"Let us presume that Barchester is a quiet town in the West of England, more remarkable for the beauty of its cathedral and the antiquity of its monuments than for any commercial prosperity; that the west end of Barchester is the cathedral close, and that the aristocracy of Barchester are the bishop, dean, and canons, with their respective wives and daughters."
This quote comes from the opening paragraph of the novel. It is quite significant because it is the first to describe the quaint British village of Barchester in the series of novels that will collectively be known as the Chronicles of Barchester. From this humble introduction will spring forth hundreds of pages relating the stories of dozens of characters that have fascinated and entertained readers since 1855. The quote is also useful for introducing the personality of the narrator. He is not a character in the sense of active participation, but he is a character, nevertheless. The conversational tone offered by the "Let us presume" also subtly implies a conspiratorial access to readers of secrets and information that draws them into the same non-active participant role. Thus, the seemingly typical third person omniscient perspective allows for not just standard observational conveyance of events, but subjective opinions and prejudices.
"Now I will not say that the archdeacon is strictly correct in stigmatising John Bold as a demagogue, for I hardly know how extreme must be a man's opinions before he can be justly so called; but Bold is a strong reformer. His passion is the reform of all abuses; state abuses, church abuses, corporation abuses."
This quote offers another example of the relaxed, familiar, conversational but slightly ironic tone of the narrative voice. Anthony Trollope was heavily investing in irony about a century and a half before it became the definition of the current age. The thing about his narrative voice in this novel—and, really his body of work as a whole—is that it is often difficult to immediately perceive when he is being ironic and when he is being sincere. For instance, this characterization of John Bold has a tone about it that makes it quite easy to assume the narrator is taking a dig at reformists and is therefore acting as the mouthpiece fort the author's own disdain of like-minded reformists. In fact, Trollope himself was a fervent supporter of many attempts to reform outdated traditions. His narrator's somewhat snarky commentary is more a swipe against naive reformist policies than the need for reform itself.
"Passing into the Strand, he saw in a bookseller's window an announcement of the first number of The Almshouse; so he purchased a copy, and hurrying back to his lodgings, proceeded to ascertain what Mr. Popular Sentiment had to say to the public on the subject which had lately occupied so much of his own attention."
The irony here is not veiled. It is on proud display. This particular quote is of interest due to the character of Mr. Popular Sentiment. The irony here is not ambiguous, but robustly directed toward the art of literary caricature. This character is a sarcastic swipe at the popularity of Charles Dickens, as well as his tendency toward sentimentalism. Or, at least as the narrator views the author's literary rival. The sarcastic portrait of Dickens is not just for show. This parodic caricature is fitted into the story's overall attack on what is seen as naivete among many well-intentioned reformers.
