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The Warden
  
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The Warden (Hardcover)

by Joanna Trollope (Foreword), Anthony Trollope (Author) "The Rev. Septimus Harding was, a few years since, a beneficed clergyman residing in the cathedral town of -; let us call it Barchester ..." (more)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Hearing Nigel Hawthorne's reading of The Warden is like attending fine theater. In the opening scenes Septimus Harding's sinecure as warden of Barchester hospital's twelve bedesmen is being questioned by young reformer John BoldÐa situation complicated by Bold's love for the warden's daughter. Hawthorne's portrayals are so vivid that we see the interplay of charactersÐfrom the arrogant archdeacon, Dr. Grantly, and the London lawyer, Sir Abraham Haphazard, to the illiterate stonemason, Abel Handy. In this gentle satire Hawthorne transports us to the predicaments of a mid-nineteenth-century world. And when the curtain falls, we're relieved and delighted that the mild and honorable warden has prevailed. J.H.L. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.


T.T. Bareham, editor of The Barsetshire Novels: A Casebook and Anthony Trollope

"...this edition has everything the student or the general reader could require. I recommend it unreservedly."
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The Rev. Septimus Harding was, a few years since, a beneficed clergyman residing in the cathedral town of -; let us call it Barchester. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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3.6 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars "No good is unalloyed...", Jul 13 2004
This review is from: The Warden (Paperback)
Anthony Trollope's The Warden (1855) raises interesting ethical questions concerning questions of right and wrong, and ideas of fairness. The novel is grounded in conflicting interpretations of how funds earmarked for the poor from a wealthy man's four hundred year old will should be spent. The novel focuses on Reverend Septimus Harding, the good natured Warden of Hiram Hospital, who is at the center of the controversy.

The plot of Trollope's novel chronicles Mr. Harding's internal struggles with public accusations of malfeasance. As Warden of Hiram's Hospital, Mr. Harding has been charged with overseeing the welfare and spiritual well-being of twelve aged bedesmen-poor elderly men supported by John Hiram's trust. In performing his duties towards the bedesmen, Mr. Harding's efforts are universally regarded as beyond reproach; nevertheless, questions arise as to whether the amount of money Mr. Harding receives as Warden, eight hundred pounds annually, contradicts the original intention of John Hiram's 1434 will to help the poor.

John Hiram, a wealthy magnate of the Barchester wool industry, had stipulated in his 1434 will that an almshouse be created to take care of twelve aged men who had worked as cardsmen in the wool trade. The will directed that funding for the almshouse come from rent from Hiram's lands to be overseen by the Anglican Church. From 1434 to the mid-nineteenth-century-the present of the novel-the amount of money raised for the rent of these lands has increased considerably. When the novel begins, most of this extra money has been given to the Warden himself.

Trollope's The Warden raises this basic question: how should the extra proceeds from the rent be distributed? Throughout the novel various interests-the popular press, the church, and legal authorities-weigh in on this question, each with its own unique point of view and stake in the matter.

This novel offers no easy answers and instead dwells on the ambiguity of moral issues. In chapter 15, the narrator (and by extension Trollope) hints at this perspective: "in this world no good is unalloyed, and that there is little evil that has not in it some seed of what is goodly."

The Warden is definitely worthwhile read. It is not as funny as Barchester Towers, which made me laugh out loud, but it is as sophisticated and subtle. This would be an interesting novel to complement a college course on ethical issues.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Unfulfilled expectations, Jul 27 2002
By Anthony J. Cavaliere "agabus" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Penguin Classics Warden (Paperback)
This book was difficult to read as it contains references to the religious life of the Anglican church in Victorian Ebgland, events and politics quite unfamiliar to the American reader. The main plot about the Rev. Harding is interesting and engaging. But while the story in itself is worthwhile Trollope presents too many rabbit trails.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Thar be good readin, matey!, Dec 30 2000
This review is from: The Warden (Paperback)
If anything, this book provides ample evidence that the quality of the writing is often the far more decisive factor in one's enjoyment of literature than said literature's supposed content (_Crime and Punishment_ offers similar evidence, from the opposite side of that equation). The most inadequate book jacket of the copy I'd read promised a "deliciously barbed" tale of ecclesiastical intrigue and for some reason gave me the false impression of the presence of sixteenth century clergymen who would engage in witty repartee as well as learned theological debates. Indeed, there was some disappointment on my part at finding the setting to be rural and Victorian, theology nonexistent, and the "intrigue" to be moving at the pace of a nineteenth century tea party. And yet the author's style (though the "barbs" do not so much sting as perhaps provide a gentle tickling sensation), with its intentionally comical verbosity, its narrator's frequent self-referential digressions, its pleasantly ironic look at humanity, renders the characters and their fictionalized setting likeable completely in spite of my lack of empathy with the values and concerns of Victorian England. If any reader is familiar with the short-lived American television show _Picket Fences_ -- this book, as does the entire series to which it belongs, comprises the closest I have seen to a nineteenth century English equivalent thereof.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Not your typical Victorian tale of adventure!
Trollope's plot is of a plodding sort, though there is no doubtthat the protagonist's (Harding's) sufferings, not to mention theirsource, do raise some excellent ethical... Read more
Published on Aug 6 1999 by L. Petriccione

5.0 out of 5 stars Quiet masterpiece
I think this fine little novel stands very well on its own. As a portrayal of class and character in England, it succeeds mightily well; I really identified with the daily worries... Read more
Published on Mar 23 1999

2.0 out of 5 stars a pleasing ho-hummer
I thought its plot was too centered around conspiracy. Underlying it is a theme on greed, but since Trollope doesn't expound on it the book gets two stars.
Published on Dec 2 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of a righteous man's battle with his conscience.
In the 15th century, Hiram's Hospital was established as a perpetual charitable home for 12 poor old men, each being replaced at his death. Read more
Published on Jul 8 1998 by Leonard L. Wilson

3.0 out of 5 stars A means to an end
There is a very good reason to read this book, and that is to get to the rest of the Barsetshire series. Read more
Published on Mar 5 1998 by Robert Moore

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