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Chronicles of Barsetshire #1
The Warden
'It was so hard that the pleasant waters of his little stream should be disturbed and muddied ...that his quiet paths should be made a battlefield: that the unobtrusive corner of the world which been allotted to him ...made miserable and unsound'.
Trollope's witty, satirical story of a quiet cathedral town shaken by scandal - as the traditional values of Septimus Harding are attacked by zealous reformers and ruthless newspapers - is a drama of conscience that pits individual integrity against worldly ambition.
In The Warden Anthony Trollope brought the fictional county of Barsetshire to life, peopled by a cast of brilliantly realised characters that have made him among the supreme chroniclers of the minutiae of Victorian England. It is the first book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.
Trollope's witty, satirical story of a quiet cathedral town shaken by scandal - as the traditional values of Septimus Harding are attacked by zealous reformers and ruthless newspapers - is a drama of conscience that pits individual integrity against worldly ambition.
In The Warden Anthony Trollope brought the fictional county of Barsetshire to life, peopled by a cast of brilliantly realised characters that have made him among the supreme chroniclers of the minutiae of Victorian England. It is the first book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.
137 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 5, 1855
1099 people are currently reading
24231 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Trollope
2,326 books1,769 followersAnthony Trollope became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works, known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire; he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.
Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...
Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,134 reviews
July 20, 2023
Dr. Foster went to Gloucester* in a shower of rain. He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle and never went there again. Quite. Very enjoyable book that is concerned about people putting their great big feet in puddles before ascertaining the depth! It's very cleverly worked out and contains just the right amount of love and romance to drive the plot forward. Like most of Trollope's Barchester series, it is somewhat a comedy of manners and more enjoyable for that.
Recommended to those who like the classics and have a certain fondness for schadenfreude, even though they know they shouldn't.
*Gloucester is pronounced Gloster in British English.
Rewritten 19 July 2023 for no particular reason.
Recommended to those who like the classics and have a certain fondness for schadenfreude, even though they know they shouldn't.
*Gloucester is pronounced Gloster in British English.
Rewritten 19 July 2023 for no particular reason.
November 10, 2009
There is tranquility in a second-hand bookshop. Libraries are quiet because they must be. This is different. A kind of peace. Whatever it is, it suits me. I feel at home. It could just be the dust. Anyway, there I was kneeling in the art books, pulling them out and pushing them back. Have it, read it, not interested… I made my way down the row that way and swung round to continue on the shelf behind me. It was low. It was low and I am short and - on hands and knees - I still had to bend down to see. I was Carter making the tiny breach into Tutankhamun's tomb. "Yes, I see wonderful things." Little books. Little books that fit in my hands. Little books that fit in my pocket. Little books that fit under my pillow at night. Rows of little books running along the wooden floor of the bookshop like a literary baseboard. I wondered what perverse person put them there. A brilliant short person, no doubt. I imagined them laughing maniacally: Bwahaha! Finally! Tall people will need us!
Obviously this is more about the gold and green 1902 volume next to me than the story inside. You can read about that anywhere. The Warden is the first of the much loved Chronicles of Barset, first published in 1855. The theme of the book is the clash of ancient privilege with modern social awareness. Blah, blah, blah… What no one else can tell you is this: It is the exact size of my hand! How fantastic is that? The exact size! It was made (and re-bound by Alison Leakey, so states the inside cover) for me!! These are the things I love about it:
#1
#2 There’s a small stain on page 329. Tea. I know exactly what caused it.
When the archdeacon left his wife and father-in-law at the Chapter Coffee House to go to Messrs Cox and Cumming, he had no very defined idea of what he had to do when he got there. Gentlemen when at law, or in any way engaged in matters requiring legal assistance, are very apt to describe such attendance as quite compulsory, and very disagreeable. The lawyers, on the other hand, do not at all see the necessity, though they quite agree as to the disagreeable nature of the visit; gentlemen when so engaged are usually somewhat gravelled at finding nothing to say to their learned friends; they generally talk a little politics, a little weather, ask some few foolish questions about their suit, and then withdraw, having passed half an hour in a small, dingy waiting-room, in company with some junior assistant-clerk, and ten minutes with the members of the firm; the business is then over for which the gentleman has come up to London, probably a distance of a hundred and fifty miles. To be sure he goes to the play, and dines at his friend’s club, and has a bachelor’s liberty and bachelor’s recreation for three or four days; and he could not probably plead the desire of such gratifications as a reason to his wife for a trip to London.
Married ladies, when your husbands find they are positively obliged to attend their legal advisers, the nature of the duty to be performed is generally of this description.
Shocking. No, I’m telling you, it had nothing to do with the warden resigning. The chapter’s titled The Warden Resigns, for crying out loud. The warden resigning can’t have been a surprise. But something made a long-ago reader’s tea splash over the edge of the cup and onto the page. Only this page. Was it disbelief? Or recognition? Perhaps a married lady suddenly remembering: I have GOT to get to my lawyer.
#3 There are pages where every line begins with a single quotation mark. Sometimes it goes on for two or three pages. Every single line. Although Trollope was a great lover of punctuation (a semicolon on every page – sometimes as many as six), I don’t think this was what he had in mind. Clearly the typesetter is trying to get my attention. Page 228, with its 30 quotation marks (and 4 extremely hot semicolons), is a serious poke in the eye to, well, pretty much everyone: government, church hierarchy, and especially journalists. Noted. Thank you. Highlighted by 100 single and seemingly meaningless quotation marks, pages 320-323 contain Mr Septimus Harding’s resignation letters and give you the man’s character in a nutshell. It’s like Cliffnotes by Typesetters. The whole point of the book in a few pages. So why bother to read the rest?
#4 Because it’s fun, that’s why. Trollope knows people and his characters are memorable. Yes, they have ridiculous names that make me laugh, but that’s the intention. It’s satire. Playfulness with a point. I did wonder if being an American who knows nothing of 19th century church politics would make the story less accessible or even irrelevant to me. Would I get the jokes? Yes, it’s accessible. It’s written in a realistic style and I didn’t need anyone to explain the archdeacon setting the scene as if he were writing a sermon, locking the door, and pulling Rabelais from a secret drawer. My only question is what else was in that secret drawer. Yes, it’s relevant. People haven’t changed. And yes, I got the jokes. At least I think I did. If not, I was laughing at something or Trollope was laughing at me and either way I don’t really care; it was fun. God, I love semicolons.
Obviously this is more about the gold and green 1902 volume next to me than the story inside. You can read about that anywhere. The Warden is the first of the much loved Chronicles of Barset, first published in 1855. The theme of the book is the clash of ancient privilege with modern social awareness. Blah, blah, blah… What no one else can tell you is this: It is the exact size of my hand! How fantastic is that? The exact size! It was made (and re-bound by Alison Leakey, so states the inside cover) for me!! These are the things I love about it:
#1
#2 There’s a small stain on page 329. Tea. I know exactly what caused it.
When the archdeacon left his wife and father-in-law at the Chapter Coffee House to go to Messrs Cox and Cumming, he had no very defined idea of what he had to do when he got there. Gentlemen when at law, or in any way engaged in matters requiring legal assistance, are very apt to describe such attendance as quite compulsory, and very disagreeable. The lawyers, on the other hand, do not at all see the necessity, though they quite agree as to the disagreeable nature of the visit; gentlemen when so engaged are usually somewhat gravelled at finding nothing to say to their learned friends; they generally talk a little politics, a little weather, ask some few foolish questions about their suit, and then withdraw, having passed half an hour in a small, dingy waiting-room, in company with some junior assistant-clerk, and ten minutes with the members of the firm; the business is then over for which the gentleman has come up to London, probably a distance of a hundred and fifty miles. To be sure he goes to the play, and dines at his friend’s club, and has a bachelor’s liberty and bachelor’s recreation for three or four days; and he could not probably plead the desire of such gratifications as a reason to his wife for a trip to London.
Married ladies, when your husbands find they are positively obliged to attend their legal advisers, the nature of the duty to be performed is generally of this description.
Shocking. No, I’m telling you, it had nothing to do with the warden resigning. The chapter’s titled The Warden Resigns, for crying out loud. The warden resigning can’t have been a surprise. But something made a long-ago reader’s tea splash over the edge of the cup and onto the page. Only this page. Was it disbelief? Or recognition? Perhaps a married lady suddenly remembering: I have GOT to get to my lawyer.
#3 There are pages where every line begins with a single quotation mark. Sometimes it goes on for two or three pages. Every single line. Although Trollope was a great lover of punctuation (a semicolon on every page – sometimes as many as six), I don’t think this was what he had in mind. Clearly the typesetter is trying to get my attention. Page 228, with its 30 quotation marks (and 4 extremely hot semicolons), is a serious poke in the eye to, well, pretty much everyone: government, church hierarchy, and especially journalists. Noted. Thank you. Highlighted by 100 single and seemingly meaningless quotation marks, pages 320-323 contain Mr Septimus Harding’s resignation letters and give you the man’s character in a nutshell. It’s like Cliffnotes by Typesetters. The whole point of the book in a few pages. So why bother to read the rest?
#4 Because it’s fun, that’s why. Trollope knows people and his characters are memorable. Yes, they have ridiculous names that make me laugh, but that’s the intention. It’s satire. Playfulness with a point. I did wonder if being an American who knows nothing of 19th century church politics would make the story less accessible or even irrelevant to me. Would I get the jokes? Yes, it’s accessible. It’s written in a realistic style and I didn’t need anyone to explain the archdeacon setting the scene as if he were writing a sermon, locking the door, and pulling Rabelais from a secret drawer. My only question is what else was in that secret drawer. Yes, it’s relevant. People haven’t changed. And yes, I got the jokes. At least I think I did. If not, I was laughing at something or Trollope was laughing at me and either way I don’t really care; it was fun. God, I love semicolons.
November 14, 2025
The Warden a somewhat melancholic story of Septimus Harding, Church of England clergyman in the fictitious cathedral town of Barchester (Winchester in reality). Britain during the middle of the 19th century and (the first of the six novels in this highly acclaimed series by Anthony Trollope)
this quiet little city exists, because of the majestic cathedral while being dominated by the dedicated clergy . In 1434 a wealthy merchant by the name of Mr. John Hiram died, and left in his will land to support twelve retired old men from Barchester. A hospital: nursing home was to be built the church to administer it by appointing a warden, that will cause problems in the future. Four hundred years later property values soar and the rents also. There's more money than is needed to take care of the aged dozen. Harding the warden, is a kindly cleric who loves the poor men and receives a princely sum of 800 pounds a year, for the sinecure job. Trouble begins when Dr. John Bold the local reformer, tells the influential newspaper, The Jupiter (The London Times obviously). Harding is attacked by this powerful, important paper the scandal causes him great emotional distress. Family ties complicate the awkward situation, Septimus daughter Eleanor is in love with Bold .The warden's older daughter Susan is married to Archdeacon Grantly , the bishop's son and the power behind the throne, still more complications the bishop is about to retire. Grantly is an ambitious intelligent man also , a
traditionalist, defends church privileges, he believe in its sanctity. Harding's best friend, is the bishop he gave him the do nothing job. After much soul searching, everybody loves titles the warden decides to resign and accept poverty, a not very modern concept. However unexpectedly, the hospital will become vacant after the old men are gone. The entertaining , surprisingly riveting book about church politics and clergymen's struggles, from long ago. People of different religions or none at all can and will enjoy this, I did.
this quiet little city exists, because of the majestic cathedral while being dominated by the dedicated clergy . In 1434 a wealthy merchant by the name of Mr. John Hiram died, and left in his will land to support twelve retired old men from Barchester. A hospital: nursing home was to be built the church to administer it by appointing a warden, that will cause problems in the future. Four hundred years later property values soar and the rents also. There's more money than is needed to take care of the aged dozen. Harding the warden, is a kindly cleric who loves the poor men and receives a princely sum of 800 pounds a year, for the sinecure job. Trouble begins when Dr. John Bold the local reformer, tells the influential newspaper, The Jupiter (The London Times obviously). Harding is attacked by this powerful, important paper the scandal causes him great emotional distress. Family ties complicate the awkward situation, Septimus daughter Eleanor is in love with Bold .The warden's older daughter Susan is married to Archdeacon Grantly , the bishop's son and the power behind the throne, still more complications the bishop is about to retire. Grantly is an ambitious intelligent man also , a
traditionalist, defends church privileges, he believe in its sanctity. Harding's best friend, is the bishop he gave him the do nothing job. After much soul searching, everybody loves titles the warden decides to resign and accept poverty, a not very modern concept. However unexpectedly, the hospital will become vacant after the old men are gone. The entertaining , surprisingly riveting book about church politics and clergymen's struggles, from long ago. People of different religions or none at all can and will enjoy this, I did.
May 22, 2022
I'll be frank and admit that The Warden by Anthony Trollope kind of disappointed my expectation. I've heard many good things about this first book of the Barsetshire Chronicles and was very much eager to clear my reading space to accommodate it, but unfortunately, it didn't work out for me as it ought. However, if I truly liked a book for its social satire and its fine writing, The Warden can be named without hesitation. I shouldn't be misinterpreted by this assertion to mean that I didn't like the story, for I did to a considerable extent, but my enjoyment of the book laid primarily on its social satire and Trollope's excellent writing.
The story of The Warden is developed from one of the prevalent themes of his day. The Church of England was highly criticized for the wealth and income held by its clergy. This attack, which was initiated by some zealous reformists, was happily backed by the press. Trollope, while not betraying his personal views, addresses this subject from a neutral point of view. While not deterring from exposing the material comforts the clergy (especially the higher ranks) undoubtedly enjoy from the considerable wealth and the income derived from that, Trollope proceeds to probe into the truth of these allegations. Reformists were of the view that Clergy was unjustly enriched and that they misappropriated funds that were meant for the benefit of the poor. But Trollope shows that sometimes things are far from what meets the eyes and that overzealous reformist ideas can do more harm than good.
Mr. Septimus Harding, the warden of Hiram's hospital is accused of benefitting himself from an income that is said to be due to its poor 12 resident inhabitants. While on close legal scrutiny this was discovered to be not true in the strictest terms, Mr. Septimus resigns from the wardenship, since according to his own conscience, he is unable to hold a position and an income which was thus questioned. Mr. Harding makes his position clear when he expresses his disinterest in these terms: "one does question it – the most important of all witnesses against me – I question it myself. My God knows whether or no I love my daughter; but I would sooner that she and I should both beg, than that she should live in comfort on money which is truly the property of the poor." Mr. Harding acts nobly and sacrifices a good income and a comfortable life in his old age for a much poorer one. And in any case, since the inhabitants would not benefit in any way from Mr. Hardings's resignation, nothing good comes out of it. Worse still is that Mr. Harding being gone, there was no one to care for the poor invalids of the hospital, and they suffer considerably from lack of attention. Trollope is trying to show society that misplaced zeal can sometimes do more harm than good. And the penitent Mr. Bold, the reformists (the Barsetshire Brutus as Trollope calls him :)), realizes a little too late that his misguided conduct has, in fact, marred the good name of an innocent man driving him from a position which he is suitable to hold, and putting those who were under his care in a much worse position.
I enjoyed this thematic debate, and as I've already said, Trollope's satire and writing. But I had certain issues in some quarters, especially on the plot and character development. The story started promisingly and was built up well till about two-thirds of the book, but then, it fell out in Trollope's rush to conclude the story. Technically, he wound it up "realistically" by not pressing too much on "happily ever after". But I felt the latter part to be more of a closing of an account than the closing of a story. As to the characters, though I liked them to a varying degree, the only fully-fledged character was that of Mr. Harding. A close second is secured by the Archdeacon, Dr. Grantly. But rest was felt as half-formed. Also, I expected more character participation from Mr. Bold since he is the "opposing" party. But here was a bitter disappointment since Trollope has evidently decided to make him a secondary character and had him made almost redundant in the last third of the story. That was, to me, unforgivable. :)
On the whole, it was light and entertaining, full of satire and good writing with a thought-provoking message. It's only that my expectation was a bit shattered and that robbed a star from the book.
The story of The Warden is developed from one of the prevalent themes of his day. The Church of England was highly criticized for the wealth and income held by its clergy. This attack, which was initiated by some zealous reformists, was happily backed by the press. Trollope, while not betraying his personal views, addresses this subject from a neutral point of view. While not deterring from exposing the material comforts the clergy (especially the higher ranks) undoubtedly enjoy from the considerable wealth and the income derived from that, Trollope proceeds to probe into the truth of these allegations. Reformists were of the view that Clergy was unjustly enriched and that they misappropriated funds that were meant for the benefit of the poor. But Trollope shows that sometimes things are far from what meets the eyes and that overzealous reformist ideas can do more harm than good.
Mr. Septimus Harding, the warden of Hiram's hospital is accused of benefitting himself from an income that is said to be due to its poor 12 resident inhabitants. While on close legal scrutiny this was discovered to be not true in the strictest terms, Mr. Septimus resigns from the wardenship, since according to his own conscience, he is unable to hold a position and an income which was thus questioned. Mr. Harding makes his position clear when he expresses his disinterest in these terms: "one does question it – the most important of all witnesses against me – I question it myself. My God knows whether or no I love my daughter; but I would sooner that she and I should both beg, than that she should live in comfort on money which is truly the property of the poor." Mr. Harding acts nobly and sacrifices a good income and a comfortable life in his old age for a much poorer one. And in any case, since the inhabitants would not benefit in any way from Mr. Hardings's resignation, nothing good comes out of it. Worse still is that Mr. Harding being gone, there was no one to care for the poor invalids of the hospital, and they suffer considerably from lack of attention. Trollope is trying to show society that misplaced zeal can sometimes do more harm than good. And the penitent Mr. Bold, the reformists (the Barsetshire Brutus as Trollope calls him :)), realizes a little too late that his misguided conduct has, in fact, marred the good name of an innocent man driving him from a position which he is suitable to hold, and putting those who were under his care in a much worse position.
I enjoyed this thematic debate, and as I've already said, Trollope's satire and writing. But I had certain issues in some quarters, especially on the plot and character development. The story started promisingly and was built up well till about two-thirds of the book, but then, it fell out in Trollope's rush to conclude the story. Technically, he wound it up "realistically" by not pressing too much on "happily ever after". But I felt the latter part to be more of a closing of an account than the closing of a story. As to the characters, though I liked them to a varying degree, the only fully-fledged character was that of Mr. Harding. A close second is secured by the Archdeacon, Dr. Grantly. But rest was felt as half-formed. Also, I expected more character participation from Mr. Bold since he is the "opposing" party. But here was a bitter disappointment since Trollope has evidently decided to make him a secondary character and had him made almost redundant in the last third of the story. That was, to me, unforgivable. :)
On the whole, it was light and entertaining, full of satire and good writing with a thought-provoking message. It's only that my expectation was a bit shattered and that robbed a star from the book.
June 25, 2016
I have finally introduced myself to Anthony Trollope, and I can say with a smile that I am very happy to have made his acquaintance. A friend suggested I start with "The Warden" and I believe it to be advice well-taken.
The Warden of this novel is Mr. Harding, a kindly and good man, who is overseer to a group of bedesmen whose care has been provided for in the will of a long-deceased gentleman. The church tends the property left in the will and provides for the care of the men out of the proceeds, which works quite well until someone decides that the church and Mr. Harding are getting more from the arrangement than the men themselves.
What might be seen as a simple matter and one in which determining right and wrong is simple as well, proves to be a more complicated issue in the hands of Trollope. He gives us the myriads of grey that always accompany such disputes and he refuses to offer us a villain on which can be hung the blame that would so easily justify us in taking a stand for one side or the other. He makes us think and he makes us choose and he shows us clearly that whichever choice we make, it will not be for godly good or satanic evil but for human judgment, which is flawed.
I very much enjoyed this novel. It moved quickly and held my interest while still causing me to pause and ponder. I saw much in it that I could easily identify in current situations, politics and the machinations of the press have not changed as much as we like to think. I will be reading the next book in the series, which I am assured is an even more delightful novel.
Thank you, Mr. Trollope, for being so patient in waiting for my promised visit to your world. I am pleased to say it will only be a few weeks and I will gladly call on you again.
The Warden of this novel is Mr. Harding, a kindly and good man, who is overseer to a group of bedesmen whose care has been provided for in the will of a long-deceased gentleman. The church tends the property left in the will and provides for the care of the men out of the proceeds, which works quite well until someone decides that the church and Mr. Harding are getting more from the arrangement than the men themselves.
What might be seen as a simple matter and one in which determining right and wrong is simple as well, proves to be a more complicated issue in the hands of Trollope. He gives us the myriads of grey that always accompany such disputes and he refuses to offer us a villain on which can be hung the blame that would so easily justify us in taking a stand for one side or the other. He makes us think and he makes us choose and he shows us clearly that whichever choice we make, it will not be for godly good or satanic evil but for human judgment, which is flawed.
I very much enjoyed this novel. It moved quickly and held my interest while still causing me to pause and ponder. I saw much in it that I could easily identify in current situations, politics and the machinations of the press have not changed as much as we like to think. I will be reading the next book in the series, which I am assured is an even more delightful novel.
Thank you, Mr. Trollope, for being so patient in waiting for my promised visit to your world. I am pleased to say it will only be a few weeks and I will gladly call on you again.
March 16, 2019
O Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) είναι ένας τρυφερός και καλόκαρδος δάσκαλος, ο οποίος μας διδάσκει με απλότητα και δοτικότητα πάρα πολλά απο τα δρώμενα της Βικτωριανής εποχής. Απο αυτά που εξακολουθούν να παίζουν πρωτεύοντα ρόλο στην σημερινή κοινωνία της υφηλίου μας, στον σύγχρονο κόσμο της χονδροειδούς απανθρωπιάς, του ατομικού συμφέροντος, της άγνοιας, της αδράνειας, της χυδαιότητας και των κακών τρόπων.
Σε αυτό το σύντομο μυθιστόρημα ο Τρόλοπ με μια γλυκιά ευφυΐα που συναρπάζει, αποποιείται την υπαιτιότητα των γεγονότων ενώ παράλληλα φροντίζει, με τόσο μεγαλοφυή ανάπτυξη του συλλογιστικού περί αιτίας και αποτελέσματος, να μας πείσει πως η υπαιτιότητα για καλό ή κακό σκοπό εκ του αποτελέσματος, δεν απορρέει απο έναν κατηγορούμενο ή έναν ευεργέτη.
Είναι ιδιότητα και ευθύνη όλων μας, ανεξαιρέτως.
Σε κάθε δράση υπάρχει η αντίδραση και μπορεί κάποιοι να χάσουν πολλά, μα ποτέ δεν χάνουν τα πάντα.
Ομοίως, εκείνοι που θα ευνοηθούν κερδίζοντας δεν θα πάρουν ποτέ, εξ ολοκλήρου, το επιθυμητό.
Είναι ίσως κάποιος νομοτελειακός κανόνας της φύσης ή απλώς η δικαιοσύνη θα πρέπει πάντα να συμπορεύεται με την αδικία τηρουμένων των αναλογιών της εξελιγμένης ανθρώπινης συνείδησης.
Ίσως, κάπως έτσι, να τηρούνται οι συμπαντικές ισορροπίες και να μένουν ελεύθερες οι ψυχές που ονειρεύονται λάμποντας στη ζωή και στον θάνατο,
αλλά και εκείνες που ζουν τον εφιάλτη και δεν θυμούνται τα χρώματα των ονείρων,
καθώς έχουν συνηθίσει το πηχτό, αδιαπέραστο σκοτάδι.
«Ο επίτροπος», με ένα, θαρρείς, έμφυτο κύρος επιβολής της αγάπης, απαρνείται την βία του κέρδους και τη σκληρή δολιότητα των προσόδων,
που υπόσχονται άνεση, γαλήνη, σιγουριά και κοινωνική αναγνώριση.
Μια ιστορία κληρονομικής πιστότητας και ευεργεσίας προς την εξασφάλιση και τον βιοπορισμό για υπερήλικες, ανήμπορους πολίτες της περιοχής του Μπάρτσεστερ έρχεται στο φως μετά απο τετρακόσια χρόνια.
Συνθέτες ηθικές καταστάσεις για τους χαρακτήρες που εμπλέκονται, και όχι μόνο, σε αυτό το φιλανθρωπικό σκάνδαλο ανάμεσα σε εκκλησία και κοινωνία.
Η υπόθεση αποκτά μία ιδιαιτέρως διαβόητη έκταση
που ανάγεται σε εθνικό ζήτημα προς συζήτηση και ανατρέπει αξιώματα, αισθήματα, κίνητρα και μια εκτεταμένη πολιτιστική ατμόσφαιρα με ποικίλους χαρακτήρες, που μας προετοιμάζουν για τα μεταγενέστερα μυθιστορήματα των Χρονικών του Μπάρτσεστερ.
💥💫💥💫💥
Καλή ανάγνωση!!
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
Σε αυτό το σύντομο μυθιστόρημα ο Τρόλοπ με μια γλυκιά ευφυΐα που συναρπάζει, αποποιείται την υπαιτιότητα των γεγονότων ενώ παράλληλα φροντίζει, με τόσο μεγαλοφυή ανάπτυξη του συλλογιστικού περί αιτίας και αποτελέσματος, να μας πείσει πως η υπαιτιότητα για καλό ή κακό σκοπό εκ του αποτελέσματος, δεν απορρέει απο έναν κατηγορούμενο ή έναν ευεργέτη.
Είναι ιδιότητα και ευθύνη όλων μας, ανεξαιρέτως.
Σε κάθε δράση υπάρχει η αντίδραση και μπορεί κάποιοι να χάσουν πολλά, μα ποτέ δεν χάνουν τα πάντα.
Ομοίως, εκείνοι που θα ευνοηθούν κερδίζοντας δεν θα πάρουν ποτέ, εξ ολοκλήρου, το επιθυμητό.
Είναι ίσως κάποιος νομοτελειακός κανόνας της φύσης ή απλώς η δικαιοσύνη θα πρέπει πάντα να συμπορεύεται με την αδικία τηρουμένων των αναλογιών της εξελιγμένης ανθρώπινης συνείδησης.
Ίσως, κάπως έτσι, να τηρούνται οι συμπαντικές ισορροπίες και να μένουν ελεύθερες οι ψυχές που ονειρεύονται λάμποντας στη ζωή και στον θάνατο,
αλλά και εκείνες που ζουν τον εφιάλτη και δεν θυμούνται τα χρώματα των ονείρων,
καθώς έχουν συνηθίσει το πηχτό, αδιαπέραστο σκοτάδι.
«Ο επίτροπος», με ένα, θαρρείς, έμφυτο κύρος επιβολής της αγάπης, απαρνείται την βία του κέρδους και τη σκληρή δολιότητα των προσόδων,
που υπόσχονται άνεση, γαλήνη, σιγουριά και κοινωνική αναγνώριση.
Μια ιστορία κληρονομικής πιστότητας και ευεργεσίας προς την εξασφάλιση και τον βιοπορισμό για υπερήλικες, ανήμπορους πολίτες της περιοχής του Μπάρτσεστερ έρχεται στο φως μετά απο τετρακόσια χρόνια.
Συνθέτες ηθικές καταστάσεις για τους χαρακτήρες που εμπλέκονται, και όχι μόνο, σε αυτό το φιλανθρωπικό σκάνδαλο ανάμεσα σε εκκλησία και κοινωνία.
Η υπόθεση αποκτά μία ιδιαιτέρως διαβόητη έκταση
που ανάγεται σε εθνικό ζήτημα προς συζήτηση και ανατρέπει αξιώματα, αισθήματα, κίνητρα και μια εκτεταμένη πολιτιστική ατμόσφαιρα με ποικίλους χαρακτήρες, που μας προετοιμάζουν για τα μεταγενέστερα μυθιστορήματα των Χρονικών του Μπάρτσεστερ.
💥💫💥💫💥
Καλή ανάγνωση!!
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
April 21, 2021
Money is the point of this very amusing and SHORT Victorian novel. Or maybe more particularly, EMBARRASSMENT about money. Our inoffensive middle aged warden hero becomes convinced he has too much of it. His son in law and various others try to convince him that even though he doesn’t do a hand’s turn for this huge salary he’s on, there is an important principle to be defended, which is, never let them find out how much daylight robbery is committed by the Church of England. You will bring the roof down upon our heads!
THE MONEY (kind of boring, this part can be skipped)
There is a cathedral and there is a hospital next door but actually it’s what we would call sheltered housing, since 12 broke down old men live there permanently. They are provided for by a 400 year old will. Each guy gets one and sixpence per day, which is £30 per year, which in modern money is £3400 ($4800) which is really way way below the poverty line. The warden is the guy who was supposed to look after these old guys and he gets a revenue from the land left to the church in the will and because its value has risen in the last 400 years he now gets £800 per year which is £90,000 in modern money ($125,000) which is an enormous salary. Some bright spark figures that this large salary for doing virtually NOTHING should really be going to the 12 poor old men.
SMASH THE FOURTH WALL
The intrusive fourth-wall-breaking Victorian novelist is here again, amusingly telling us
It is indeed a matter of thankfulness that neither the historian nor the novelist hears all that is said by their heroes or heroines, or how would three volumes or twenty suffice! In the present case so little of this sort have I overheard, that I live in hopes of finishing my work within 300 pages, and of completing that pleasant task—a novel in one volume
And he did! Well done Anthony Trollope. I thought the Barchester Chronicles were all going to be 600 page behemoths but no, this one I just over 200 pages. That made me happy.
Later on there's more blatant fourth wall busting when Mr Trollope up and takes a gigantic swipe at his fellow novelist Mr Dickens whom he cuttingly calls Mr Popular Sentiment (ho ho) :
Of all such reformers Mr Sentiment is the most powerful. It is incredible the number of evil practices he has put down: it is to be feared he will soon lack subjects, and that when he has made the working classes comfortable, and got bitter beer put into proper-sized pint bottles, there will be nothing further for him left to do.
A SPORTING METAPHOR
How exciting when the striker wrests the ball from the opposite team, dashes down the field and nimbly and with preternatural leg bending dribbles past one, two, three, four defenders and now only the goalkeeper left and blam – awwww, the ball hit the crossbar and bounced harmlessly off the pitch.
I’m not a football fan but that’s what Mr Trollope does in The Warden. In the end all the delicious huffing and puffing and outrage and conscience-raking goes phzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and I was kind of disappointed. Still, a crackling style and a merry wit and a lovely choice of subject gets four stars from me.
THE MONEY (kind of boring, this part can be skipped)
There is a cathedral and there is a hospital next door but actually it’s what we would call sheltered housing, since 12 broke down old men live there permanently. They are provided for by a 400 year old will. Each guy gets one and sixpence per day, which is £30 per year, which in modern money is £3400 ($4800) which is really way way below the poverty line. The warden is the guy who was supposed to look after these old guys and he gets a revenue from the land left to the church in the will and because its value has risen in the last 400 years he now gets £800 per year which is £90,000 in modern money ($125,000) which is an enormous salary. Some bright spark figures that this large salary for doing virtually NOTHING should really be going to the 12 poor old men.
SMASH THE FOURTH WALL
The intrusive fourth-wall-breaking Victorian novelist is here again, amusingly telling us
It is indeed a matter of thankfulness that neither the historian nor the novelist hears all that is said by their heroes or heroines, or how would three volumes or twenty suffice! In the present case so little of this sort have I overheard, that I live in hopes of finishing my work within 300 pages, and of completing that pleasant task—a novel in one volume
And he did! Well done Anthony Trollope. I thought the Barchester Chronicles were all going to be 600 page behemoths but no, this one I just over 200 pages. That made me happy.
Later on there's more blatant fourth wall busting when Mr Trollope up and takes a gigantic swipe at his fellow novelist Mr Dickens whom he cuttingly calls Mr Popular Sentiment (ho ho) :
Of all such reformers Mr Sentiment is the most powerful. It is incredible the number of evil practices he has put down: it is to be feared he will soon lack subjects, and that when he has made the working classes comfortable, and got bitter beer put into proper-sized pint bottles, there will be nothing further for him left to do.
A SPORTING METAPHOR
How exciting when the striker wrests the ball from the opposite team, dashes down the field and nimbly and with preternatural leg bending dribbles past one, two, three, four defenders and now only the goalkeeper left and blam – awwww, the ball hit the crossbar and bounced harmlessly off the pitch.
I’m not a football fan but that’s what Mr Trollope does in The Warden. In the end all the delicious huffing and puffing and outrage and conscience-raking goes phzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and I was kind of disappointed. Still, a crackling style and a merry wit and a lovely choice of subject gets four stars from me.
January 9, 2020
If you are British and in your 40s, your word-association answer for "Anthony Trollope" may well be "John Major". A GR friend in the same decade of life also begins his review of The Warden by mentioning the former Prime Minister. If you were much younger than us, you wouldn't have been taking enough notice of political news in the early to mid-1990s to see the journalistic jokes about Major's reading habits; if you were older and interested in classic literature, you'd already heard of Trollope and formed some sort of opinion in the pre-Major years.
Whilst I always thought Major seemed like a fairly nice bloke (though I know some people won't conscion separating that from any of a politician's policies) - and with historical hindsight I'd say he was underrated at the time as a manager of his party and as a political negotiator- he was the ultimate byword for uncoolness and dullness, so to be seen to take his recommendations for culture when aged under 60 (and maybe even then …) had such embarrassment associated that, even now it is as if one's teenage self and student friends awoke after cryogenic freezing to roll their eyes and laugh, and you know the friends will rib you for months, if not years. But you know what, teenage me, you're now over 40 and you *still* haven't read all the authors mentioned in The Divine Comedy's The Booklovers - and you need a minimum of one Trollope novel to right that. And you're a regular on a big website where lots of people, especially Americans, think it's quite normal to read Trollope, and this John Major association means nothing to them.
As it turns out, Robin Gilmour's introduction to this Penguin Classics edition shows why Trollope would appeal to someone like Major, although it was written in 1984, some years before his rise to the Cabinet. (Incidentally, the Oxfords seem to be better editions if you are serious about Trollope: they are newer, include extra material, such as the Barsetshire short story in their edition of The Warden - plus they make a lovely set with the covers all using Victorian wallpaper designs. The shorter Penguin edition made sense for me, though, as I wanted to get the book finished quickly for a reading challenge; it hampered this slightly with too many notes that turned out to be nothing but dictionary definitions of words.) Trollope was both outsider and insider - the poorest boy in his class at major public schools Harrow and Winchester (when fees weren't as high relative to incomes as they are now), often bullied, and no academic star either. Unlike Dickens whose response to childhood poverty was outspoken reformism, Trollope was more interested in fitting in, trying to have a quiet life, and in understanding everyone whatever side they were on. As a state-educated moderate Tory whose only qualifications were O-Levels and a correspondence course, he stood out at a time when public school and Oxbridge was even more of a norm in the party than it is now, and, like Trollope does in this book, he gave an impression of prioritising reasonable solutions and truce above conflict and hardline opinion. For these same reasons, it's easy to see how Trollope became increasingly appealing to middle-aged and older people in the 2010s, feeling unmoored amid the continual storm of high-conflict social media and polarised politics, where what once seemed like core moral principles of compromise, understanding and respect don't always apply any more.
Most of the Trollope fans I've noticed online are American. There are still some British people I can't imagine conceding that it might actually be worth reading Trollope. Gilmour refers to a tradition of English literary snobbery about Trollope, which gives further context for this and for the way in which Trollope became another way to make jokes about Major (fitting with the image of him as a wimp like the guy in the old Mr Muscle cleaning product ads, and caricatured wearing underpants over his trousers). And Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, the writer of the song that e v e n t u a l l y led me to read Trollope, was Irish, therefore perhaps with some disdain for English shibboleths.
I wrote the first couple of paragraphs above before I'd read more than two chapters of The Warden. Now, having read the whole novel, I'm a convert, and my reasons for not reading Trollope seem like a silly fossil.
Trollope does have some weak points - several character names seem like someone treading unimaginatively in Dickens' footsteps, and the archdeacon's children seemed like illustrations of a schema the author had chosen for their personalities, not like real kids. From this, I can still understand why a fair number of people don't consider him as being in the first rank.
The subject of The Warden is arcane - a controversy over the excessive pay for an ancient church sinecure, running what would now be called supported accommodation for elderly men; complicated by the fact that the recipient is a good person doing his job well - so it's evident why this is not the best place for everyone to start reading the Barsetshire series, even if it is first novel, and short to boot. But for me at least, it was a case of right reader + right book. If you have worked for pay in the charity / non-profit sector, it may well be interesting for the dilemmas it presents. Other interests that can help one get the most out of it include English church history, certain areas of law, with the eye for detail involved in legal work, and the behaviour of the press and social media.
I am still surprised how many recent readers are 'meh' about The Warden though, because it is just so relevant to the last point. It is all about achingly contemporary topics like unearned privilege, calling out and how people do that and respond to it and live with one another in the aftermath, and the potential psychological toll of being pilloried in the press (or a Twitter pile-on). It is easy for a contemporary novel about these things to be too on-the-nose - but make it about a different time and an unusual subject, and it becomes fresh and interesting to think about again. (Were cases like Septimus Harding's wardenship a hackneyed subject for journalism at the time the novel was published?)
The relatively moderate behaviour of every character who sees the problem with the sinecure might be annoying to more radical readers, if they were to pick up the novel at all. But it also made me wonder if this is what it might be like if more people adopted Ibram X. Kendi's suggestion of treating racism not as one of the worst possible accusations, but a common - in the sense of both frequent and collective - problem to be highlighted and worked on. (I think a good analogy for this is if people treated it as some are now starting to treat environmentally destructive behaviour - but then I live in a country which doesn't have a significant proportion of climate change deniers, and most people I'm close to take the issue seriously and don't live extravagant lifestyles.)
I'm finding more than ever this year that I don't rate novels primarily for their endings - those seem a relatively unimportant small fraction of their contents. This is one such - although the ending is relatively more palatable to those who are cynical about the possibility of sweeping progressive change, beyond individual choices with limited impact. Obviously, the particular type of sinecure highlighted in the novel has disappeared, so reformers like Harding's potential son-in-law John Bold were successful in the long run - it can happen. (And women like the warden's daughters now have their own careers.) But sinecures still exist in other fields, such as directorships maintained by a system of "if we don't pay them millions, someone else will". Swings and roundabouts.
There is also just something I click with about Trollope's writing. His apparent wish to understand everyone, including those on different sides, strikes a chord - something that wouldn't have seemed so noticeable if I'd read this years ago, before this became a contentious thing to recommend, and before I learned it wasn't actually a universal democratic value that just about everyone was working towards on some level, even if they found it difficult in the moment. After making Archdeacon Grantly the villain of the piece for 90% of the novel, towards the end he writes paragraphs about the positive aspects of the man - it reminded me a lot of how I might sound off to a friend about someone they don't know, then feel compelled to explain their good qualities.
Gilmour mentions that Trollope is considered a writer of communities, yet when you look closely, many of the most memorable scenes are of solitary characters and their thoughts, of puzzling over exactly how to interact with people. My favourite episode in the novel was one such solitary one - when Septimus Harding hightails it to London to see the lawyer (actually the Attorney General) before Grantly can beat him to it. I had never expected this author, or this character, to produce scenes that felt somehow, so much like my own experience. I've never been an aged vicar, nor met the Attorney General - whether intentionally, or naively as Harding does in assuming him to be like any other solicitor - and Victorian late-night supperhouses [description here] don't exist any more (though taxi drivers' caffs did 10-15 years ago). I think something of what chimed was the way it turns out okay. Perhaps it is simply a great scene of navigating a city, and killing time there, alone.
So I would, actually, if time and circumstances allow, like to read more Trollope - though there are many authors I want to read whom I've still never read once, and who therefore get priority. Perhaps if there's an occasion when I'd once have felt like picking up yet another Charles Dickens novel, I might try Trollope instead. And I don't think anyone is more surprised by that idea than I am.
(Read December 2019; reviewed Dec 2019-Jan 2020)
Whilst I always thought Major seemed like a fairly nice bloke (though I know some people won't conscion separating that from any of a politician's policies) - and with historical hindsight I'd say he was underrated at the time as a manager of his party and as a political negotiator- he was the ultimate byword for uncoolness and dullness, so to be seen to take his recommendations for culture when aged under 60 (and maybe even then …) had such embarrassment associated that, even now it is as if one's teenage self and student friends awoke after cryogenic freezing to roll their eyes and laugh, and you know the friends will rib you for months, if not years. But you know what, teenage me, you're now over 40 and you *still* haven't read all the authors mentioned in The Divine Comedy's The Booklovers - and you need a minimum of one Trollope novel to right that. And you're a regular on a big website where lots of people, especially Americans, think it's quite normal to read Trollope, and this John Major association means nothing to them.
As it turns out, Robin Gilmour's introduction to this Penguin Classics edition shows why Trollope would appeal to someone like Major, although it was written in 1984, some years before his rise to the Cabinet. (Incidentally, the Oxfords seem to be better editions if you are serious about Trollope: they are newer, include extra material, such as the Barsetshire short story in their edition of The Warden - plus they make a lovely set with the covers all using Victorian wallpaper designs. The shorter Penguin edition made sense for me, though, as I wanted to get the book finished quickly for a reading challenge; it hampered this slightly with too many notes that turned out to be nothing but dictionary definitions of words.) Trollope was both outsider and insider - the poorest boy in his class at major public schools Harrow and Winchester (when fees weren't as high relative to incomes as they are now), often bullied, and no academic star either. Unlike Dickens whose response to childhood poverty was outspoken reformism, Trollope was more interested in fitting in, trying to have a quiet life, and in understanding everyone whatever side they were on. As a state-educated moderate Tory whose only qualifications were O-Levels and a correspondence course, he stood out at a time when public school and Oxbridge was even more of a norm in the party than it is now, and, like Trollope does in this book, he gave an impression of prioritising reasonable solutions and truce above conflict and hardline opinion. For these same reasons, it's easy to see how Trollope became increasingly appealing to middle-aged and older people in the 2010s, feeling unmoored amid the continual storm of high-conflict social media and polarised politics, where what once seemed like core moral principles of compromise, understanding and respect don't always apply any more.
Most of the Trollope fans I've noticed online are American. There are still some British people I can't imagine conceding that it might actually be worth reading Trollope. Gilmour refers to a tradition of English literary snobbery about Trollope, which gives further context for this and for the way in which Trollope became another way to make jokes about Major (fitting with the image of him as a wimp like the guy in the old Mr Muscle cleaning product ads, and caricatured wearing underpants over his trousers). And Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, the writer of the song that e v e n t u a l l y led me to read Trollope, was Irish, therefore perhaps with some disdain for English shibboleths.
I wrote the first couple of paragraphs above before I'd read more than two chapters of The Warden. Now, having read the whole novel, I'm a convert, and my reasons for not reading Trollope seem like a silly fossil.
Trollope does have some weak points - several character names seem like someone treading unimaginatively in Dickens' footsteps, and the archdeacon's children seemed like illustrations of a schema the author had chosen for their personalities, not like real kids. From this, I can still understand why a fair number of people don't consider him as being in the first rank.
The subject of The Warden is arcane - a controversy over the excessive pay for an ancient church sinecure, running what would now be called supported accommodation for elderly men; complicated by the fact that the recipient is a good person doing his job well - so it's evident why this is not the best place for everyone to start reading the Barsetshire series, even if it is first novel, and short to boot. But for me at least, it was a case of right reader + right book. If you have worked for pay in the charity / non-profit sector, it may well be interesting for the dilemmas it presents. Other interests that can help one get the most out of it include English church history, certain areas of law, with the eye for detail involved in legal work, and the behaviour of the press and social media.
I am still surprised how many recent readers are 'meh' about The Warden though, because it is just so relevant to the last point. It is all about achingly contemporary topics like unearned privilege, calling out and how people do that and respond to it and live with one another in the aftermath, and the potential psychological toll of being pilloried in the press (or a Twitter pile-on). It is easy for a contemporary novel about these things to be too on-the-nose - but make it about a different time and an unusual subject, and it becomes fresh and interesting to think about again. (Were cases like Septimus Harding's wardenship a hackneyed subject for journalism at the time the novel was published?)
The relatively moderate behaviour of every character who sees the problem with the sinecure might be annoying to more radical readers, if they were to pick up the novel at all. But it also made me wonder if this is what it might be like if more people adopted Ibram X. Kendi's suggestion of treating racism not as one of the worst possible accusations, but a common - in the sense of both frequent and collective - problem to be highlighted and worked on. (I think a good analogy for this is if people treated it as some are now starting to treat environmentally destructive behaviour - but then I live in a country which doesn't have a significant proportion of climate change deniers, and most people I'm close to take the issue seriously and don't live extravagant lifestyles.)
I'm finding more than ever this year that I don't rate novels primarily for their endings - those seem a relatively unimportant small fraction of their contents. This is one such - although the ending is relatively more palatable to those who are cynical about the possibility of sweeping progressive change, beyond individual choices with limited impact. Obviously, the particular type of sinecure highlighted in the novel has disappeared, so reformers like Harding's potential son-in-law John Bold were successful in the long run - it can happen. (And women like the warden's daughters now have their own careers.) But sinecures still exist in other fields, such as directorships maintained by a system of "if we don't pay them millions, someone else will". Swings and roundabouts.
There is also just something I click with about Trollope's writing. His apparent wish to understand everyone, including those on different sides, strikes a chord - something that wouldn't have seemed so noticeable if I'd read this years ago, before this became a contentious thing to recommend, and before I learned it wasn't actually a universal democratic value that just about everyone was working towards on some level, even if they found it difficult in the moment. After making Archdeacon Grantly the villain of the piece for 90% of the novel, towards the end he writes paragraphs about the positive aspects of the man - it reminded me a lot of how I might sound off to a friend about someone they don't know, then feel compelled to explain their good qualities.
Gilmour mentions that Trollope is considered a writer of communities, yet when you look closely, many of the most memorable scenes are of solitary characters and their thoughts, of puzzling over exactly how to interact with people. My favourite episode in the novel was one such solitary one - when Septimus Harding hightails it to London to see the lawyer (actually the Attorney General) before Grantly can beat him to it. I had never expected this author, or this character, to produce scenes that felt somehow, so much like my own experience. I've never been an aged vicar, nor met the Attorney General - whether intentionally, or naively as Harding does in assuming him to be like any other solicitor - and Victorian late-night supperhouses [description here] don't exist any more (though taxi drivers' caffs did 10-15 years ago). I think something of what chimed was the way it turns out okay. Perhaps it is simply a great scene of navigating a city, and killing time there, alone.
So I would, actually, if time and circumstances allow, like to read more Trollope - though there are many authors I want to read whom I've still never read once, and who therefore get priority. Perhaps if there's an occasion when I'd once have felt like picking up yet another Charles Dickens novel, I might try Trollope instead. And I don't think anyone is more surprised by that idea than I am.
(Read December 2019; reviewed Dec 2019-Jan 2020)
January 7, 2026
The first volume in his series on Barset County (which is to Trollope what Wessex is to Thomas Hardy), *The Warden*, published in 1855 after three other novels of mixed success, focuses on accusations of embezzlement of funds from a charitable institution for the benefit of a clergyman.
The warden of the title, Septimus Harding, holder of a small parish near the episcopal see of Barchester, becomes, at the bishop's suggestion, both cantor of the cathedral and Director of the charitable almshouse, built and run following a 15th-century bequest. This position is hardly a job, however, as it is a sinecure paid £800 a year with a fine house provided. Mr. Harding is anything but a greedy man. Well, a music lover and cellist himself, willing to offer his support and comfort to the twelve residents of the almshouse, imagine his surprise and pain when he was denounced and condemned as profiting from a charitable institution at the expense of said poor residents!
Anthony Trollope's novel revisits several cases of multiple ecclesiastical benefices and privileges that have been shaking the Anglican Church for some years, with some having amassed tens of thousands of pounds through the accumulation of offices (although dating back to the mid-19th century, this type of case retains a specific contemporary relevance to the problems of politicians holding multiple offices).
With his lively and ironic pen, the author denounces the excesses of the state clergy through the legal and moral dilemmas of poor Septimus Harding, who certainly doesn't deserve so much vilification in the editorials of the Jupiter (aka The Times). And Trollope takes the opportunity to swipe at opinion columnists who wield considerable influence, launching venomous attacks against politicians, prelates, generals, and so on.
The Director also offers a fine gallery of characters, whose psychology and habits he portrays with just the right touch of satire: the gentle Harding, not exactly known for his boundless energy, who desires comfort and peace, both material and spiritual (which ultimately makes him a moral hero); the good-natured but incompetent bishop; his son, the archdeacon, whom the author describes as dictatorial (even though he acknowledges that this story hasn't allowed the reader to see the man's good qualities, which do exist despite his arrogant authoritarianism); the idealistic Dr. Bold, ready to launch a lawsuit on behalf of the twelve older adults he believes have been wronged; and so on. It should be noted that women are, unfortunately, few in number and not very prominent in their roles. It's worth noting that Harding's eldest daughter, married to the famous archdeacon, is the only one who dares to contradict him and tell him bluntly that she doesn't expect him ever to admit he's wrong.
The Director is undoubtedly not the most thrilling of Victorian novels. Yet, it possesses undeniable strengths and qualities. Trollope's style is one of them. And through his narrative, we discover the organization of the Anglican clergy and how its prerogatives and benefits are beginning to be challenged. Thanks are due to the endnotes, which clarify various references to figures and events of the period described, which may be unknown to non-English-speaking readers and those unfamiliar with 19th-century Britain. Thanks also to Folio for its summary of the History of Anglicanism and its definitions of ecclesiastical terms. Comparing the chronology of Anthony Trollope's life with the various historical and literary events of his century allows us to contextualize his work better and situate him among his fellow writers, such as Dickens (mocked here as "Mr. Popular Sentiment," who seized upon the Barchester workhouse affair to produce a tearful serial novel featuring mistreated poor residents and a vicious, drunken ecclesiastical director with the crooked fingers of a plunderer clutching the embezzled loot), Elizabeth Gaskell, Thackeray, and others.
After this initial encounter with Trollope's son's writing (since his mother also wrote), I will gladly continue with his Chronicles of Barset before exploring other aspects of his work.
The warden of the title, Septimus Harding, holder of a small parish near the episcopal see of Barchester, becomes, at the bishop's suggestion, both cantor of the cathedral and Director of the charitable almshouse, built and run following a 15th-century bequest. This position is hardly a job, however, as it is a sinecure paid £800 a year with a fine house provided. Mr. Harding is anything but a greedy man. Well, a music lover and cellist himself, willing to offer his support and comfort to the twelve residents of the almshouse, imagine his surprise and pain when he was denounced and condemned as profiting from a charitable institution at the expense of said poor residents!
Anthony Trollope's novel revisits several cases of multiple ecclesiastical benefices and privileges that have been shaking the Anglican Church for some years, with some having amassed tens of thousands of pounds through the accumulation of offices (although dating back to the mid-19th century, this type of case retains a specific contemporary relevance to the problems of politicians holding multiple offices).
With his lively and ironic pen, the author denounces the excesses of the state clergy through the legal and moral dilemmas of poor Septimus Harding, who certainly doesn't deserve so much vilification in the editorials of the Jupiter (aka The Times). And Trollope takes the opportunity to swipe at opinion columnists who wield considerable influence, launching venomous attacks against politicians, prelates, generals, and so on.
The Director also offers a fine gallery of characters, whose psychology and habits he portrays with just the right touch of satire: the gentle Harding, not exactly known for his boundless energy, who desires comfort and peace, both material and spiritual (which ultimately makes him a moral hero); the good-natured but incompetent bishop; his son, the archdeacon, whom the author describes as dictatorial (even though he acknowledges that this story hasn't allowed the reader to see the man's good qualities, which do exist despite his arrogant authoritarianism); the idealistic Dr. Bold, ready to launch a lawsuit on behalf of the twelve older adults he believes have been wronged; and so on. It should be noted that women are, unfortunately, few in number and not very prominent in their roles. It's worth noting that Harding's eldest daughter, married to the famous archdeacon, is the only one who dares to contradict him and tell him bluntly that she doesn't expect him ever to admit he's wrong.
The Director is undoubtedly not the most thrilling of Victorian novels. Yet, it possesses undeniable strengths and qualities. Trollope's style is one of them. And through his narrative, we discover the organization of the Anglican clergy and how its prerogatives and benefits are beginning to be challenged. Thanks are due to the endnotes, which clarify various references to figures and events of the period described, which may be unknown to non-English-speaking readers and those unfamiliar with 19th-century Britain. Thanks also to Folio for its summary of the History of Anglicanism and its definitions of ecclesiastical terms. Comparing the chronology of Anthony Trollope's life with the various historical and literary events of his century allows us to contextualize his work better and situate him among his fellow writers, such as Dickens (mocked here as "Mr. Popular Sentiment," who seized upon the Barchester workhouse affair to produce a tearful serial novel featuring mistreated poor residents and a vicious, drunken ecclesiastical director with the crooked fingers of a plunderer clutching the embezzled loot), Elizabeth Gaskell, Thackeray, and others.
After this initial encounter with Trollope's son's writing (since his mother also wrote), I will gladly continue with his Chronicles of Barset before exploring other aspects of his work.
January 14, 2018
διαχρονική ανθρώπινη φύση... ένα βιβλίο για την κοσμική διαφθορά της εκκλησίας, παρουσιασμένα απλά, κυνικά και ώρες ώρες με ένα ιδιαίτερα καυστικό χιούμορ! Στο επίκεντρο η λειτουργία ενός γηροκομείου που λειτουργεί με κεφάλαιο από τη διαθήκη ενός πλούσιου πιστού, ο οποίος έχει αναθέσει στην Εκκλησία την ευθύνη της διαχείρισης του γηροκομείου, όπου κάθε γέρος που φιλοξενείται θα έχει ένα εισόδημα. Τελικά, το εισόδημα του παππού μειώνεται στο απολύτως απαραίτητο, ενώ ο μισθός του επιτρόπου του γηροκομείου παραείναι παχυλός. Ένας νεαρός γιατρός με όνειρα και ιδεώδη προσπαθεί να κινητοποιήσει τους παππούδες και να πετύχει το δίκαιο με βάση τη δική του ηθική, η οποία είναι διαφορετική από την ηθική του αρχιδιάκονου. Και όλα αυτά χωρίς κάποιος να ρωτήσει την άποψη του επιτρόπου, ο οποίος ακούει τους άλλους να μαλώνουν για λογαριασμό του, χωρίς να πει ο ίδιος τη γνώμη του...
Ποιος δεν θα ένιωθε τη χριστιανική χάρη που έχει ο μισθός ενός ιερωμένου, την ώρα που διασχίζει εκείνον τον γαλήνιο, ατέλειωτο διάδρομο στο Γουίντσεστερ, όταν αντικρίζει εκείνα τα έξοχα οικήματα, εκείνη την περιποιημένη χλόη και αισθάνεται, όπως πρέπει να κάνει κανείς, τη σοβαρή, νοικοκυρεμένη άνεση του τοπίου! Ποιος θα έκρινε σκληρά τον πρωτοσύγκελλο που περιδιαβάζει στον ευχάριστο περίβολο του καθεδρικού του Χέρεφορντ και αναγνωρίζει πως, σ' αυτόν τον περίφρακτο χώρο, πνεύμα και χρώμα, σχεδιασμός και ύφος, βαρύ καμπαναριό και ιστορημένο παράθυρο, είναι όλα σε συμφωνία και πλήρη εντέλεια! Ποιος μπορεί να χαρεί τα αίθρια των μοναστηριών του Σάλσμπερι και να περιεργαστεί τη βιβλιοθήκη του επισκόπου Τζον Τζούελ κι εκείνο το απαράμιλλο κωδωνοστάσιο χωρίς να νιώσει πως μερικές φορές, ναι, είναι δίκαιο οι επίσκοποι να είναι πλούσιοι
Ο καλός (ο γιατρός) ο κακός (ο αρχιδιάκονος) και ο προβληματισμένος (ο επίτροπος) σε μια ενδιαφέρουσα και καλοστημένη περιπέτεια
Ποιος δεν θα ένιωθε τη χριστιανική χάρη που έχει ο μισθός ενός ιερωμένου, την ώρα που διασχίζει εκείνον τον γαλήνιο, ατέλειωτο διάδρομο στο Γουίντσεστερ, όταν αντικρίζει εκείνα τα έξοχα οικήματα, εκείνη την περιποιημένη χλόη και αισθάνεται, όπως πρέπει να κάνει κανείς, τη σοβαρή, νοικοκυρεμένη άνεση του τοπίου! Ποιος θα έκρινε σκληρά τον πρωτοσύγκελλο που περιδιαβάζει στον ευχάριστο περίβολο του καθεδρικού του Χέρεφορντ και αναγνωρίζει πως, σ' αυτόν τον περίφρακτο χώρο, πνεύμα και χρώμα, σχεδιασμός και ύφος, βαρύ καμπαναριό και ιστορημένο παράθυρο, είναι όλα σε συμφωνία και πλήρη εντέλεια! Ποιος μπορεί να χαρεί τα αίθρια των μοναστηριών του Σάλσμπερι και να περιεργαστεί τη βιβλιοθήκη του επισκόπου Τζον Τζούελ κι εκείνο το απαράμιλλο κωδωνοστάσιο χωρίς να νιώσει πως μερικές φορές, ναι, είναι δίκαιο οι επίσκοποι να είναι πλούσιοι
Ο καλός (ο γιατρός) ο κακός (ο αρχιδιάκονος) και ο προβληματισμένος (ο επίτροπος) σε μια ενδιαφέρουσα και καλοστημένη περιπέτεια
March 15, 2014
Book Circle Reads 155
Rating: 3.5* of five
Good, solid Victorian stodge. The kind of book you read when you're glutted with silly, vapid "reality" stuff and need a bit of the reality fiction of its day.
My review lives on my blog, out of reach of data-deleting megacorps.
Rating: 3.5* of five
Good, solid Victorian stodge. The kind of book you read when you're glutted with silly, vapid "reality" stuff and need a bit of the reality fiction of its day.
My review lives on my blog, out of reach of data-deleting megacorps.
November 23, 2014
I'm going to clamp down my opening paragraph with a SPOILER! because I reveal in generalities how the book ends...which is kind of important I guess.
The Warden is the tale of a man who took his due and then developed a guilty conscience over it.
Septimus Harding is the warden of an almshouse in the English countryside. He's got a cushy gig and he's aware of it. He isn't a greedy man, taking more than what's been given him, in fact he gives more than is necessary. One day question arises over the legality of his preferment. This gnaws away at Mr. Harding's conviction in his right to accept money that should perhaps go to the old men he cares for, even after it's discovered that by all appearances, he is in the right.
Anthony Trollope pours the woe upon his main character, directing his emotional trajectory steadily south. The modern day plot with its climax waves and big finish are not applied here. The story, while entertaining enough, is rather flat.
Trollope's writing felt similar to Charles Dickens without so much of the caricature style that makes Dickens' characters so larger than life and sometimes larger than can be believed. Although he does go in for giving his character entirely too appropriate names: Bold, Towers, Haphazard. It's done purposefully, just as Trollope also felt the need to create a fictitious town and county name.
Having just finished Willa Cather's My Antonia with its marvelously subtle yet exacting character sketches that make the reader feel as if those people really did exist, Trollope's technique seems ridiculous and unnecessary.
I don't want to leave you with that as my last word on Trollope's work. I don't find the book itself ridiculous and unnecessary. On the contrary, the writing on the whole is marvelous, if stilted by the style so often adopted during the Victorian era. The Warden is a great study in human nature and the affect morals can have on one's decisions. I do plan to read more Trollope. This book may not have been pure joy from start to finish, but it is worthy reading.
The Warden is the tale of a man who took his due and then developed a guilty conscience over it.
Septimus Harding is the warden of an almshouse in the English countryside. He's got a cushy gig and he's aware of it. He isn't a greedy man, taking more than what's been given him, in fact he gives more than is necessary. One day question arises over the legality of his preferment. This gnaws away at Mr. Harding's conviction in his right to accept money that should perhaps go to the old men he cares for, even after it's discovered that by all appearances, he is in the right.
Anthony Trollope pours the woe upon his main character, directing his emotional trajectory steadily south. The modern day plot with its climax waves and big finish are not applied here. The story, while entertaining enough, is rather flat.
Trollope's writing felt similar to Charles Dickens without so much of the caricature style that makes Dickens' characters so larger than life and sometimes larger than can be believed. Although he does go in for giving his character entirely too appropriate names: Bold, Towers, Haphazard. It's done purposefully, just as Trollope also felt the need to create a fictitious town and county name.
Having just finished Willa Cather's My Antonia with its marvelously subtle yet exacting character sketches that make the reader feel as if those people really did exist, Trollope's technique seems ridiculous and unnecessary.
I don't want to leave you with that as my last word on Trollope's work. I don't find the book itself ridiculous and unnecessary. On the contrary, the writing on the whole is marvelous, if stilted by the style so often adopted during the Victorian era. The Warden is a great study in human nature and the affect morals can have on one's decisions. I do plan to read more Trollope. This book may not have been pure joy from start to finish, but it is worthy reading.
April 20, 2017
I am not sure what to write of as a review.
To escape such confused state, it is better to state everything in bullets.
- It is a story of a man who listens to his conscience even when it means to lose everything (most of all, his income).
- It is a story of wonderful relationships: the friendship between the Warden and the Archbishop; the filial affection between a father and a daughter (the Warden and his daughter, Eleanor); challenging love between lovers (Eleanor and Bold); a fascinating relationship between a father-in-law and a son-in-law (the warden and his first son-in-law, Dr. Grantly).
- It is about 19th century Church politics (especially the Church of England).
- It is about the abuse of charity funds by clergy which was a great discussion point in Trollope's time.
Overall, it is a lovely story written in a superb language. I loved the language and Trollope's habit of addressing the reader once a while.
This edition also has a wonderful introduction by Robin Gilmour and he has rightly indicated at the opening of introduction that it is meant for those who have read the novel. That was a great service. I just skipped it and went direct for the novel (I am a new reader) and after the completion when I read the introduction I was wonder struck by very many remarkable points analysed. Had I read it earlier, I would have neither understood the analysis nor have enjoyed the novel.
To escape such confused state, it is better to state everything in bullets.
- It is a story of a man who listens to his conscience even when it means to lose everything (most of all, his income).
- It is a story of wonderful relationships: the friendship between the Warden and the Archbishop; the filial affection between a father and a daughter (the Warden and his daughter, Eleanor); challenging love between lovers (Eleanor and Bold); a fascinating relationship between a father-in-law and a son-in-law (the warden and his first son-in-law, Dr. Grantly).
- It is about 19th century Church politics (especially the Church of England).
- It is about the abuse of charity funds by clergy which was a great discussion point in Trollope's time.
Overall, it is a lovely story written in a superb language. I loved the language and Trollope's habit of addressing the reader once a while.
This edition also has a wonderful introduction by Robin Gilmour and he has rightly indicated at the opening of introduction that it is meant for those who have read the novel. That was a great service. I just skipped it and went direct for the novel (I am a new reader) and after the completion when I read the introduction I was wonder struck by very many remarkable points analysed. Had I read it earlier, I would have neither understood the analysis nor have enjoyed the novel.
November 15, 2023
“… the public is defrauded when it is purposely misled. Poor public! How often is it misled! Against what a world of fraud it has to contend!
Septimus Harding is a gentleman – both in the 21st century reader’s “refined, scrupulously behaved Miss Manners” sense as well as in the 19th century “man of financially independent means” sense! Happily living on his 800£ annual sinecure provided through the church as the result of a will written several hundred years earlier, Harding serves the dual roles of precentor of the local cathedral and warden of a local almshouse for elderly men. As political notions of socialism begin to appear in the smoky atmosphere of the burgeoning Industrial Revolution, the suitor of Harding’s daughter, Dr John Bold, a zealous hard-nosed reformer with a keen nose for a righteous cause, sees fit to question the fairness and validity of a will that provides an 800£ income to the warden of the almshouse while providing so little, a miserly 12£ per year, for the home’s residents. Indeed, he causes a veritable storm of controversy by launching a legal suit disputing the will and attacking the rights, the ethics, and the wealth of the Church of England and its entitled clergy in the national press.
Without actually taking sides, Trollope has penned a witty, entertaining, and frequently amusing satirical novel that manages to precariously and diplomatically straddle the fence on most of the issues it raises – church wealth; the rights and wrongs of moral crusades; lawsuits and the legal machinations required to settle them; the effect of profound political differences on family relationships; the 19th century version of that most contemporary of issues, partisan “fake news”; right-wing politics of conservative wealth versus left-wing politics of reform; not to mention a reasonably steady stream of jibes at Church politics and its patriarchal misogynistic behaviour scattered at intervals throughout the length of the novel.
Consider, for example, Trollope’s rather forthright description of the apoplectic reaction of Archdeacon Grantly (Harding’s son-in-law) to news of Bold’s lawsuit:
“He would consign to darkness and perdition not only every individual reformer, but every committee and every commission that would even dare to ask a question respecting the appropriateness of church revenues.”
Or to quote the Archdeacon directly when he expressed his ire on the topic to his long-suffering wife:
“… that pestilent, interfering upstart, John Bold – the most vulgar young person I ever met … is meddling with your father’s affairs in a most uncalled for – most – And being at a loss for an epithet sufficiently injurious, he finished his expressions of horror by muttering, ‘Good Heavens!’ in a manner that had been found very efficacious in clerical meetings of the diocese.”
If there is a single, overriding moral takeaway from the novel, it might be that reform for its own sake is not always a good thing and, in some cases, will end up as a case of “Be careful what you wish for!” Definitely recommended as a very readable and thoroughly entertaining 19th century classic, that is much lighter and more easy-going than what readers have come to expect from the likes of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, George Eliot or the Brontë sisters.
Paul Weiss
Septimus Harding is a gentleman – both in the 21st century reader’s “refined, scrupulously behaved Miss Manners” sense as well as in the 19th century “man of financially independent means” sense! Happily living on his 800£ annual sinecure provided through the church as the result of a will written several hundred years earlier, Harding serves the dual roles of precentor of the local cathedral and warden of a local almshouse for elderly men. As political notions of socialism begin to appear in the smoky atmosphere of the burgeoning Industrial Revolution, the suitor of Harding’s daughter, Dr John Bold, a zealous hard-nosed reformer with a keen nose for a righteous cause, sees fit to question the fairness and validity of a will that provides an 800£ income to the warden of the almshouse while providing so little, a miserly 12£ per year, for the home’s residents. Indeed, he causes a veritable storm of controversy by launching a legal suit disputing the will and attacking the rights, the ethics, and the wealth of the Church of England and its entitled clergy in the national press.
Without actually taking sides, Trollope has penned a witty, entertaining, and frequently amusing satirical novel that manages to precariously and diplomatically straddle the fence on most of the issues it raises – church wealth; the rights and wrongs of moral crusades; lawsuits and the legal machinations required to settle them; the effect of profound political differences on family relationships; the 19th century version of that most contemporary of issues, partisan “fake news”; right-wing politics of conservative wealth versus left-wing politics of reform; not to mention a reasonably steady stream of jibes at Church politics and its patriarchal misogynistic behaviour scattered at intervals throughout the length of the novel.
Consider, for example, Trollope’s rather forthright description of the apoplectic reaction of Archdeacon Grantly (Harding’s son-in-law) to news of Bold’s lawsuit:
“He would consign to darkness and perdition not only every individual reformer, but every committee and every commission that would even dare to ask a question respecting the appropriateness of church revenues.”
Or to quote the Archdeacon directly when he expressed his ire on the topic to his long-suffering wife:
“… that pestilent, interfering upstart, John Bold – the most vulgar young person I ever met … is meddling with your father’s affairs in a most uncalled for – most – And being at a loss for an epithet sufficiently injurious, he finished his expressions of horror by muttering, ‘Good Heavens!’ in a manner that had been found very efficacious in clerical meetings of the diocese.”
If there is a single, overriding moral takeaway from the novel, it might be that reform for its own sake is not always a good thing and, in some cases, will end up as a case of “Be careful what you wish for!” Definitely recommended as a very readable and thoroughly entertaining 19th century classic, that is much lighter and more easy-going than what readers have come to expect from the likes of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, George Eliot or the Brontë sisters.
Paul Weiss
April 17, 2023
Although I read a lot of books, I’ve never been well-read on the classics. I think I was put off by having to study the books of Dickens when I was at school. All those hirsute Victorians just seemed so old.
Judging from the photos of him, Trollope certainly falls into the category of hirsute Victorian, but I myself am older and wiser now, and I thought I would give this a try as it was offered as included with my Audible membership. It’s the first book in Trollope’s “Barchester” series.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The book is a satire on both the privileges of the 19th century Church of England and on the political activists who sought to attack said privileges. The humour is quite gentle but is still effective, albeit it is more likely to produce smiles of amusement as opposed to peals of laughter. As with other authors of this era, Trollope’s use of language is superb.
The lead character, Septimus Harding, is a clergyman and widower who possesses a sinecure of £800 a year as warden of an almshouse that accommodates 12 elderly workingmen (“bedesmen”), who are now too infirm to support themselves. The money for their keep comes from the legacy of a 15th century will, but the greater part of the legacy is now diverted to the Warden. This obvious injustice comes to the attention of John Bold, a social reformer, who launches a legal case. The additional complication in the plot is that Bold is in love with Harding’s daughter Eleanor.
You would think from the above summary that it would be hard to sympathise with Harding, but actually this is what Trollope gets us to do. Harding is a shy and retiring man who just wants to live out his years in quiet obscurity. He had always assumed that his stipend was in accordance with the terms of the legacy and regards the bedesman as his friends. The novel has a surprisingly modern feel in that Harding becomes the target of critical articles in the country’s greatest newspaper, The Jupiter (clearly modelled on The Times) which basically accuses him of stealing money from the poor. He is also made the basis for the villain in a novel by a successful author, Mr Popular Sentiment. I don’t think I need spell out who that’s meant to be!
Although this isn’t a long novel, parts of it seemed a bit long-winded, particularly the chapter that features “Tom Towers”, a leader writer for The Jupiter. In describing the character of Eleanor, I felt Trollope ventured quite close to the style of “Mr Popular Sentiment” that he otherwise lampooned. Also I don’t know that I really agreed with the underlying message. Those quibbles apart, I had fun listening to this, and I intend to continue with the series at some point.
Judging from the photos of him, Trollope certainly falls into the category of hirsute Victorian, but I myself am older and wiser now, and I thought I would give this a try as it was offered as included with my Audible membership. It’s the first book in Trollope’s “Barchester” series.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The book is a satire on both the privileges of the 19th century Church of England and on the political activists who sought to attack said privileges. The humour is quite gentle but is still effective, albeit it is more likely to produce smiles of amusement as opposed to peals of laughter. As with other authors of this era, Trollope’s use of language is superb.
The lead character, Septimus Harding, is a clergyman and widower who possesses a sinecure of £800 a year as warden of an almshouse that accommodates 12 elderly workingmen (“bedesmen”), who are now too infirm to support themselves. The money for their keep comes from the legacy of a 15th century will, but the greater part of the legacy is now diverted to the Warden. This obvious injustice comes to the attention of John Bold, a social reformer, who launches a legal case. The additional complication in the plot is that Bold is in love with Harding’s daughter Eleanor.
You would think from the above summary that it would be hard to sympathise with Harding, but actually this is what Trollope gets us to do. Harding is a shy and retiring man who just wants to live out his years in quiet obscurity. He had always assumed that his stipend was in accordance with the terms of the legacy and regards the bedesman as his friends. The novel has a surprisingly modern feel in that Harding becomes the target of critical articles in the country’s greatest newspaper, The Jupiter (clearly modelled on The Times) which basically accuses him of stealing money from the poor. He is also made the basis for the villain in a novel by a successful author, Mr Popular Sentiment. I don’t think I need spell out who that’s meant to be!
Although this isn’t a long novel, parts of it seemed a bit long-winded, particularly the chapter that features “Tom Towers”, a leader writer for The Jupiter. In describing the character of Eleanor, I felt Trollope ventured quite close to the style of “Mr Popular Sentiment” that he otherwise lampooned. Also I don’t know that I really agreed with the underlying message. Those quibbles apart, I had fun listening to this, and I intend to continue with the series at some point.
December 5, 2024
Non ricordo come ho "conosciuto" Anthony Trollope, se a seguito di una conversazione con un amico anch'egli affetto come me da bibliomania cronica e irreversibile o scartabellando a caso il catalogo della casa Editrice Sellerio, sicuramente nota ai più per gli eccellenti Andrea Camilleri, Antonio Manzini e la spagnola Alicia Jimenez-Batlett...
...Fatto sta che mi è rimasto impresso il nome e, accertatomi della collocazione ottocentesca del nostro, pressoché coetaneo dei nostri amati Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins ed Elizabeth Gaskell, ho cominciato ad acquistarne i romanzi in successione scoprendo poi che un gruppo di essi compone la "serie" detta "Le Cronache di Barsetshire", un altro gruppo la serie dei "Pallisers" e poi vi sono dei romanzi a sè stanti...insomma una pacchia!
Al momento però di cominciare la conoscenza diretta di questo scrittore non ho avuto dubbi a scegliere questo "L'Amministratore" per due motivi: innanzitutto perché è il primo romanzo della serie di Barsetshire e poi perché qui su Goodreads, la mia unica Bibbia riconosciuta, è il suo romanzo con il voto media più basso di tutte le sue opere: quale migliore banco di prova?
Fatto sta che questo romanzo è stato fin dalle prime pagine una delizia di scoperte e di apprezzamenti: una scrittura piacevolissima, un intreccio narrativo di primo ordine, protagonisti e coprotagonisti, figure accessorie e scenari indimenticabili, una grande padronanza dei dialoghi e una facilità di descrizione dei caratteri e delle motivazioni che muovono i personaggi, non sia proprio avventuroso come la ricerca di un tesoro nascosto o un giro del mondo in un certo numero di giorni.
In conclusione non sto nella pelle al pensiero di cominciare presto un altro romanzo del mio nuovo amico Anthony!
...Fatto sta che mi è rimasto impresso il nome e, accertatomi della collocazione ottocentesca del nostro, pressoché coetaneo dei nostri amati Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins ed Elizabeth Gaskell, ho cominciato ad acquistarne i romanzi in successione scoprendo poi che un gruppo di essi compone la "serie" detta "Le Cronache di Barsetshire", un altro gruppo la serie dei "Pallisers" e poi vi sono dei romanzi a sè stanti...insomma una pacchia!
Al momento però di cominciare la conoscenza diretta di questo scrittore non ho avuto dubbi a scegliere questo "L'Amministratore" per due motivi: innanzitutto perché è il primo romanzo della serie di Barsetshire e poi perché qui su Goodreads, la mia unica Bibbia riconosciuta, è il suo romanzo con il voto media più basso di tutte le sue opere: quale migliore banco di prova?
Fatto sta che questo romanzo è stato fin dalle prime pagine una delizia di scoperte e di apprezzamenti: una scrittura piacevolissima, un intreccio narrativo di primo ordine, protagonisti e coprotagonisti, figure accessorie e scenari indimenticabili, una grande padronanza dei dialoghi e una facilità di descrizione dei caratteri e delle motivazioni che muovono i personaggi, non sia proprio avventuroso come la ricerca di un tesoro nascosto o un giro del mondo in un certo numero di giorni.
In conclusione non sto nella pelle al pensiero di cominciare presto un altro romanzo del mio nuovo amico Anthony!
March 24, 2023
The story concerns ecclesiastical politics and scandal in a quaint town of Barchester. A hospital for the poor has been left in a will of 15th century philanthropist, the warden of which is introduced to us as Mr. Septimus Harding. All is calm and quiet, till a local reformer who happens to be the warden’s younger daughter Eleanor’s suitor Mr John Bold, stumbles upon some information that the will may not be truthfully carried out, and that Mr Harding is paid much more money than he is due.
What is unjust must be wrong; what is wrong should be righted; and if he declined the task, who else would do it?
Bold’s had a well-meaning intention, but this leads to a ripple effect of consequences which also includes a smear campaign against Mr Harding in national press.
Two hundred thousand readers then would hear this accusation against him; two hundred thousand hearts would swell with indignation at the griping injustice, the barefaced robbery of the warden of Barchester Hospital! And how was he to answer this? How was he to open his inmost heart to this multitude, to these thousands, the educated, the polished, the picked men of his own country; how show them that he was no robber, no avaricious lazy priest scrambling for gold, but a retiring humble-spirited man who had innocently taken what had innocently been offered to him?
Mr Harding’s son-in-law Dr Grantly (husband of his elder daughter) who is an Archdeacon with a strong and imposing personality, gets involved in defending Mr Harding and the Church, and complicates matters further. So starts a story which focuses on the impact of such public a scandal on personal lives of those concerned.
Was he to be pointed at as the consumer of the bread of the poor, and to be allowed no means of refuting such charges, of clearing his begrimed name, of standing innocent in the world, as hitherto he had stood? Was he to bear all this, to receive as usual his now hated income, and be known as one of those greedy priests who by their rapacity have brought disgrace on their church? and why? Why should he bear all this? why should he die, for he felt that he could not live, under such a weight of obloquy?
I loved the writing in this book, and simply adored the simple descriptions of a humble domestic life. Also, would have been clueless to some references of Church politics had it not been for the helpful endnotes in the Penguin Classics edition I used. Also appreciate the metaphors that were employed in the book. Those broadened my knowledge. Mr Harding is a brilliantly defined character, who is dignified and upstanding. I felt so much respect and compassion for him, as well as a protective feeling. Despite all the accusations he doesn’t want the situation to affect Bold’s relationship with Eleanor. He is so clearly defined that I almost had second-hand anxiety in his behalf, and I sympathize with him. The character introductions, for each character were wonderfully crafted. Particularly the chapter on introduction of Tom Towers was great.
This battle of ego for Grantly and Bold’s intention of being a saviour, crush poor Mr Harding. But he handles his situation with dignity.
The friendship of Mr Harding and the Bishop of Barchester (Dr Grantly’s father) is beautiful, and full of mutual respect, affection, and admiration.
It is hard to see it as a ‘mere’ fiction. It was so real, so true, and so personal. The readers become an honorary part of Barchester.
What is unjust must be wrong; what is wrong should be righted; and if he declined the task, who else would do it?
Bold’s had a well-meaning intention, but this leads to a ripple effect of consequences which also includes a smear campaign against Mr Harding in national press.
Two hundred thousand readers then would hear this accusation against him; two hundred thousand hearts would swell with indignation at the griping injustice, the barefaced robbery of the warden of Barchester Hospital! And how was he to answer this? How was he to open his inmost heart to this multitude, to these thousands, the educated, the polished, the picked men of his own country; how show them that he was no robber, no avaricious lazy priest scrambling for gold, but a retiring humble-spirited man who had innocently taken what had innocently been offered to him?
Mr Harding’s son-in-law Dr Grantly (husband of his elder daughter) who is an Archdeacon with a strong and imposing personality, gets involved in defending Mr Harding and the Church, and complicates matters further. So starts a story which focuses on the impact of such public a scandal on personal lives of those concerned.
Was he to be pointed at as the consumer of the bread of the poor, and to be allowed no means of refuting such charges, of clearing his begrimed name, of standing innocent in the world, as hitherto he had stood? Was he to bear all this, to receive as usual his now hated income, and be known as one of those greedy priests who by their rapacity have brought disgrace on their church? and why? Why should he bear all this? why should he die, for he felt that he could not live, under such a weight of obloquy?
I loved the writing in this book, and simply adored the simple descriptions of a humble domestic life. Also, would have been clueless to some references of Church politics had it not been for the helpful endnotes in the Penguin Classics edition I used. Also appreciate the metaphors that were employed in the book. Those broadened my knowledge. Mr Harding is a brilliantly defined character, who is dignified and upstanding. I felt so much respect and compassion for him, as well as a protective feeling. Despite all the accusations he doesn’t want the situation to affect Bold’s relationship with Eleanor. He is so clearly defined that I almost had second-hand anxiety in his behalf, and I sympathize with him. The character introductions, for each character were wonderfully crafted. Particularly the chapter on introduction of Tom Towers was great.
This battle of ego for Grantly and Bold’s intention of being a saviour, crush poor Mr Harding. But he handles his situation with dignity.
The friendship of Mr Harding and the Bishop of Barchester (Dr Grantly’s father) is beautiful, and full of mutual respect, affection, and admiration.
It is hard to see it as a ‘mere’ fiction. It was so real, so true, and so personal. The readers become an honorary part of Barchester.
September 4, 2021
Halfway through this novel I was of the mind to give it 4 stars if it continued the way it was going. But alas…it got bogged down. There was one chapter – Mount Olympus, in which he introduces a newspaper editor, Tom Tower, as being anonymous but able to wield so much influence as to put the fear of God in all people who held powerful positions (church, government, you name it) for his editorial could destroy you in the court of public opinion– where I think he could have expressed the gist of what he wanted to communicate to us in one frigging sentence (I just said it), but he took a whole chapter to beat the reader down and belabor his point. At least that is how I felt. 😐
And it wasn’t just that chapter. There were others. Halfway through the book I couldn’t wait for me to be done with the book. In that I would be one and done with it. 😐
This is a classic so no need for me to summarize what the book was about.
There were some sections early on where I was really surprised – that the writing was not at all dated. He was quite funny at times.
2.5 stars for me when all is said and done. It did not have a “happily ever after“ ending which was fine by me.
Reviews:
• https://thebookbindersdaughter.com/20...
• https://readingbug2016.wordpress.com/...
• https://www.readerslane.com/reviews-t...
Query: I have “Barchester Towers”. Give my reaction to this novel, do you think I might like that novel more than this one?
And it wasn’t just that chapter. There were others. Halfway through the book I couldn’t wait for me to be done with the book. In that I would be one and done with it. 😐
This is a classic so no need for me to summarize what the book was about.
There were some sections early on where I was really surprised – that the writing was not at all dated. He was quite funny at times.
2.5 stars for me when all is said and done. It did not have a “happily ever after“ ending which was fine by me.
Reviews:
• https://thebookbindersdaughter.com/20...
• https://readingbug2016.wordpress.com/...
• https://www.readerslane.com/reviews-t...
Query: I have “Barchester Towers”. Give my reaction to this novel, do you think I might like that novel more than this one?
January 24, 2020
“Did you ever know a poor man made better by law or a lawyer!' said Bunce bitterly.”
- Anthony Trollope, The Warden
Such a lovely social novel. Trollope sets up a series of characters and a situation and you know that Warden Septimus Harding, Archdeacon Grantly, and John Bold are set to collide and that the reforms of Dr Bold or the conservatism of Archdeacon Grantly will help the Warden. I loved the Warden of this story. I love his morality, his humility, his simpleness. I love Trollope's criticisms of the Church of England (and its clergy) and the excesses of reform. I love his take on the Press. But it is a gentle novel. There are no demons in Trollope's novel and no saints. There are men who make mistakes and overshoot the mark. Men who start a ball rolling and are unable to see where it will lead. There are women too. The women are fully formed and not just side notes.
- Anthony Trollope, The Warden
Such a lovely social novel. Trollope sets up a series of characters and a situation and you know that Warden Septimus Harding, Archdeacon Grantly, and John Bold are set to collide and that the reforms of Dr Bold or the conservatism of Archdeacon Grantly will help the Warden. I loved the Warden of this story. I love his morality, his humility, his simpleness. I love Trollope's criticisms of the Church of England (and its clergy) and the excesses of reform. I love his take on the Press. But it is a gentle novel. There are no demons in Trollope's novel and no saints. There are men who make mistakes and overshoot the mark. Men who start a ball rolling and are unable to see where it will lead. There are women too. The women are fully formed and not just side notes.
Read
June 22, 2018A gentle story about unexpected clerical upheaval in an English town. I loved Trollope’s distinction between grandiose, abstract ideas about justice and our small choices that reflect how we personally define it. There are figures on both sides of the main conflict who believe they know what’s definitively “right,” but it’s only the warden of Barchester who casts his idea of “right” in an individual light. I’ve heard this is nowhere near Trollope’s best, and I’m not surprised (as it was pleasant but not especially memorable), but I enjoyed this one and I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the Chronicles of Barsetshire.
July 6, 2022
The Warden is a book about cancel culture. Odd, I know, for a book written 170 years ago, but there it is.
Mr. Harding is a kind, sensitive soul who by decree of his friend, the bishop of Barchester, was nominated precentor and warden of a luxurious almshouse, known as Hiram’s Hospital. Back in the 16th century, a wealthy landowner, Hiram, stipulated that part of his lands’ income should go to 12 workmen of Barchester so they’d be looked after in their old age. Due to complex legal and historical reasons, Hiram’s lands and income now belong to the Church of England, and the Almshouse that he founded is under purview of the Bishop.
These 12 workmen whom the 19th century finds in this hospital are very lucky. This is no Dickensian almshouse. They live in comfort. Mr. Harding takes care of them when they’re ill, looks after their house and garden, and has even increased their monthly allowance out of his own pocket. There’s a catch, though: the money destined to the Almshouse is divided between the upkeep of the building and the Warden’s paycheck, a tight sum of some 800 pounds a year. The 12 workmen receive a considerably smaller stipend of a few pounds and small pence per year.
Barchester is afflicted by the presence of one John Bold, whom Trollope dubs a “radical”. Bold’s radicality consists in pointing out the unfairness of this division of wealth. Given that Hiram’s will was supposed to benefit 12 workmen of Barchester, why should the Warden of the Hospital get the largest cake slice? The Powers that Be consider this the first step towards anarchy, but Bold is undeterred and brings the subject to the Court of Public Opinion: the press. Sadly for Mr. Harding, and for Bold who’s in love with Mr. Harding’s daughter, the situation gets out of hand, as the press maligns the character of the kindly warden, something Bold never intended in the first place – particularly because he hoped the man would one day become his father-in-law.
The book then delves deep into a satire of the unregulated press, which destroys everything in their wake, including lives and reputations, without the slightest care for facts or the truth. It doesn’t really matter that Mr. Harding isn’t a gluttonous priest taking the bread from the mouths of the poor. All his qualities are erased, replaced by a grotesque caricature.
The damage is done, however. And there is more: Mr. Harding himself has started having conscience pangs about the money he is given every year. Perhaps, he thinks, this was not Hiram’s intention at all, that the caretaker of the building and of the workmen should receive many times more money than the old and sick workers themselves. He resigns, but all ends well for him. His friend the Bishop finds him another comfortable situation, his daughter marries John Bold, and they all live happily ever after. Except for the 12 workmen who, deprived of their caretaker (the Bishop stubbornly refused to nominateda successor), see their house falling into disarray and neglect. The extra money Mr. Harding gave them out of his own initiative is also gone.
But here’s the rub: John Bold is right. It is obscene that Mr. Harding should get a yearly fortune when the poor of the town, for whom the Almshouse and Hiram’s income was originally destined, receive a pittance. The book inevitably makes us sympathize with Mr. Harding, a truly honest and good man who did not deserve to be slandered and “cancelled”. Adding insult to injury, the 12 workmen come off worst. Abandoned and forgotten, they are punished for their ambition and for having believed the dishonest promises of lawyers and journalists. Poor people, Trollope seems to say, should be content with what they have. They should beware of rising above their station. The frightening thing about Trollope’s talent is that he almost gets us to agree with him.
Mr. Harding is a kind, sensitive soul who by decree of his friend, the bishop of Barchester, was nominated precentor and warden of a luxurious almshouse, known as Hiram’s Hospital. Back in the 16th century, a wealthy landowner, Hiram, stipulated that part of his lands’ income should go to 12 workmen of Barchester so they’d be looked after in their old age. Due to complex legal and historical reasons, Hiram’s lands and income now belong to the Church of England, and the Almshouse that he founded is under purview of the Bishop.
These 12 workmen whom the 19th century finds in this hospital are very lucky. This is no Dickensian almshouse. They live in comfort. Mr. Harding takes care of them when they’re ill, looks after their house and garden, and has even increased their monthly allowance out of his own pocket. There’s a catch, though: the money destined to the Almshouse is divided between the upkeep of the building and the Warden’s paycheck, a tight sum of some 800 pounds a year. The 12 workmen receive a considerably smaller stipend of a few pounds and small pence per year.
Barchester is afflicted by the presence of one John Bold, whom Trollope dubs a “radical”. Bold’s radicality consists in pointing out the unfairness of this division of wealth. Given that Hiram’s will was supposed to benefit 12 workmen of Barchester, why should the Warden of the Hospital get the largest cake slice? The Powers that Be consider this the first step towards anarchy, but Bold is undeterred and brings the subject to the Court of Public Opinion: the press. Sadly for Mr. Harding, and for Bold who’s in love with Mr. Harding’s daughter, the situation gets out of hand, as the press maligns the character of the kindly warden, something Bold never intended in the first place – particularly because he hoped the man would one day become his father-in-law.
The book then delves deep into a satire of the unregulated press, which destroys everything in their wake, including lives and reputations, without the slightest care for facts or the truth. It doesn’t really matter that Mr. Harding isn’t a gluttonous priest taking the bread from the mouths of the poor. All his qualities are erased, replaced by a grotesque caricature.
The damage is done, however. And there is more: Mr. Harding himself has started having conscience pangs about the money he is given every year. Perhaps, he thinks, this was not Hiram’s intention at all, that the caretaker of the building and of the workmen should receive many times more money than the old and sick workers themselves. He resigns, but all ends well for him. His friend the Bishop finds him another comfortable situation, his daughter marries John Bold, and they all live happily ever after. Except for the 12 workmen who, deprived of their caretaker (the Bishop stubbornly refused to nominateda successor), see their house falling into disarray and neglect. The extra money Mr. Harding gave them out of his own initiative is also gone.
But here’s the rub: John Bold is right. It is obscene that Mr. Harding should get a yearly fortune when the poor of the town, for whom the Almshouse and Hiram’s income was originally destined, receive a pittance. The book inevitably makes us sympathize with Mr. Harding, a truly honest and good man who did not deserve to be slandered and “cancelled”. Adding insult to injury, the 12 workmen come off worst. Abandoned and forgotten, they are punished for their ambition and for having believed the dishonest promises of lawyers and journalists. Poor people, Trollope seems to say, should be content with what they have. They should beware of rising above their station. The frightening thing about Trollope’s talent is that he almost gets us to agree with him.
November 29, 2018
Αυτό που λατρεύω στα κλασικά μυθιστορήματα, εκτός από την εκπληκτική γραφή που λείπει στις μέρες μας, είναι το πόσο πολύ επίκαιρα είναι. Ο Τρόλοπ είναι ένας συγγραφέας ο οποίος ανήκει στο ρεύμα του ρεαλισμού και ως εκ τούτου απολαμβάνουμε εικόνες που περιγράφουν την κοινωνία της εποχής στην αληθινή της διάσταση. Χρήμα και εκκλησία, αριβισμός και αξιοπρέπεια, στρατευμένη δημοσιογραφία και λαικισμός, όλα περιγράφονται γλαφυρά σε αυτό το μυθιστόρημα. Οι επιλογές και οι συνέπειές τους φαίνεται να μην έχουν πάντα το επιθυμητό ή το αντικειμενικά ορθό αποτέλεσμα. Καμιά φορά ακόμα κι αν παλεύουμε για τα δικαιώματά μας μπορεί στο τέλος να χάσουμε και αυτά που έχουμε.... τί πρέπει τελικά να κάνουμε για να διεκδικήσουμε αυτά που δικαιούμαστε? Μπορούμε άραγε να αποκτήσουμε ποτέ ότι μας ανήκει?
Η ανάγνωσή του βιβλίου συστήνεται ανεπιφύλακτα!
Η ανάγνωσή του βιβλίου συστήνεται ανεπιφύλακτα!
February 5, 2018
Irruzione nella vita di provincia
Per chi desidera una lettura di qualità, gradevole e rilassante, Trollope è un autore sicuramente raccomandabile.
Scrittore d'età vittoriana, rappresenta squarci di vita privata e sociale in modo realistico ; nel contempo però, in linea con con la grande tradizione letteraria inglese, la sua prosa ci offre uno stile lieve, gradevolissimo, venato di sottile umorismo ; a differenza di qualche celebre collega francese coevo, insomma, non tale da 'bloccare la digestione' .
"L'amministratore" è il primo romanzo del ciclo 'Cronache del Barsetshire'.
Il libro ci presenta un quadro della vita di provincia, con protagonisti uomini del clero anglicano in qualche modo uniti da parentela. Emergono in particolare quei connubi fra mansioni ecclesiastiche e rendite economiche, nomine e ascesa sociale, tipici del mondo anglicano del periodo, e non solo.
Un ruolo non secondario assume il potere giornalistico, ormai abbastanza forte in quel contesto da orientare l'opinione pubblica, di cui Trollope qui ci dà un ritratto critico e ironico, in una realtà nella quale "i Britannici non devono far altro che leggere, obbedire ed essere felici".
Gustosi i riferimenti al mondo politico e culturale. Acute e puntute le frecciate a Dikens, ora che "le sublimi nobildonne non risultano più interessanti, anche se possiedono tutte le virtù" e la gente comune diventa protagonista di una rappresentazione letteraria dai "colori assurdamente vivaci", tanto da far pensare che "l'artista che dipinge per le masse deve usare tinte sgargianti", per non parlare dell'estremizzazione dei caratteri dei personaggi, con i buoni tanto buoni e i malvagi troppo malvagi.
Trollope, forse per non correre tale rischio, precisa a proposito di un personaggio di eccessiva 'disinvoltura' : "Temiamo che in queste pagine si sia mostrato come peggiore di quel che è in realtà; ma abbiamo avuto a che fare con le sue debolezze e non con le sue virtù".
Per chi desidera una lettura di qualità, gradevole e rilassante, Trollope è un autore sicuramente raccomandabile.
Scrittore d'età vittoriana, rappresenta squarci di vita privata e sociale in modo realistico ; nel contempo però, in linea con con la grande tradizione letteraria inglese, la sua prosa ci offre uno stile lieve, gradevolissimo, venato di sottile umorismo ; a differenza di qualche celebre collega francese coevo, insomma, non tale da 'bloccare la digestione' .
"L'amministratore" è il primo romanzo del ciclo 'Cronache del Barsetshire'.
Il libro ci presenta un quadro della vita di provincia, con protagonisti uomini del clero anglicano in qualche modo uniti da parentela. Emergono in particolare quei connubi fra mansioni ecclesiastiche e rendite economiche, nomine e ascesa sociale, tipici del mondo anglicano del periodo, e non solo.
Un ruolo non secondario assume il potere giornalistico, ormai abbastanza forte in quel contesto da orientare l'opinione pubblica, di cui Trollope qui ci dà un ritratto critico e ironico, in una realtà nella quale "i Britannici non devono far altro che leggere, obbedire ed essere felici".
Gustosi i riferimenti al mondo politico e culturale. Acute e puntute le frecciate a Dikens, ora che "le sublimi nobildonne non risultano più interessanti, anche se possiedono tutte le virtù" e la gente comune diventa protagonista di una rappresentazione letteraria dai "colori assurdamente vivaci", tanto da far pensare che "l'artista che dipinge per le masse deve usare tinte sgargianti", per non parlare dell'estremizzazione dei caratteri dei personaggi, con i buoni tanto buoni e i malvagi troppo malvagi.
Trollope, forse per non correre tale rischio, precisa a proposito di un personaggio di eccessiva 'disinvoltura' : "Temiamo che in queste pagine si sia mostrato come peggiore di quel che è in realtà; ma abbiamo avuto a che fare con le sue debolezze e non con le sue virtù".
November 10, 2016
Here's proof that you can read a Trollope during a cross country flight. That's a testament to the quality of Trollope's writing as well as the unusual brevity of this story. Still, there were a handful of wonderfully developed characters and a display of what the English language can be. Here's just a brief example:
In the world Dr. Grantly never lays aside that demeanor which so well becomes him, He has all the dignity of an ancient saint with the sleekness of a modern bishop; he is always the same; he is always the archdeacon; unlike Homer, he never nods.
You have to smile at those last three words. You really have to.
In the world Dr. Grantly never lays aside that demeanor which so well becomes him, He has all the dignity of an ancient saint with the sleekness of a modern bishop; he is always the same; he is always the archdeacon; unlike Homer, he never nods.
You have to smile at those last three words. You really have to.
March 31, 2023
The start of the Barchester Chronicles and the first Trollope for me. Enjoyable, especially the relationship between the warden and the various other characters, and the interest taken at that stage (1855) on the CoE's financial affairs and misapplication of them.
Rather like Dickens was for me, I felt the written was laboured, but of course, this was the mid-19th century style. Overall, I am pleased I have made a start on Barchester and enjoyed the book, liking the Warden as a character too.
Rather like Dickens was for me, I felt the written was laboured, but of course, this was the mid-19th century style. Overall, I am pleased I have made a start on Barchester and enjoyed the book, liking the Warden as a character too.
February 18, 2021
This is the first of the Barsetshire Chronicles series by the Victorian author Anthony Trollope. I have read his books before, found them to be amusing and to have strong, intelligent and wise female characters, so I grabbed this when it was on sale. I knew full well that many consider it bland, not one of his best novels.
The setting is a fictional provincial Cathedral town in the fictional county of Barsetshire, somewhere in western England. It is the mid-1800s. At the time of the book’s conception, there were heated discussions of charities’ wealth and financial gains not being fairly dispensed. This is the central theme of the novel. A blossoming love attraction, the existing love situation between an already married husband and wife and a daughter’s love for her father constitute the book’s love theme, a theme common to most of Trollope’s books.
The characters in this story cannot be easily sorted into opposing camps in relation to the ongoing dispute concerning charity funds. This is good; this I like. Human relations, as in real life, cloud the issues debated. Trollope doesn’t simplify disputes by placing nay-sayers against opposing yay-sayers.
The clerical terminology is at the start confusing. Do you know the duties of a warden and how they differ from a precenter? What are the duties of a steward? And how do their salaries differ? Who are bedesmen? To follow the text properly, it is necessary to first get a grip on the terms used. This is a bit of a challenge, but by the end you have learned about the charities and the running of the Anglican Church from an historical perspective. Notch up a plus for the book!
The characters vary from being amusing to annoying—there is a wide spread of personality types. The eponymous warden….well, I’ll tell you this, I like him. I like him a lot. I will give only one hint, something he says that reveals his character:
“Everyone knows where his own shoe pinches!”
While I am at it, I will give you a funny line, voiced by a woman to her husband:
“I don’t for a moment even think you could ever admit you’re wrong!”
The warden’s words sum up the central message of the tale. The message delivered is satisfying without being super sweet. For some, life becomes decidedly worse, but not for all. How one views the end will depend upon what a person values in life.
Timothy West reads the audiobook very well. The tempo was for me too fast, so I reduced the speed to 90%, which made it perfect. His speech is clear. Intonations are well done. The narration I like a lot, so I have given it four stars.
I don’t regret grabbing this book when it was on sale. The next in the series, Barchester Towers, is a favorite for many. I’ll try to get to it soon.
*********************
*Can You Forgive Her? 3 stars
*Phineas Finn 4 stars
*Dr. Wortle's School 3 stars
*Sir Harry Hotspur Of Humblethwaite 2 stars
*The Warden 3 stars
*Barchester Towers TBR
*Dr. Thorne TBR
*Framley Parsonage TBR
*The Small House at Allington TBR
The setting is a fictional provincial Cathedral town in the fictional county of Barsetshire, somewhere in western England. It is the mid-1800s. At the time of the book’s conception, there were heated discussions of charities’ wealth and financial gains not being fairly dispensed. This is the central theme of the novel. A blossoming love attraction, the existing love situation between an already married husband and wife and a daughter’s love for her father constitute the book’s love theme, a theme common to most of Trollope’s books.
The characters in this story cannot be easily sorted into opposing camps in relation to the ongoing dispute concerning charity funds. This is good; this I like. Human relations, as in real life, cloud the issues debated. Trollope doesn’t simplify disputes by placing nay-sayers against opposing yay-sayers.
The clerical terminology is at the start confusing. Do you know the duties of a warden and how they differ from a precenter? What are the duties of a steward? And how do their salaries differ? Who are bedesmen? To follow the text properly, it is necessary to first get a grip on the terms used. This is a bit of a challenge, but by the end you have learned about the charities and the running of the Anglican Church from an historical perspective. Notch up a plus for the book!
The characters vary from being amusing to annoying—there is a wide spread of personality types. The eponymous warden….well, I’ll tell you this, I like him. I like him a lot. I will give only one hint, something he says that reveals his character:
“Everyone knows where his own shoe pinches!”
While I am at it, I will give you a funny line, voiced by a woman to her husband:
“I don’t for a moment even think you could ever admit you’re wrong!”
The warden’s words sum up the central message of the tale. The message delivered is satisfying without being super sweet. For some, life becomes decidedly worse, but not for all. How one views the end will depend upon what a person values in life.
Timothy West reads the audiobook very well. The tempo was for me too fast, so I reduced the speed to 90%, which made it perfect. His speech is clear. Intonations are well done. The narration I like a lot, so I have given it four stars.
I don’t regret grabbing this book when it was on sale. The next in the series, Barchester Towers, is a favorite for many. I’ll try to get to it soon.
*********************
*Can You Forgive Her? 3 stars
*Phineas Finn 4 stars
*Dr. Wortle's School 3 stars
*Sir Harry Hotspur Of Humblethwaite 2 stars
*The Warden 3 stars
*Barchester Towers TBR
*Dr. Thorne TBR
*Framley Parsonage TBR
*The Small House at Allington TBR
December 1, 2024
A great classic, made even better when read by Simon Vance. 5 star for this short brilliant read.
This book has been on my list of classics to read for the last 2 years. It was originally published in 1855 so it has been around for awhile. Most of my classics reading is British and Russian. Somehow I thought (I'm embarrassed to say) Trollope was a French writer. So after reading The Count of Monte Cristo earlier this year I wanted to get to The Warden before the year ended. I picked it up with some trepidation and it was a slow start but as I continued it on my walks each day I slowly started to fall in love with Simon Vance's narration and the writing and wit of Trollope.
It is a complex story with several characters. In simple terms it is a Warden (clergy of the Church of England) in charge of a retirement home for 12 old men who are without the means to take care of themselves. The funds that support this home and the Warden were left in a will. As all that was left in the inheritance increased in value the church reaped the benefits the salary to The Warden increased while keeping the stipend for the men in the alms house the same over the years keeping them in poverty.
The Warden is a man of God and sees the unjustness of this situation that he profits by. But there is so much more. Daughters and money and rights and wrongs all end up in the mix. What is a noble man to do? How can he right a situation he had no hand in making? How does one go up against the church?
“He was not so anxious to prove himself right, as to be so.”
It sounds dry but all the tangled threads got more tangled and deliciously fun. I can hardly wait to continue the story or at least a new one with the same characters in Barchester Towers again with Simon Vance's rich voice. A surprisingly wonderful read.
This book has been on my list of classics to read for the last 2 years. It was originally published in 1855 so it has been around for awhile. Most of my classics reading is British and Russian. Somehow I thought (I'm embarrassed to say) Trollope was a French writer. So after reading The Count of Monte Cristo earlier this year I wanted to get to The Warden before the year ended. I picked it up with some trepidation and it was a slow start but as I continued it on my walks each day I slowly started to fall in love with Simon Vance's narration and the writing and wit of Trollope.
It is a complex story with several characters. In simple terms it is a Warden (clergy of the Church of England) in charge of a retirement home for 12 old men who are without the means to take care of themselves. The funds that support this home and the Warden were left in a will. As all that was left in the inheritance increased in value the church reaped the benefits the salary to The Warden increased while keeping the stipend for the men in the alms house the same over the years keeping them in poverty.
The Warden is a man of God and sees the unjustness of this situation that he profits by. But there is so much more. Daughters and money and rights and wrongs all end up in the mix. What is a noble man to do? How can he right a situation he had no hand in making? How does one go up against the church?
“He was not so anxious to prove himself right, as to be so.”
It sounds dry but all the tangled threads got more tangled and deliciously fun. I can hardly wait to continue the story or at least a new one with the same characters in Barchester Towers again with Simon Vance's rich voice. A surprisingly wonderful read.
March 17, 2017
I’ve been on Goodreads for nearly two years now (where has the time gone?) yet I’m doing something for the very first time with this book: reading something Goodreads has recommended to me! I’ve read lots of books that were recommended to me by my GR friends but this is the first one I’ve read that was recommended by GR itself. To paraphrase Amazon: You liked Oliver Twist so you may also like The Chronicles of Barchester (of which this is the first book).
Well, Goodreads, I am happy to say that you were right: I did enjoy this book, so thanks for the recommendation! It was no Oliver Twist… not by a country mile… but it was a thoroughly enjoyable book.
The irony of this recommendation, of course, is that Trollope has a bit of a dig at Dickens in this book, so I’m not sure what he would have thought of me finding his book due to my loving Charlie-Boy! Trollope’s message in The Warden seems to be that all these namby-pamby social reformers (of which Dickens was the poster boy) should just leave well alone because society is fine as it is and they’ll only make things worse.
Personally, I couldn’t disagree with this message more, knowing what I do of some of the horrors of British life in the time of Trollope and Dickens, but I’ll be damned if Trollope’s opposing political views were going to stop me enjoying his writing! My beliefs are robust enough to take a good poking every now and then and it’s a well worthwhile poking when it’s done by an author who writes as well as Trollope. His work is very readable and really witty. I was particularly enamoured of his asides ‘to camera’ as it were. Breaking the fourth wall always tickles me and Trollope does it really well but, importantly, doesn’t overdo it.
My only complaint about this book is that the plot is overly simplistic. I know Trollope’s goal was to write a short novel (he says as much in one of his fourth-wall pummellings) but a low page count doesn’t have to mean an extremely basic plot, does it?
Despite this quibble, I definitely enjoyed The Warden enough to want to carry on with the series, so I declare this experiment with taking Goodreads’ recommendation to be a success!
Well, Goodreads, I am happy to say that you were right: I did enjoy this book, so thanks for the recommendation! It was no Oliver Twist… not by a country mile… but it was a thoroughly enjoyable book.
The irony of this recommendation, of course, is that Trollope has a bit of a dig at Dickens in this book, so I’m not sure what he would have thought of me finding his book due to my loving Charlie-Boy! Trollope’s message in The Warden seems to be that all these namby-pamby social reformers (of which Dickens was the poster boy) should just leave well alone because society is fine as it is and they’ll only make things worse.
Personally, I couldn’t disagree with this message more, knowing what I do of some of the horrors of British life in the time of Trollope and Dickens, but I’ll be damned if Trollope’s opposing political views were going to stop me enjoying his writing! My beliefs are robust enough to take a good poking every now and then and it’s a well worthwhile poking when it’s done by an author who writes as well as Trollope. His work is very readable and really witty. I was particularly enamoured of his asides ‘to camera’ as it were. Breaking the fourth wall always tickles me and Trollope does it really well but, importantly, doesn’t overdo it.
My only complaint about this book is that the plot is overly simplistic. I know Trollope’s goal was to write a short novel (he says as much in one of his fourth-wall pummellings) but a low page count doesn’t have to mean an extremely basic plot, does it?
Despite this quibble, I definitely enjoyed The Warden enough to want to carry on with the series, so I declare this experiment with taking Goodreads’ recommendation to be a success!
March 29, 2019
This was my first Trollope, but surely won't be the last. I loved it. I'm so glad people say this is the slowest, and most dry of the Barsetshire chronicles, because even I liked this book a lot.
Trollope is a writer with a character, he makes fun remarks sometimes in the middle of the story from himself, which makes it unique to him.
I really liked his style and looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Trollope is a writer with a character, he makes fun remarks sometimes in the middle of the story from himself, which makes it unique to him.
I really liked his style and looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
November 9, 2020
So much current political discourse is thrashed out online and on social media that it can feel like an overwhelming cacophony. This arena which I'd idealistically like to imagine to be a forum for debate and exchange more often becomes a battleground where opposing sides become even more entrenched in feelings of righteousness. So when I took up the challenge from the Trollope Society to read my first novel by this writer and the first novel in Trollope's Barsetshire series I didn't anticipate the extreme pleasure I'd find in the more mild-mannered and reasonable moral, social and political debate as conducted in Trollope's fictional cathedral town of Barchester. The Rev. Septimus Harding is the warden of a charity, a role which comes with a generous income. John Bold is an idealistic young surgeon and reformer who calls into question whether the wardenship is really entitled to the funds which were primarily intended for the residents of the charitable hospital. However, Bold also has a romantic interest in Harding's daughter Eleanor. Tensions run high when a newspaper article comes out accusing Harding of retaining the charity's funds for himself out of greedy self interest.
If this argument were to play out today there would likely be a public pile on Mr Harding until he was shamed into resigning from his role. Mr Harding would be a figure of ridicule turned into a meme. He would be “cancelled”. However, in Trollope's world things play out very differently. Through self-scrutiny on the part of Mr Harding and an entreaty to Mr Bold on the part of Eleanor, the accused and the accuser switch positions on the matter. This is not only a comic inversion of the central drama in this story, but it also shows the essential good nature of people who are receptive to critique and are willing to reconsider their views. What instantly endeared me to Trollope's writing was that (though his characters might possess certain prejudices) they feel well-rounded and realistic like neighbours. Their inner sense of justice is more forcefully applied to how they themselves interact with society rather than projecting their rigid idealism onto the rest of the world. Injustice is recognized and, indeed, the salary the warden receives is probably far more than the original founder of the charity ever intended, but there is also a recognition of the complexity of how communities work and the overall impact from implementing rapid change.
Read my full review of The Warden by Anthony Trollope on LonesomeReader
If this argument were to play out today there would likely be a public pile on Mr Harding until he was shamed into resigning from his role. Mr Harding would be a figure of ridicule turned into a meme. He would be “cancelled”. However, in Trollope's world things play out very differently. Through self-scrutiny on the part of Mr Harding and an entreaty to Mr Bold on the part of Eleanor, the accused and the accuser switch positions on the matter. This is not only a comic inversion of the central drama in this story, but it also shows the essential good nature of people who are receptive to critique and are willing to reconsider their views. What instantly endeared me to Trollope's writing was that (though his characters might possess certain prejudices) they feel well-rounded and realistic like neighbours. Their inner sense of justice is more forcefully applied to how they themselves interact with society rather than projecting their rigid idealism onto the rest of the world. Injustice is recognized and, indeed, the salary the warden receives is probably far more than the original founder of the charity ever intended, but there is also a recognition of the complexity of how communities work and the overall impact from implementing rapid change.
Read my full review of The Warden by Anthony Trollope on LonesomeReader
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