In THE RECTOR'S WIFE, another of Trollope's novels adapted by Masterpiece Theatre, the microscope is turned on a marriage suffering under the weight of ecclesiastical vocation. Anna Bouverie is married to Peter, Rector of the village of Loxford. Recently disappointed in a career expectation, Peter is withdrawing further into the cloak of bitterness he has lately wrapped himself in all too often. With her younger daughter bullied at school, Anna defies the congregation's --- and her husband's --- narrow definition of the role of Rector's Wife and takes a job at the local grocery in order to send her daughter to parochial school.

Anna has several fights on her hands: her husband's apathy toward their marriage as he struggles with his own faith; her son's humiliation at her choice of wage-earning; the parishioners' scandalized attitudes; her elder daughter's insistence that Anna take charge of her own life; and, her surprising feelings toward both a wealthy newcomer and the unorthodox brother of the archdeacon who received her husband's promotion. Determined not to spend her life feeling "invisible," Anna finds herself willing to stand up to home, God and country in order to break free of the restraints she has suffered under as THE RECTOR'S WIFE. This is a powerful story of what can happen to a marriage under the unforgiving gaze of the Church and how one woman defends her own choices. Every character is sharply and uniquely defined and the writing sparkles with wit and sympathy.

   --- Reviewed by Jami Edwards

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