Other editions of book The Warden: By Anthony Trollope - Illustrated

Anthony Trollope was born in 1815 in London to a father who, though a barrister, lost his money in speculation. In 19th century England, indebtedness was taken seriously and the family fled to Belgium where Trollope's mother supported her brood by writing. In all, she wrote 114 volumes, passing her talent on to her son. THE WARDEN, published in 1855, is the story of reform run amok. The Reverend Septimus Harding, a gentle church functionary, is made precentor of the local cathedral and warden of a charitable foundation maintaining 12 elderly church laborers. The old men are kept in very modest circumstances while the residual income goes to Harding. Even in those decorous times there was a thing called "conflict of interest."

In mid-19th century England, an era full of celebrated novelists, Anthony Trollope was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed of them all. Even today, his Chronicles of Barsetshire series is widely read, as are his other novels, many of which deal with criticisms of English culture at the time, from its politics to its customs and norms. The Warden is no such exception to that kind of work. As the first novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, it tells the story of a warden and precentor of a Cathedral, with barely veiled criticism of the Church of England and some other literary figures like Charles Dickens all contained within as well.

The Warden, published in 1855, is the first book in Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series of six novels. It was his fourth novel. This first novel in Trollope’s classic Chronicles of Barsetshire series pits reformer John Bold against Septimus Harding, the precentor of Barchester Cathedral and the warden of Hiram’s Hospital, an almshouse supported by a bequest to the local diocese. As Bold works to expose the fact that more of the charity’s income goes to Harding than to its bedesmen, he begins to take a romantic interest in Harding’s youngest daughter, Eleanor.

Anthony Trollope, (born April 24, 1815, London, Eng.—died Dec. 6, 1882, London), English novelist whose popular success concealed until long after his death the nature and extent of his literary merit. A series of books set in the imaginary English county of Barsetshire remains his best loved and most famous work, but he also wrote convincing novels of political life as well as studies that show great psychological penetration. One of his greatest strengths was a steady, consistent vision of the social structures of Victorian England, which he re-created in his books with unusual solidity.Trollope grew up as the son of a sometime scholar, barrister, and failed gentleman farmer. He was unhappy at the great public schools of Winchester and Harrow. Adolescent awkwardness continued until well into his 20s. The years 1834–41 he spent miserably as a junior clerk in the General Post Office, but he was then transferred as a postal surveyor to Ireland, where he began to enjoy a social life. In 1844 he married Rose Heseltine, an Englishwoman, and set up house at Clonmel, in Tipperary. He then embarked upon a literary career that leaves a dominant impression of immense energy and versatility.The Warden (1855) was his first novel of distinction, a penetrating study of the warden of an old people’s home who is attacked for making too much profit from a charitable sinecure. During the next 12 years Trollope produced five other books set, like The Warden, in Barsetshire: Barchester Towers (1857), Doctor Thorne (1858), Framley Parsonage (1861), The Small House at Allington (1864), and The Last Chronicle of Barset (serially 1866–67; 1867). Barchester Towers is the funniest of the series; Doctor Thorne perhaps the best picture of a social system based on birth and the ownership of land; and The Last Chronicle, with its story of the sufferings of the scholarly Mr. Crawley, an underpaid curate of a poor parish, the most pathetic.The Barsetshire novels excel in memorable characters, and they exude the atmosphere of the cathedral community and of the landed aristocracy. (britannica.com)

"The Warden" book has a beautiful glossy cover and a blank page for the dedication. "The Rev. Septimus Harding was, a few years since, a beneficed clergyman residing in the cathedral town of … ; let us call it Barchester. Were we to name Wells or Salisbury, Exeter, Hereford, or Gloucester, it might be presumed that something personal was intended; and as this tale will refer mainly to the cathedral dignitaries of the town in question, we are anxious that no personality may be suspected. Let us presume that Barchester is a quiet town in the West of England, more remarkable for the beauty of its cathedral and the antiquity of its monuments than for any commercial prosperity; that the west end of Barchester is the cathedral close, and that the aristocracy of Barchester are the bishop, dean, and canons, with their respective wives and daughters."