The Warden (1855)

Story-telling at its very best. A huge enjoyment to relax with and to read in a state of enthralment. What a mighty figure Trollope was; he had the Irish Post Office to superintend during the day and then turn out the best in Victorian literature in what spare time he had left.
Very good introduction to be read after finishing the novel for best impact.

My first Trollope and very much as I’d been led to expect, but surprising in many ways, too. The title character, a middling churchman called Harding, benefits from the wardenship, in the gift of the Bishop, of an endowed invalid hospital and the cushy income that comes with it, some centuries after the original bequest. Innocent as the day is long, he plays his cello, carries out his trifling episcopal duties, and draws his £800 p.a. until fine young social reformer, and suitor of the Warden’s daughter, John Bold, takes it on himself to campaign for a distribution of the old legacy more equable and in keeping with the ancient benefactor’s intention. Suddenly the Warden’s world is wobbling, and the more he thinks about it, the more convinced he is that he’s been living fraudulently.

It’s the anti-Dickens — no-one is all good or all bad, no heroes and certainly no villains here. Trollope in one of his very many authorial intrusions even mock-apologizes for the somewhat derogatory portrayal of one character, insisting that he has many redeeming qualities that simply weren’t relevant to the story. The Trollopisms are generally well-received but do sometimes get in the way of things — but no more so than Thackerayisms, Dickensisms, etc.

Speaking of Dickens, he’s in the pillory here as “Mr Popular Sentiment”, a novelist who takes up the cudgels for Bold. It’s a slam dunk as far as I’m concerned — Dickens is ludicrously sentimental, a populist, a writer shamelessly pandering to his public. But he’s also a writer of genius, sometimes, who produces prose that not only would be outside Trollope’s ambit but would embarrass a Trollope novel — descriptive journalistic passages like when Dickens delves into the grime of the street or of journalism or of drawing rooms, in a way Trollope would never dare do. Here we get high-handed satire of journalism and politics, but it’s essayistic.

Dickens for all his flaws was a democratic author, someone who wrote everything he saw and saw most things more or less unprejudicedly. Trollope, we realise in the last chapter or two of The Warden, is a very conservative voice, who genuinely believes that if the oppressed would just shut up about their oppression, they’d die happy and grateful to their betters. I found the ending of this novel unpalatable, but I really liked spending time with the Warden, a beautifully realized character, and the other habituees of this amusing sliver of C19 English life. ( )

3.5 stars - After my third time going through this book (and the first time on audiobook), I have come to enjoy and appreciate the story much more. It is still a very slow paced plot, but I found the character interactions much more enjoyable. Mr Harding is sweet and adorable and such a wonderful character. Perhaps listening was the key to enjoying this book. ( )

A courtroom drama more or less. Its based on real events and shows a legal case from multiple points of view. It doesn't actually spend any time in the court instead you see how the various people involved and the press react to it. Its nicely moraly grey and is well written and not too long. ( )

No heroes - simple plot - like dickens but lighter ( )