Classic Books Store
The Warden
RRP: $9.95
Our Price: $9.95
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Author: Anthony Trollope
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $9.95
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Author: Anthony Trollope
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Average Customer Rating:
Experimental feature: Order The Warden from the UK, Canada, Germany or France by clicking an appropriate flag below.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
The Warden Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780192834089
ISBN: 0192834088
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 336
Publication Date: 1998-07-23
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780192834089
ISBN: 0192834088
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 336
Publication Date: 1998-07-23
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
Editorial Review of The Warden
The book centers on the character of Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity, whose charitable income far exceeds the purpose for which it was intended. Young John Bold turns his reforming zeal to exposing what he considers to be an abuse of privilege, despite being in love with Mr. Harding's daughter Eleanor. The novel was highly topical as a case regarding the misapplication of church funds was the scandalous subject of contemporary debate. But Trollope uses this specific case to explore and illuminate the universal complexities of human motivation and social morality. This edition includes an introduction and notes by David Skilton and illustrations by Edward Ardizzone.
Customer Reviews of The Warden
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Perfect Introduction to an Excellent Author
Review: The Warden is a slender volume in comparison with many of Trollope's other novels, but is chock-full of all the elements that make him one of my favorite authors of any time or place. The central characters are deeply nuanced, the details of time and place make the experience solid for the reader, the broader comic characters are actually funny, and the central question can be debated on many levels.
In telling the deceptively simple tale of two men of good conscience on opposite sides of a serious debate, I found the saddest, most profound, and most humorous aspect was the one at the heart of the book: that these two men, left to their own devices could and would have come to an agreement fairly easily. Unfortunately, each finds far more passionately partisan supporters who fan the flames of controversy and keep them apart, causing far more trouble than was ever required.
As a comedy of manners that opens our eyes to another time and place, as a philosophical question, or simply as a delightful story, The Warden is a book well worth reading and re-reading and keeping close to your heart.
If this first glimpse of Barsetshire is as special to you as it was to me, you'll be thrilled to know there are another five volumes in the series, each of which is much, much longer than the first. On the other hand, if it doesn't appeal enough to carry on, The Warden can easily be read as a stand-alone novel.
If you decide to read just one Trollope novel, this is the one I would recommend. If you're then inclined to read more, you're in for a great many literary treats, but this one will definitely stay with you.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "He was not so anxious to prove himself right, as to be so."
Review: For many years, the kindly and unambitious Rev. Septimus Harding has been warden of Hiram's Hospital, a residence for poor men who have nowhere else to go, a place where they may live comfortably, get a small stipend from the estate of Mr. Hiram, and live out their lives in peace. The warden of Hiram's Hospital has also been living at peace, until John Bold, a young reformer, questions why Mr. Harding, as warden, gets eight hundred pounds a year for accepting the title of warden, which does not require him to do much else. The bedesmen living in the hospital get only shillings, and Bold wonders whether the real intentions of Hiram's bequest to establish the hospital, more than four hundred years ago, are being honored in the present.
In this first of the Barsetshire Chronicles, published in 1855, Trollope establishes the gently satiric tone and mood which pervade the series. Here he focuses on the church, its clergymen, and their roles in society, showing Rev. Harding to be a man of honor and trust (though a bit too comfortable and unimaginative to ask the hard questions) and contrasting him with Archdeacon Grantly, his son-in-law, who enjoys the power and perks of his position and feels that the world owes him whatever what he can get from it. The stultifying church hierarchy sees its role as almost royal, above the fray and dedicated to sustaining itself.
The conflict which arises when John Bold and Tom Towers, an arrogant newspaperman, become allies in the investigation of the warden's position becomes even stronger when some of the bedesmen are encouraged to demand one hundred pounds a year. Rev. Harding becomes the humiliated subject of editorials, pamphlets, and even a novel showing the "abuses" of his power. Dr. Pessimist Anticant, the pamphleteer, is thought to be a parody of Thomas Carlyle, and the novelist, Mr. Popular Sentiment, is thought to be Charles Dickens. The fact that John Bold, who started it all, is in love with the warden's daughter creates further complications.
Trollope is a delightful writer whose style is to entertain the reader while raising some thoughtful questions. Though he takes his writing seriously and creates memorable characters behaving, as a rule, like real people, he does not take himself seriously, nor does he feel the need to be a social reformer. His humor and amiability give a freshness to novels like this one, which, despite its age, is amusing and perceptive. His later novels, like The Way We Live Now, are far more complex--but just as much fun. n Mary Whipple
Barchester Towers
Doctor Thorne (Barsetshire Novels)
Framley Parsonage
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A delightful gentle satire
Review: In this delightful short novel, Trollope highlights and satirizes clerical abuses in the 19th century Church of England. The story centers around a legacy that was intended for charitable purposes but which is now being used to provide a comfortable sinecure for a minor clergyman. However, rather than taking the easy route of painting the recipient, Mr. Harding, as a conniving exploiter, Trollope instead portrays him as an innocent and gentle figure who lovingly cares for the bedesmen of the charity and who innocently accepts his excessive income as a customary gift. As the story unfolds, another harsher figure, Archdeacon Grantly, aggressively defends the church's rights, but Mr. Harding is unwilling to accept the public odium of his position and also slowly comes to believe that he should not accept his income unless he can be certain it was what the long dead founder intended. Thus Trollope succeeds in highlighting and attacking a then common clerical abuse, but in a way that largely avoids attacking the clergy themselves.
I particularly enjoy The Warden because of the very gentle way in which Trollope exposes and satirizes human weaknesses. He avoids being harsh or critical and instead draws the reader into a gentle understanding that author, reader, and characters all share many of the same follies, frailties and self-deceptions. Archdeacon Grantly may often be pompous and foolish, but he is also very human.
The Warden is sometimes seen merely as a preamble to the more elaborate delights of Barchester Towers, but at around 280 pages it is a fine gem in its own right.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: You must read all of Trollope before you die
Review: You really must. And then read several biographies of Trollope. He is an amazing man.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Do the right thing
Review: The Warden is a brief novel, the first of the Barsetshire Chronicles. It tells the story of Mr. Harding the Warden of Hiram's Hospital. Over time, John Hiram's bequest has been faithfully distributed to the intended recipients, but his estate has grown so much that Mr. Harding now receives far more than the hospital's wards. John Bold, a local young doctor in love with Mr. Harding's daughter, feels this is unjust. How will the conflict resolve itself?
Thundering newspaper editorials are written, lawyers are consulted and the conclusions are clear. Yet in the end what fixes everything is Mr. Harding's own conscience. An innocent, trusting man caring deeply for his daughter, for the twelve men in his ward, and for his honest reputation Mr. Harding cannot endure the odium of public reproach. In the end, he rises above the issue in a gesture worthy of Cyrano de Bergerac, worthy of Jean Valjean but in fact belonging to a minor country church official. Inspiring stuff.
I should add one thing. There is a slight element of tragedy at the end. Things don't work out for the best and Mr. Harding's noble gesture does bring harm to his wards by depriving them of his care. A wonderful thing with Trollope is how nothing is cut and dry. He correctly presents real life as being messy, however much we would strive to clean it up.
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
Review Summary: The Perfect Introduction to an Excellent Author
Review: The Warden is a slender volume in comparison with many of Trollope's other novels, but is chock-full of all the elements that make him one of my favorite authors of any time or place. The central characters are deeply nuanced, the details of time and place make the experience solid for the reader, the broader comic characters are actually funny, and the central question can be debated on many levels.
In telling the deceptively simple tale of two men of good conscience on opposite sides of a serious debate, I found the saddest, most profound, and most humorous aspect was the one at the heart of the book: that these two men, left to their own devices could and would have come to an agreement fairly easily. Unfortunately, each finds far more passionately partisan supporters who fan the flames of controversy and keep them apart, causing far more trouble than was ever required.
As a comedy of manners that opens our eyes to another time and place, as a philosophical question, or simply as a delightful story, The Warden is a book well worth reading and re-reading and keeping close to your heart.
If this first glimpse of Barsetshire is as special to you as it was to me, you'll be thrilled to know there are another five volumes in the series, each of which is much, much longer than the first. On the other hand, if it doesn't appeal enough to carry on, The Warden can easily be read as a stand-alone novel.
If you decide to read just one Trollope novel, this is the one I would recommend. If you're then inclined to read more, you're in for a great many literary treats, but this one will definitely stay with you.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "He was not so anxious to prove himself right, as to be so."
Review: For many years, the kindly and unambitious Rev. Septimus Harding has been warden of Hiram's Hospital, a residence for poor men who have nowhere else to go, a place where they may live comfortably, get a small stipend from the estate of Mr. Hiram, and live out their lives in peace. The warden of Hiram's Hospital has also been living at peace, until John Bold, a young reformer, questions why Mr. Harding, as warden, gets eight hundred pounds a year for accepting the title of warden, which does not require him to do much else. The bedesmen living in the hospital get only shillings, and Bold wonders whether the real intentions of Hiram's bequest to establish the hospital, more than four hundred years ago, are being honored in the present.
In this first of the Barsetshire Chronicles, published in 1855, Trollope establishes the gently satiric tone and mood which pervade the series. Here he focuses on the church, its clergymen, and their roles in society, showing Rev. Harding to be a man of honor and trust (though a bit too comfortable and unimaginative to ask the hard questions) and contrasting him with Archdeacon Grantly, his son-in-law, who enjoys the power and perks of his position and feels that the world owes him whatever what he can get from it. The stultifying church hierarchy sees its role as almost royal, above the fray and dedicated to sustaining itself.
The conflict which arises when John Bold and Tom Towers, an arrogant newspaperman, become allies in the investigation of the warden's position becomes even stronger when some of the bedesmen are encouraged to demand one hundred pounds a year. Rev. Harding becomes the humiliated subject of editorials, pamphlets, and even a novel showing the "abuses" of his power. Dr. Pessimist Anticant, the pamphleteer, is thought to be a parody of Thomas Carlyle, and the novelist, Mr. Popular Sentiment, is thought to be Charles Dickens. The fact that John Bold, who started it all, is in love with the warden's daughter creates further complications.
Trollope is a delightful writer whose style is to entertain the reader while raising some thoughtful questions. Though he takes his writing seriously and creates memorable characters behaving, as a rule, like real people, he does not take himself seriously, nor does he feel the need to be a social reformer. His humor and amiability give a freshness to novels like this one, which, despite its age, is amusing and perceptive. His later novels, like The Way We Live Now, are far more complex--but just as much fun. n Mary Whipple
Barchester Towers
Doctor Thorne (Barsetshire Novels)
Framley Parsonage
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A delightful gentle satire
Review: In this delightful short novel, Trollope highlights and satirizes clerical abuses in the 19th century Church of England. The story centers around a legacy that was intended for charitable purposes but which is now being used to provide a comfortable sinecure for a minor clergyman. However, rather than taking the easy route of painting the recipient, Mr. Harding, as a conniving exploiter, Trollope instead portrays him as an innocent and gentle figure who lovingly cares for the bedesmen of the charity and who innocently accepts his excessive income as a customary gift. As the story unfolds, another harsher figure, Archdeacon Grantly, aggressively defends the church's rights, but Mr. Harding is unwilling to accept the public odium of his position and also slowly comes to believe that he should not accept his income unless he can be certain it was what the long dead founder intended. Thus Trollope succeeds in highlighting and attacking a then common clerical abuse, but in a way that largely avoids attacking the clergy themselves.
I particularly enjoy The Warden because of the very gentle way in which Trollope exposes and satirizes human weaknesses. He avoids being harsh or critical and instead draws the reader into a gentle understanding that author, reader, and characters all share many of the same follies, frailties and self-deceptions. Archdeacon Grantly may often be pompous and foolish, but he is also very human.
The Warden is sometimes seen merely as a preamble to the more elaborate delights of Barchester Towers, but at around 280 pages it is a fine gem in its own right.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: You must read all of Trollope before you die
Review: You really must. And then read several biographies of Trollope. He is an amazing man.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Do the right thing
Review: The Warden is a brief novel, the first of the Barsetshire Chronicles. It tells the story of Mr. Harding the Warden of Hiram's Hospital. Over time, John Hiram's bequest has been faithfully distributed to the intended recipients, but his estate has grown so much that Mr. Harding now receives far more than the hospital's wards. John Bold, a local young doctor in love with Mr. Harding's daughter, feels this is unjust. How will the conflict resolve itself?
Thundering newspaper editorials are written, lawyers are consulted and the conclusions are clear. Yet in the end what fixes everything is Mr. Harding's own conscience. An innocent, trusting man caring deeply for his daughter, for the twelve men in his ward, and for his honest reputation Mr. Harding cannot endure the odium of public reproach. In the end, he rises above the issue in a gesture worthy of Cyrano de Bergerac, worthy of Jean Valjean but in fact belonging to a minor country church official. Inspiring stuff.
I should add one thing. There is a slight element of tragedy at the end. Things don't work out for the best and Mr. Harding's noble gesture does bring harm to his wards by depriving them of his care. A wonderful thing with Trollope is how nothing is cut and dry. He correctly presents real life as being messy, however much we would strive to clean it up.
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo