The Warden (Penguin Classics)

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He was bright as a diamond, and as cutting, and also as unimpressionable. He knew everyone whom to know was an honor, but he was without a friend; he wanted none, however, and knew not the meaning of the word in other than its parliamentary sense. A friend! Had he not always been sufficient to himself, and now, at fifty, was it likely that he should trust another? He was married, indeed, and had children, but what time had he for the soft idleness of conjugal felicity? His working days or term times were occupied from his time of rising to the late hour at which he went to rest, and even his vacations were more full of labor than the busiest days of other men. He never quarreled with his wife, but he never talked to her — he never had time to talk, he was so taken up with speaking. She, poor lady, was not unhappy; she had all that money could give her, she would probably live to be a peeress, and she really thought Sir Abraham the best of husbands.

He has no ambition to speak of. He is diffident to point of wimpiness, but in a very decorous way. His only distinguishing characteristic, aside from a profound gentleness, is his talent for chanting and for playing the violoncello. Indeed, he is most deeply himself, most deeply at peace, when he is playing his violoncello. Knowles, Elisabeth (2006). The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Barchester). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727047. Nonetheless, when the public contretemps over his wardenship become too much for him to take, the Warden takes action, and brings the novel to its satisfying conclusion. Radford, Ceri (6 March 2016). "Doctor Thorne review: Fellowes and Trollope is a happy marriage". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235 . Retrieved 31 October 2020. a b c Terry, R. C. (1977). The Artist in Hiding. London: Macmillan Press. doi: 10.1007/978-1-349-03382-9. ISBN 978-1-349-03382-9.It is probable that Tom Towers considered himself the most powerful man in Europe; and so he walked on from day to day, studiously striving to look a man, but knowing within his breast that he was a god. 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. His father, eminent novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, saw it differently: "Have you ever read the novels of Anthony Trollope?" He asked his publisher, James T. Fields, in February 1860; "They precisely suit my taste; solid, substantial, written on strength of beef and through inspiration of ale, and just as real as if some giant had hewn a great lump out of the earth and put it under a glass case, with all its inhabitants going about their daily business, and not suspecting that they were made a show of." — Heddendorf, David (2013). "Anthony Trollope's Scarlet Letter," Sewanee Review, Vol. 121, No. 3, p. 368.

Saintsbury, George (1895). "Three Mid-Century Novelists." In Corrected Impressions, London: William Heinemann, 172–173. Trollope began writing on the numerous long train trips around Ireland he had to take to carry out his postal duties. [15] Setting firm goals about how much he would write each day, he eventually became one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote his earliest novels while working as a Post Office inspector, occasionally dipping into the " lost-letter" box for ideas. [16] Plaque on Custom House in Belfast, where Trollope maintained his office as Postal Surveyor for the northern half of Ireland [17] To learn more about this type of narrator, you can read this post in Lit 101 section: “All About Narrators: Who’s Telling This Story, Anyway?” This quote from that post applies to the narrator in The Warden: Despite a series not initially being intended, [3] few have argued against the importance of appreciating each novel as part of the Chronicles of Barsetshire. As R. C. Terry writes, "the ironies embedded in the novel achieve their full effect only when one considers the entire Barsetshire series". [26] Mary Poovey suggests that even before they were formally published as a series, reviewers understood their collective value. As The Examiner (1867) wrote, "the public should have these Barsetshire novels extant, not only as detached works, but duly bound, lettered, and bought as a connected series". [3] We do not even know if Reverend Harding’s salary is a legitimate outcome of Hiram’s will or not – because even the Queen’s Council does not come to any conclusion on the matter. The most important legal and financial issue underpinning the story is simply left unexamined.

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Kennedy, John Dorrance (1975). Trollope's Widows, Beyond the Stereotypes of Maiden and Wife, (PhD Dissertation), University of Florida. Sullivan, Ceri (2013). Literature in the Public Service: Sublime Bureaucracy, Palgrave Macmillan, Ch. 3, pp. 65–99. Hewitt, Margaret (1963). "Anthony Trollope: Historian and Sociologist," The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 226–239. As readers, we have come to know — and love — him for this very human, very illogical, way of handling difficult moments.

While The Warden was intended as a one-off work, [3] Trollope returned to Barsetshire for the setting of its sequel Barchester Towers. [3] It was published in 1857, again by Longman, finding a similar level of success to its predecessor. [22] But the study of this moral problem remains at a purely personal level. The warden’s distressed state of mind is traced minutely by Trollope, but no attempt is made to explore the larger issues of ecclesiastical politics, finances, and corruption – even though famous legal cases are mentioned in the narrative. Trollope and the Matter of Ireland," Anthony Trollope, ed. Tony Bareham, London: Vision Press 1980, pp. 24–25 Anthony Trollope ( / ˈ t r ɒ l ə p/ TROL-əp; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) [2] was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, which revolves around the imaginary county of Barsetshire. He also wrote novels on political, social, and gender issues, and other topical matters. [3]

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Millais, John Everett (1861), " Julians on Harrow Hill, Trollope's boyhood home", Orley Farm (drawing) (1sted.), frontispiece Grandon, Monken Hadley. Home to Anthony and his mother 1836–38. 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.