Just thought I'd add that Trollope is a significantly better writer than Dickens - clear and economical prose style, subtlety to rival Jane Austen's, superb understanding of the human condition and human frailties, and he's just so funny.
He doesn't write about the underclass as Dickens does, but then people differ surprisingly little wherever they're from. I recently had to abandon Bleak House (Dickens) as the heavy relentless pathos/bathos and his overdone attempts to show how saintly the heroine is, were quite sickening and demonstrated to me Dickens's weakness as a writer. (Was it Oscar Wilde asked who could read of the death of little Nell without laughing?)
I've read over 20 Trollope novels and each one is fresh and new. Currently reading
Ralph the Heir and it has me laughing out loud.
Mind you, I'm sure others may think differently
