The Warden, Barchester #1 by Anthony Trollope
What kept me apart from Mr. Trollope for so long? I've had the Modern Library combined edition of Barchester Towers and The Warden for ages, and after beginning it, and falling in love, found a complete set of the 'Barchester Chronicles' bound in red leather at the local antique store. The universe wants me to make up for lost time in style.
Set in the 1850s, the novel is a response to the movement against sinecure preferments in government and the Church of England. Mr. Septimus Harding is a kind-hearted clergyman and the titular Warden of a charity hospital. The problem is that residents of the hospital are, by tradition, still paid the stipend specified in a centuries-old will while the warden receives the rest of the (now handsome) income. A reform minded John Bold, in love with Harding's daughter Eleanor, feels duty bound to challenge the right of the warden to such extreme wealth in the name of charity. Barchester society is upended.
Trollope mostly concerns himself with the affluent middle class and the clergy, but I appreciated a satire without any bitterness - and admit that such a satire can effect little change despite its wit. He is forgiving and humorous towards even his villains. His talent makes Trollope more than worthy of giving Dickens a smack on the wrist by referring to the novels of a "Mr. Popular Sentiment" in the text, and shows a great deal of style by at the same time writing a stirring tribute to that author's gift of creating supporting characters that root into your mind and become inseparable from the archetypes they represent. Reading this was a pleasure end to end, the meetings of the characters, the rooms they inhabited and the conflict between younger and elder generations was very well done. Trollope certainly doesn't side with the future - perhaps this is why he isn't as popular as he was 150 years ago - but he deserves recognition as a chronicler of his times.
I continue my travels through Barchester in 'Barchester Towers'.
