Barchester Towers Chapter 1 - Who will Be the New Bishop?

In which the peaceful passing of the venerable Bishop Grantly in Barchester sets in motion the anxious hopes and disappointments of his son, the archdeacon, whose ambitions for ecclesiastical preferment are tested by the shifting political tides and the slow machinery of church appointments. We observe, with gentle scrutiny and measured sympathy, the interplay of human aspiration and circumstance, as the once-expected succession is ultimately set aside in favour of another.