 One of Walpole 's major novels of the early post @-@ war period was The Cathedral , which unlike much of his fiction was not <unk> off but worked on across four years , beginning in 1918 . The story of an arrogant 19th @-@ century archdeacon in conflict with other clergy and laity was certain to bring comparisons with Trollope 's <unk> Towers ( The Manchester Guardian 's review was headed " <unk> Towers " ) , but unlike the earlier work , The Cathedral is wholly <unk> . The <unk> Archdeacon Brandon is driven to domestic despair , professional defeat and sudden death . The reviewer Ivor Brown commented that Walpole had earlier charmed many with his cheerful tales of Mayfair , but that in this novel he showed a greater side to his art : " This is a book with little happiness about it , but its stark strength is undeniable . The Cathedral is realism , profound in its philosophy and delicate in its thread . " The Illustrated London News said , " No former novelist has seized quite so powerfully upon the cathedral fabric and made it a living character in the drama , an <unk> individuality at once benign and <unk> . ... The Cathedral is a great book . " 
