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    The Warden (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
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    The Warden (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
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    The Warden (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    Ebook266 pages4 hours

    The Warden (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

    By Anthony Trollope and Lynette Felber

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    About this ebook

    This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.  The first book of the Barsetshire series, The Warden, finds the Reverend Septimus Harding accused of financial misconduct with his reputation besmirched. This false accusation is used by Trollope to satirize both the religious establishment and the narrow-minded locals. With his deft hand for characterization, the author reveals both the hypocrisy and integrity inherent in the common man.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarnes & Noble
    Release dateMar 13, 2012
    ISBN9781411467453
    Unavailable
    The Warden (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    Author

    Anthony Trollope

    Anthony Trollope was a Victorian-era English author best known for his satirical novel The Way We Live Now, a criticism of the greed and immorality he witnessed living in London. Trollope was employed as a postal surveyor in Ireland when he began to take up writing as a serious pursuit, publishing four novels on Irish subjects during his years there. In 1851 Trollope was travelling the English countryside for work when was inspired with the plot for The Warden, the first of six novels in what would become his famous The Chronicles of Barsetshire series. Trollope eventually settled in London and over the next thirty years published a prodigious body of work, including Barsetshire novels such as Barchester Towers and Doctor Thorne, as well as numerous other novels and short stories. Trollope died in London 1882 at the age of 67.

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    Reviews for The Warden (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      This short novel is the first of the author's six Barsetshire chronicles, set in the fictional county town and cathedral city of Barchester, a generic West country location. It's a simple tale of a legal dispute over the distribution of charitable funds under an ancient will, and the conflicts this causes in the family of warden Septimus Harding, especially with his married daughter Susan and son in law Archdeacon Grantly, and his unmarried daughter Eleanor and her suitor John Bold. Despite its seemingly trivial nature, this strikes a chord and was quite an enjoyable read, with the author's writing style fairly simple and direct, by 19th century standards. He satirises Dickens as Mr Popular Sentiment.
    • 4/5
      Reverend Septimus Harding, at fifty years old, became Precentor of the Cathedral as well as the Warden of Hiram's Hospital. Because of his dual employment he makes a significantly higher wage than others. This inequality of salary is a modern conflict and no one is more bothered by this than John Bold. But Mr. bold has a conflict of interest. While he is against Mr. Harding's significant salary and starts a petition to challenge it, he is also attracted and betrothed to Harding's twenty four year old daughter, Eleanor. When he realizes the heartache he has caused the Harding family he tries to retract his complaint..but of course it is too late. The wheels of justice have been set in motion. The lesson for John Bold is you made your bed, now you have to lie in it.The lesson for the Warden is one of morality. Eventually, the suit is abandoned but Harding is still wracked with guilt. He resigns despite everyone's urging to reconsider.
    • 3/5
      Trollope's narratorial interjections can get a bit awkward and annoying, but overall it is a quick and enjoyable read. The satire is humorous and effective (though Trollope tends to try and tell us too much, instead of showing it to us readers), and the characters are ridiculous, yet relatable enough to be enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      The perfect novel. Wonderfully well drawn characters, careful plot development, very funny and hugely enjoyable. Demonstrates how much shading there is in what might appear to be a black and white issue. Of course the Church of England today is nothing like the church Trollope portrays...
    • 5/5
      Wonderful story of Mr. Harding the kindly old warden of a hospital (almshouse) for elderly, disabled men. Mr. Harding finds himself enmeshed in a lawsuit regarding the money he receives as warden but as events unfold within the story we discover that the warden truly represents what a good man should be. Inspiring. Looking forward to reading additional books in the series.
    • 5/5
      The Barchester novels are always fun to re-read: this time around I was struck by the resonances between Trollope's mid-Victorian satire on the process of reform and the scandal-of-the-moment in England. Obviously, it was at least as reprehensible for some Victorian clergymen to live in luxury off the fruits of medieval charities as it is for some MPs fraudulently to claim vast sums in expenses, but when the newspapers and the lawyers get involved then no-one troubles to distinguish between the real villains and the unfortunate majority who just get caught up in the system. Since there isn't much of a story to be interrupted by them, I don't think Trollope's sometimes rather lengthy asides to the reader are a problem: we can just enjoy them for their own sake. I particularly like the little send-up of Dickens (as "Mr Popular Sentiment"), complete with a thumbnail sketch of how he would have written the story.
    • 4/5
      I seem to have revealed rather a lot about the plot - please exercise caution etcThe first part of a series, but a standalone novel nonetheless. I really enjoyed it (I know I seem to say that a lot) and see as its central theme the conflict between public and private, internal and external, personal and social. It's a novel about then-current newspaper scandals and church reform, but it's also a deeply personal story of one man, the titular warden, and his internal moral struggle. Mr Harding is a pleasant and well-liked man, and what happens to him is unfair and unpleasant. The end is both a victory and a defeat for Harding, which is a good illustration of the central split of the novel. Both forces acting upon Harding, broadly speaking, the external and the external, are acting from good motives, on the side of Right, (almost all the main characters are connected to the church) and yet they are set in opposition quite early in the text, as Harding realises he cannot do right by the church and his own conscience concurrently.This split continues as although firmly rooted in contemporary, mid-Victorian issues, scandals and mores, it is very relevant now with regard to charity and obligation in a changing world, and how the best of intentions - and John Bold has the best of intentions - can have unforeseen results when we treat people as statistics. Bold sees Harden as The Warden and, in seeing the injustice of the position, overlooks the kindness and charity of the man.
    • 4/5
      There is not a huge amount of plot to this novel and the Goodreads blurb sums it up really. There is humour in Mr Harding's fear of the archdeacon, but the story is very topical and references several real-life cases of C of E abuses and attempted reforms, as well as parodying Dickens and Carlyle. The introduction and notes in this edition are excellent, almost necessary for a modern reader truly to understand certain sections.I much prefer the next in the series, "Barchester Towers" (I read them out of order), and I agree with the narrator that Dr Grantly doesn't come out of this volume too well. I found John Bold's actions here puzzling: he goes after Mr Harding despite being in love with Eleanor, but when she asks him to drop the case as it is upsetting her father, he agrees immediately. Either he didn't think at all about the consequences of his actions or he is entirely lacking in the kind of principle that the meek Mr Harding displays.
    • 4/5
      My first work by Trollope, and I was impressed. The author writes in a simple and straightforward style that a modern reader can appreciate. Likewise, the story line was straightforward, with just enough characters to complete the work. So often I am left wondering why authors of this period include so many unnecessary persons and detail. Not so with Trollope.Among its messages, I most appreciated the book's powerful statement about how media can be used, or abused.
    • 4/5
      This novel is a good introduction to the work of Anthony Trollope who wrote dozens of books over his literary career. The themes of church and society in the town of Barchester are on display here along with a portrayal of the media that seems eerily familiar to our own. Trollope's satire is subtle and the story is one that pits the sense of justice of Septimus Harding , the local Warden, against the power of the church and society. Trollope creates a fascinating character in Harding, but he also demonstrates the way the unintended consequences of our actions have a way of overtaking us and those around us. This is shown in the actions of the young firebrand John Bold who finds his feelings for Harding's daughter ultimately win out over his call for social justice. Overall this is a good example of one of the greatest of victorian novelists.
    • 4/5
      Trollope's first book in the Barchester Chronicles. I found it slow in the beginning, but worth pursuing.
    • 3/5
      Trollope's vigourously recounted tale of a gentle and scrupulous man is a long time favourite. Contains one of teh best scenes ever, when the perplexed and unhappy Warden "plays" on his imaginary cello, too old to continue playing for real. A story of worliness versus spirutal values.
    • 2/5
      Sigh...I just don't get all the fuss over Trollope. I read this one, but not joyfully.
    • 4/5
      The first of the Barchester series, The Warden seems obviously designed to set up the next five novels. It's fine on its own, but not the best of Trollope by any means. Mr. Harding, warden of an almshouse for 12 elderly disabled men, finds himself the target of a lawsuit promoted by his daughter's admirer. The claim is that the benefactor's will did not mean for the church to use the bequest to fund a warden, but that it was meant to go directly to the 12 men. Complicating factors is the fact that the archdeacon, married to Harding's elder daughter, insists on fighting the suit, which gets nasty in the public press. The plot focuses on how Mr. Harding, a genuinely kind and good man, deals with the stress and his own conscience, and how his daughter Eleanor struggles between her fierce love for her father and her growing affection for John Bull, the lawyer behind the lawsuit.
    • 4/5
      I had been saving Trollope for later life, largely because I was worried that once I got started I might feel compelled to read all 47 of his novels. But somehow read the first few pages of this and couldn't put it down. The story is rather slight, many of the characters absurd, some of the satire over the top, but somehow it is enjoying and compelling from beginning to end.

      The story is about a church official who also serves as the beneficent, albeit well remunerated, Warden of an almshouse for twelve elderly, indigent men. He becomes the target of a local reformer who wants more of the endowment to go to the poor and less to the Warden. A series of lawsuits and machinations follow, lightly interspersed with a wooden romance, and along the way Trollope skewers parliament, the media, the Church of England, philosophical writers, Charles Dickens, and others. Unlike Dickens, none of the characters -- minor or major -- have much life to them. And most of them are painfully cardboard.

      But somehow the careful descriptions, the impossible situation depicted, and the panormatic view of this tiny segment of time, space and society are compelling. As one of Trollope's earliest works, I can only assume they get better -- and will require some restraint not to pick up another Trollope novel anytime soon.
    • 3/5
      An enjoyable snippet of Victoriana. I mainly read it as a set-up for Barchester Towers which is the next in the series and is supposed to be quite good. This one stood nicely on its own, though. Good introduction to Mr. Harding and the other characters.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this little story.....one that really by itself is not too overwhelmingly exciting, but in the hands of a talented writer, it became somewhat dramatic and almost exciting...exciting in that i was very anxious to find out which side in this somewhat legal dilemma would prevail. There were characters that were clearly very likable and others that were definitely not....some you could respect, others to pity. And the whole church/cathedral/politics element was a whole new arena for me to experience. Oddly, my only other Trollope book so far also had a very serious legal trial as a major component, which was remarkably applicable to today's world, and i can say the same for this. Trollope was rather prolific and i am looking forward to the other of this series as well as his many other works.
    • 5/5
      Highly enjoyable satire skewering the administration of bequests by the church, and the role of the press and the law in public disputes. Apart from the language it could have been written today, so sharp was the wit and pillorying of the central protagonists. Dickensian character names e.g. John Bold, who is Bold, but ill-considered; Mr Harding, who is a pushover, not hard at all; etc., add to the fun. Highly recommended to book groups, as ours enjoyed a full 90 minutes of discussion, with more to discuss yet.
    • 5/5
      Without being condescending, I believe modern readers might not be able to properly appreciate the writing qualities of writers such as Trollope. (If one takes Dickens, for example, it seems he is so well-known that people vacillate before giving him bad reviews; I love Dickens, by the way.) Since I was used to reading this kind of book when I was a teenager, his prose doesn't seem difficult or strange at all--even despite the fact that English is not my mother tongue. Then there is the manichaeistic quality of the story; if one considers how main characters are nowadays represented with almost overwhelming negative traits, some of Trollope's might seem like "do-gooders". This first volume of the Barsetshire Chronicles is absolutely fantastic, the characters catching and intriguing. The story has some very enjoyable satirical moments. (It seems Trollope believed one could also enjoy some good chuckles while reading good quality literature--to the reader's absolute advantage!) Characters' names could also be very evocative. Mr. Public Sentiment, a writer of inflammatory rhetoric whose newest novel was the “Almshouse”; Dr. Pessimist Anticant, a “Scotchman, who had passed a great portion of his early days in Germany” examining things and “their intrinsic worth and worthlessness”; Sir Abraham Haphazard, who “always sparkled,” “was a man to be sought for on great emergencies,” but had “no heat.” Trollope had a problem with the media then—which I can relate today. According to him “the public is defrauded when it is purposely misled. Poor public! how often it is misled! against what a world of fraud has it to contend!” And he correctly proclaimed that a newspaper article was nothing “but an expression of the views taken by one side?” True: “Ridiculum acri Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res.” He attacked journalists’ unaccountability in the person of the Jupiter’s journalist: “But to whom was he, Tom Towers, responsible?” Towers was “able and willing to guide all men in all things, so long as he is obeyed as autocrat should be obeyed.” The newspaper's evocative name, Jupiter, brings us to Mount Olympus (chapter XV) from where the gods—journalists—would be systematically dictating the opinions to be embraced by the mortals—the “poor public.” Fine humor, brilliant writing, definitely a must read.
    • 4/5
      Where I got the book: audiobook on Audible.This is the first novel in the Barchester Chronicles—attentive friends may remember that I listened to the second novel, Barchester Towers, first, loved it and then found it was the abridged version (grrrr) and decided to go back to the beginning and listen to the whole series, unabridged. There are several different audio versions available, and after listening to the samples I opted for this one, narrated by David Shaw-Parker who does a nice job.It’s a simple enough story: clergyman Septimus Harding is living a peaceful life as the Warden of a hospital (a sort of charity home) for old, indigent men. It’s a nice job with few responsibilities and a fat stipend, allowing Mr. Harding to live as a gentleman and support his single daughter Eleanor. But then reformer John Bold (who happens to be Eleanor’s sweetheart) starts asking questions about the legacy that set up the hospital in the first place, and why the Warden lives so well when the old men only receive a small payment. The newspapers start paying attention, and poor Mr. Harding (who’s been supplementing the old men’s living out of his own pocket) has to choose between giving up his comfortable life or putting up with the glare of publicity brought about by a lawsuit.Trollope’s sympathies seem to be squarely on the side of tradition in this story, which was inspired by a number of cases brought against clergymen who were living too well. Having just listened to Barchester Towers (which, of course, I shall be listening to again soon in the unabridged version) I was surprised to realize how closely the two novels are connected—if you’re going to read Barchester Towers, generally considered Trollope’s greatest novel, you should doubtless read The Warden first. Being Trollope there’s a great deal of legal and political detail, interspersed with character sketches at some length. At one point we follow Mr. Harding through just about every minute of a difficult afternoon spent in London, which is hard going even though for the historian it does supply an enormous amount of detail about how people actually lived. It’s during this day that Trollope also goes into a long riff on the power of the press, which is decidedly tedious. In today’s terms, this novel’s got a bit of a saggy middle. And yet I enjoyed the story on the whole, and the audiobook format definitely makes it easier to digest. I’m looking forward to revisiting Barchester in the near future.
    • 4/5
      Anthony Trollope wrote 47 novels by rising three hours early each morning before going to work at the post office and writing an average of 40 pages. He also has non-fiction to his credit and a mother who had a few things to write about her trip to the United States.If he had the discipline to do this much writing everyday, perhaps I have a chance to do some reading. If he never seemed to have writer's block, how could we claim reader's block?The Warden was his fourth novel but the first one that got enough attention to make a lifelong dedication. This is the first of the six Barchester Novels. Some of you may recall that PBS had a series with Sir Alec Guinness that covered The Warden and Barchester Towers back in the Alistair Cooke days.The Warden is written by a Victorian novelist but it has a modest 200 page length. He is heavy page lifting in many of the other novels. Trollope draws an English world that is packed with very real characters. He did not like Dickens and his exaggerated characters. Trollope is critical but kind toward the characters. He is an excellent way to consider a Victorian novel for the post modern reader.Later this year, his full version of The Duke's Children will be released for the first time as a major private publishing event. Significant edits were done for previous releases. This is one of the Barchester novels. Expect to hear much reevaluation of Trollope this year. These would be good Masterpiece Theater fodder for the Downton sorts.
    • 3/5
      I had been warned that this is not Anthony Trollope's most exciting novel, but as it is the first in the Barsetshire Chronicles and I had a copy at hand, it was the first Trollope that I've read. It hasn't generally aged well, nineteenth century Church of England politics being somewhat out of fashion as a topic of interest, but the writing is strong and reminded me why I enjoy Victorian authors so much. Reverend Harding is a pleasant, ineffectual man who has a sinecure as the warden of a small retirement home for deserving working class men that includes a house with pleasant gardens and an annual salary of 800 pounds, given to him because one of his two daughters had married the son of the bishop. Here he lives comfortably, enjoying his music, reading books and visiting the old men in the adjoining hospital now and again. His life would have continued in pleasant routine had not a spirit of reform begun to sweep England and a young reformer, the aptly named John Bold, questioned the generosity of the annual allowance. Trollope is clearly on the side of the status quo, and he breaks from the narrative to complain about the tactics of an author (supposedly Charles Dickens), whom he calls Mr Popular Sentiment, and who he accuses of biasing the public by creating characters and situations that manipulate the reader into sympathy with his poor working class characters. Of course, Trollope is doing exactly the same thing here; Harding is so mild and inoffensive that it is impossible not to hope that he can keep his generous and largely unearned salary. Outside of the machinations of the lawyers, clergymen and journalists, there is a sub-plot involving Harding's unmarried daughter and John Bold. They had feelings for each other before Bold discovered possible shady dealings on the matter of the wardenship and it's uncertain as to whether their love will survive the conflict. This part of the novel is particularly satisfying, as Eleanor is an interesting character and Bold's conflict as he tries to do what he sees is right without losing her love results in the most satisfying chapters in this brief novel. I'm looking forward to continuing on with the Barsetshire Chronicles.
    • 4/5
      I've not read Trollope before, and just recently decided it was time to fill that particular gap in my education, so resolved to begin picking up nice copies of his works as I found them. Quite literally the next day there was a lovely near-complete set of the Barsetshire books (Everyman's Library edition) on the shelves at a local shop, and I couldn't resist just adding the lot of them to my shelves. A copy of the missing volume was easily obtained, and now I can look forward to savoring them (that is, if I can manage not to read them all in one grand bacchanal, which may be difficult to avoid if this first dip into the pool is any indication). What a delight this was! A lush, leisurely story, filled with dry humor, an intriguing cast of characters, and with a real moral dilemma at its heart. And ooooh, that Archdeacon Grantly! From the very first I had this "no way this can possibly end well" sense, and it was a great pleasure to see how Trollope brought it all together. Effectively satirical and deeply amusing, this volume has very much made me want to read more.
    • 2/5
      “Did you ever know a poor man made better by law or a lawyer!'Four hundred years before the action starts John Hiram establishes a charitable hospital for the poor men of the nearby town of Barchester. Overseeing the hospital is a warden, a position gained from the preferment of the town's bishop. The estate is now making enough money that the warden can be paid a high salary. Local man John Bold,who sees himself to be a kind of moral crusader, believes that this position and salary is a corruption, of the original bequest so starts a legal battle.The case is important. The clergy believes that this can set a legal precedent concerning the role of the Church of England. In contrast Tom Towers, a reporter for the newspaper the Jupiter, takes up the case for the bedesmen (residents) and writes several slanderous editorials attacking the Church and the warden.The Warden is largely the exploration of Mr. Harding's conscience, his craving for privacy, his sense of duty, and his love for Eleanor and the men of the almshouse. At the centre of it is the wonderfully complex figure of Mr. Harding, thrust into a limelight he loathes and forced to defend a position he is beginning to consider indefensible. Trollope makes repeated references to Greek Gods and Goddesses. When Eleanor decides that she must sacrifice herself for her father's sake, she is inspired by the myth of Iphigenia, who sacrificed herself for her father. Tom Towers sees his office at the Jupiter as Mount Olympus and he sees himself as a god, shaping the reality of all the people. The comparison of the characters to heroes and heroines from ancient myths hints at the cruel, detached nature of most gods and goddesses. The story is told in third person by a narrator who often seems to be omniscient, revealing many characters' innermost thoughts. Once in a while, however, the narrator speaks conversationally to the reader, as though the reader and narrator are sitting together telling a story. Sadly time has not been beneficial to Trollope.I doubt if the subject matter is relevant any more,assuming it ever really was. Whilst the prose is beautiful there is very little action and this is often stymied by over elaboration, either about the environs or the characters themselves giving it rather stilted feel IMHO. That said this my first experience of Trollope so I cannot honestly say if this representative of his output or merely the result of this being the first book in a series. The tale is a gentle, heart-warming affair but I can imagine that this book will have an almost marmite quality to it, either you will love or loathe it.
    • 4/5
      This tale is the embodiment of irony. In the pages of this novel we find the young and idealistic (and also ambitious) reformer, the honorable clergyman, and the foolish and uneducated. The perfect recipe for ruining what is good and replacing it with something worse. Mr. Trollope includes many asides and witticisms and there is the feeling that while the tale is worth telling, the points the author wants to make are at least as important. Curious style of writing and makes me curious to know what his other books are like.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful novel of politics and individuals.
    • 4/5
      I fear this review may put me on the LT naughty step, but I didn't love this anywhere near as much as expected. When it eventually got going it became interesting enough, but for a short novel boy it took it's time. Perhaps it was the clerical setting that I found a little dull until I reached the actual cusp of the tale. Anyway, I felt like I was plodding through this novel for much of it, and actively looking forward to reaching the end so I could get on to my next book.3.5 stars - ultimately a clever tale of consequences, but the diocese setting wasn't for me.
    • 2/5
      Not my cup of tea. I agree that Trollope is able to tell the stories of the English people, but it is a bit slow. Good for practicing speed reading!
    • 4/5
      It seems nothing much has changed since Victorian times: the church can still spark dissension, the press will still fan the flames of controversy. While this book deals with finances related to an almshouse connected to the church, it is reminiscent of a more recent scandal of the church that became a similar tangled mess. Trollope managed the topic with great diplomacy: Reverend Harding is a sympathetic, lovable, man of integrity, while the appropriately-named Bold, strikes before thinking. Eleanor Harding is delightful, but I cannot condone her choice of love interest. Harding's visit to London was the most entertaining part of the story. Any traveller with time to kill in an unfamiliar place can sympathize.I loved this book once again, and this time I will move on to the rest of Barsetshire Chronicles.
    • 4/5
      Ahh... Mr. Harding. One of the true good guys in all the history of literature.