The Warden (Penguin Classics)

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The Chronicles of Barsetshire are widely regarded as Anthony Trollope's most famous literary works. [4] [29] In 1867, following the release of The Last Chronicle of Barset, a writer for The Examiner called these novels "the best set of sequels in our literature". [30] Even today, these works remain his most popular. Modern critic Arthur Pollard writes: "Trollope is and will remain best known for his Barsetshire series", [4] while P. D. Edwards offers a similar insight: "During his own lifetime, and for long afterwards, his reputation rested chiefly on the Barsetshire novels". [29] Radford, Ceri (6 March 2016). "Doctor Thorne review: Fellowes and Trollope is a happy marriage". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235 . Retrieved 31 October 2020.

Instead, he tells a charming story—one with mixed but sympathetic characters, using a narrator who employs gentle irony to undercut “cant,” the Victorian word for fashionable self-righteousness, wherever he finds it. Search Results for England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007". www.findmypast.co.uk . Retrieved 21 July 2021. Now I will not say that the archdeacon is strictly correct in stigmatising John Bold as a demagogue, for I hardly know how extreme must be a man’s opinions before he can be justly so called; but Bold is a strong reformer. His passion is the reform of all abuses; state abuses, church abuses, corporation abuses (he has got himself elected a town councillor of Barchester, and has so worried three consecutive mayors, that it became somewhat difficult to find a fourth), abuses in medical practice, and general abuses in the world at large. Bold is thoroughly sincere in his patriotic endeavours to mend mankind, and there is something to be admired in the energy with which he devotes himself to remedying evil and stopping injustice; but I fear that he is too much imbued with the idea that he has a special mission for reforming. It would be well if one so young had a little more diffidence himself, and more trust in the honest purposes of others — if he could be brought to believe that old customs need not necessarily be evil, and that changes may possibly be dangerous. . .. Trollope, Anthony (2014) [1867]. Small, Helen (ed.). The Last Chronicle of Barset. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199675999.Saintsbury, George (1881). "Trollope, Anthony". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol.XIII (9thed.). pp.585–586.

It’s not long before Eleanor finds a man to love. She falls for a local doctor called John Bold. John is a respected surgeon and political activist. He campaigns for fairness and reform, and he despises corruption. Although Eleanor assures him that there’s nothing corrupt about Hiram’s, John isn’t so sure. He doesn’t believe that Harding spends his money properly, and he’s determined to put things right. As a major landowner the church had (and still has) vast reservoirs of wealth which it used to pay its clergy, all of which the novel makes fairly clear. And some of the positions they held are largely sinecures. Indeed, part of the warden’s moral dilemma is not just that he is receiving a large annual salary to which he might not be legally entitled, but that he receives this salary for doing next to nothing. The mid-19th century was a time in Great Britain when reformers were targeting the Church of England — an arm of the government — for what were coming to be seen as abuses. This is a mild example of some of the practices being targeted, and, so, one reformer goes to court to seek a change.Hiram's Hospital is an almshouse supported by a medieval charitable bequest to the Diocese of Barchester. The income maintains the almshouse itself, supports its twelve bedesmen, and provides a comfortable abode and living for its warden. Mr Harding was appointed to this position through the patronage of his old friend the Bishop of Barchester, who is also the father of Archdeacon Grantly, to whom Harding's older daughter, Susan, is married. The warden, who lives with his other child, his unmarried younger daughter Eleanor, performs his duties conscientiously. The reader, too, spills over with emotion — with laughter at Haphazard’s befuddlement and with tears of joy at Mr. Harding’s discovery of the steel deep inside his character.

Trollope's literary reputation dipped during the last years of his life, [4] but he regained somewhat of a following by the mid-20th century. There is, however, one character and one English institution that The Warden’s narrator does not handle gently: Tom Towers, the anonymous editorial writer for the famous newspaper The Jupiter, Trollope’s alias for the widely-read actual newspaper The Times. Tom Towers is the man John Bold approaches to champion his ideas for reforming the stipend for Hiram’s Hospital’s warden. Nardin, Jane (1990). "The Social Critic in Anthony Trollope's Novels," SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900, Vol. XXX, No. 4, pp. 679–696.

Antony Trollope

Tingay, Lance O. (1951). "The Reception of Trollope's First Novel", Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 195–200. Now at the height of his popularity, [26] Trollope wrote the fifth novel in the series, The Small House at Allington. [24] It was also published in serial form, between September 1862 and April 1864 in The Cornhill, and then published as a 2-volume novel by Smith, Elder & Co. in 1864. [24] Some have suggested that the character of Johnny Eames was inspired by Trollope's image of his younger self. [27] Finally came the Last Chronicle of Barset, which Trollope claimed was "the best novel I have written". [20] He took inspiration from his father when creating protagonist Josiah Crawley, while reflecting his mother, a successful author in later life, in the character of Mrs Crawley. [28] It was released serially between 1866 and 1867 and published as a 2-volume work in 1867 by Smith, Elder & Co. [28] Anthony Trollope's signature The reader therefore is left with no uplifting conclusion to the novel – except that Reverend Harding has acted according to his conscience and paid the material price of doing so. This plot construction is admirably restrained, and the best feature of the novel.