 2nd time - read the first chapter a few years ago but was Trolloped out so to speak) the Framely Parsonage (I'm cheating and checking on the names of tsoe of he characters - they tend to blend into one another), another, the 4th I think, in the Barchester series, which is loosely about the seemingly unenticing topic of church politics. Part of the fun is how much yardage Trollope can get out of this obscure, even antiquated topic. In short, this novel is about a young clergyman - Mark Robarts - who has a small parsonage thanks to his patron - the widowed mother of his childhood friend, Lady Lufton. Robarts has a "comfortable" income, a loving wife, two fine young children - but he's ambitious, would like to be a bishop someday perhaps, so he begins to play up to the established figures in the community, including a few members of Parliament, who bring him together with the current Bishop and who get him an invite to a weekend at the home of the highest ranking person in the region, the Duke - who is a totally self-centered sleaze but who, Robarts thinks, can advance him in society. His patroness, Lady Lufton, is outraged that Robarts is eager to spend time with the Duke - she's as much of a self-centered prig as the Duke is a self-centered libertine - and we begin to see that Robarts is caught between worlds. Worse, he inexplicable signs a note pledging 400 pounds - nearly half his income - to a completely irresponsible so-called friend, Sowerby - putting his own family in a financial bind. What's strike throughout the first 20 percent of so of the novel is how little these so-called churchmen and legislative leaders have anything to do with the families in their domain: they are indifferent at best and more often condescending to or even contemptuous of the working people, the farmers, the shopkeepers, etc. - all of whom make their relatively genteel and prosperous life possible. There's much time devoted to an absurd fundraising scheme to support missionaries in Borneo - the church people pretend to take this seriously but in private mock and jeer at the whole enterprise - but there's never a word about helping anyone in their community: They think it's a public service to invite the local folks to hear - for free! - a church lecture on Borneo (and keep them waiting a long time, to boot, while the assembled dignitaries socialize and have another drink or two) - what a contemptible bunch!

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