Line #7 Main/Barsetshire


1	Barsetshire is the setting for a novel or series of novels containing one or a few small towns and a lot of countryside. Novels set in a Barsetshire are basically light domestic comedies, though they may have occasional nuggets of melodrama, drama, or even tragedy. Nothing blatantly science-fictional, fantastic, or paranormal takes place (except for the occasional ghost story or local legend related by a character), and any crime or espionage drama is muted and secondary.
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3	In short, you go to Barsetshire for a quiet, relaxing time, in the expectation of being gently amused more than anything else.
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5	A Barsetshire is connected to the real world, and the people can go off and visit London or New York freely, or have visitors or emigrés from such places. Often, real-world history is visible. A Barsetshire is distinct from other fictional towns in mainstream novels by being the setting for a whole series in which the same characters and places appear over and over, though different people may take center stage in any given book.
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7	The {{Trope Namer\|s}} is a fictitious county in England created by Creator/AnthonyTrollope as the setting for his series ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfBarsetshire''. It was later re-used and developed by Angela Thirkell.
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9	A Barsetshire may be set within a FictionalProvince (usually, as the case of the trope namer, a fictional county), but may also be situated in a quiet corner of a real county.
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11	May overlap with IdyllicEnglishVillage. Compare {{Arcadia}} and FictionalCountry. Contrast LovecraftCountry and CampbellCountry.
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13	----
14	!!Examples:
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16	[[foldercontrol]]
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18	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
19	* The town of Sandford in ''Film/HotFuzz'' is a pleasant, quiet, low-crime area where everybody's mostly amenable, in a country-England sort of way. The protagonist, who's [[CityMouse originally from London]], has a [[FishOutOfWater lot of trouble fitting in with the town's ways]]: he's an [[TheAce action movie protagonist]] trapped in one of these. [[spoiler: [[TownWithADarkSecret At least, so it seems]].]]
20	[[/folder]]
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22	[[folder:Literature]]
23	* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfBarsetshire'' by Creator/AnthonyTrollope, set in the 19th century:
24	** The Warden
25	** Barchester Towers
26	** Doctor Thorne
27	** Framley Parsonage
28	** The Small House at Allington
29	** The Last Chronicle of Barset
30	* The ''Barsetshire'' novels of Angela Thirkell, set in the first half of the 20th century, including:
31	** High Rising
32	** The Demon in the House
33	** Pomfret Towers
34	** The Brandons
35	** Before Lunch
36	** Cheerfulness Breaks In
37	** and many more.
38	* Pretty much every novel written by Creator/JaneAusten.
39	* The Shires, the rural hinterlands immediately surrounding the city of Ankh-Morpork, serve this purpose in the Literature/{{Discworld}}. These are an explicit reflection of [[UsefulNotes/HomeCounties Southern]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry Western England]] outside London, and serve as a vehicle for Creator/TerryPratchett to send up every possible literary depiction of Barsetshire that he can cram into the pages of ''Literature/{{Snuff}}''.
40	* The ''Fairacre'' novels of Miss Read [Dora Jessica Saint], set in the later 20th century and usually narrated by the local schoolteacher.
41	* What else is The Shire in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' but a Barsetshire transposed into a fantasy universe?
42	* The ''Thrush Green'' novels of the same Miss Read, set in the later 20th century and usually narrated in the third person.
43	* The ''Mitford'' novels of Jan Karon.
44	* The training cruiser in the novel ''We Joined The Navy'' is HMS Barsetshire
45	* The fictional island of Sodor from ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries''.
46	* Jilly Cooper's Rutshire novels are set in one of these.
47	* Nancy Ahtherton's ''Literature/AuntDimity'' series is mostly set in and around the village of Finch and the nearby market town of Upper Deeping, said to be in the Cotswolds. Dimity Westwood's ghost is an ongoing presence, but she is very well-mannered and largely confines herself to her cottage and her journal.
48	* Creator/ThomasHardy set a lot of his novels in "Wessex", which encompassed a big chunk of the southwestern United Kingdom from Berkshire to Devon.
49	* Zigzagged in the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series, beginning with ''Literature/CrossAndPoppy.'' The setting's a lovely bit of countryside and most of the people are charming. ''Most.'' But some Serious Things Happen There, as well, from crimes to personal crises to funerals to christenings.
50	* ''Felix Holt'', a less well-known novel by Creator/GeorgeEliot, is set in the fictional "Loamshire". This then had a further life in British Army training materials, which use "Loamshire Regiment" as the name for a generic military unit. The "Loamshire Regiment" was then used as the original military affiliation of Literature/BulldogDrummond and several characters in Creator/EvelynWaugh works.
51	* The Yorkshire of veterinarian Creator/JamesHerriot's [[RealLife autobiographical]] ''All Creatures Great and Small'' and its sequels.
52	* Literature/{{Lovejoy}} hangs his hat in a fictional village in East Anglia, though the white-collar crime rate is a bit higher that normal for Barsetshire.
53	[[/folder]]
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55	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
56	* The [[ThemeNaming theme-named]] county of ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' ''seems'' like one. Considering the murder rate, anyone going there for a quiet, relaxing time is TooDumbToLive.
57	* Mercilessly parodied by Craggy Island in ''Series/FatherTed'' (it's admittedly an Irish equivalent of this trope).
58	* Barsetshire resembles the fictional town of Leadworth, hometown of Companions Amy and Rory in ''Series/DoctorWho''.
59	* Market Shipborough, the setting of ''Series/Kingdom2007'', is explicitly in Norfolk, but otherwise fits the trope.
60	* The [[Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall1978 1978]] TV adaptation of Creator/JamesHerriot's ''All Creatures Great And Small''.
61	* There is no such place as Dibley, Oxfordshire from ''Series/TheVicarOfDibley''.
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64	[[folder:Radio]]
65	* ''Radio/TheArchers'' is set in fictional "Borsetshire".
66	[[/folder]]
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68	[[folder:Western Animation]]
69	* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', the long-running TV adaptation of the ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'', set on the island of Sodor.
70	* ''WesternAnimation/CamberwickGreen'' and the rest of the "Trumptonshire trilogy", set in Trumptonshire.
71	[[/folder]]

Context Main / Barsetshire