"The Warden" by Anthony Trollope *****

• English author
• Originally published in 1855
• Summer Sub Club read with Beth
• Characters:  Mr. Harding (the warden), Eleanor (unmarried daughter), John and Mary Bold (brother and sister, John loves Eleanor), the archbishop (warden's son-in-law), Punce (loyal bedesman), Pessimist Anticant (all negative philosopher), Popular Sentiment (author of popular novels)
• Vocabulary:
• precentor:  a  person who leads a church choir or congregation in singing.
• appanage:  land or some other source of revenue assigned for the maintenance of a member of the family of a ruling house.
• bedesman: a person kept in an almshouse
• bosky: covered with bushes, shrubs, and small trees; woody
• glebe: the cultivable land owned by a parish church or ecclesiastical benefice.
• Puseyism:  the religious opinions and principles of the Oxford movement, especially in its early phase, given in a series of 90 papers called Tracts for the Times,  published at Oxford, England, 1833–41.
• Quotes I Like:
• p.30....."The bishop did not whistle:  we believe that they lose the power of doing so on being consecrated; and that in these days one might as easily meet a corrupt judge as a whistling bishop.....".
• p.42.....The tone of our archdeacon's mind must not astonish us; it has been the growth of centuries of church ascendancy; and though some fungi now disfigure the tree, thouch ther be much dead wood, for how much good fruit have not we to be thankful?"
• p.57.....beautiful passage describing the warden's violoncello along with other instruments as they perform a musical piece.....lovely!
• p.66....."We must express an opinion 6that nowhere but in the Church of England, and only there among its priests, could such a state of moral indifference be found."
• p.145...."Nobody and everybody are always very kind, but unfortunately are generally very wrong."
• p.149...."The artist who paints for the million must use glaring colours, as no one knew better than Mr. Sentiment when he described the inhabitants of his almshouse; and the radical feform which has now swept over such establishments has owed more to the twenty numbers of Mr. Sentiment's novel, than to all the true complaints which have escaped from the public for the last half century."
• Interesting ideas:
• p. 100....the difference in perceptions of Eleanor's plea to John Bold between women under twenty and over sixty compared to women of 35!
• the notion of private influence holding no sway over what newspapers publish
• the absurdity of legislation at times.....searching nuns for Jesuitical symbols?!
• Review:  I absolutely loved this gem of a novel and am glad that it is the first of the well-known Barchester series by Trollope.  How can you go wrong with a melodrama and a morality tale blend along with characters with names such as Dr. Pessimist Anticant, Mr. Popular Sentiment, and Mr. Quiverful?  This is the story of a man beset by doubts as to the validity of his source of income.  A meek, mild, honorable man, he takes one of his first strong stands about what he believes to be right, even though those who questioned him in the first place had backed down.  Themes include:  honor, loyalty, the nature of friendship, the absurdity of pundits, and the willingness of people to make judgements based in their own personal interests with limited information.  Certainly sounds like issues which are still relevant today!

"A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories" by Flannery O'Connor *****

• August 2012 book club selection
• Originally published 1955
• US author, from the deep south, devoutly Catholic, diagnosed and died from lupus at young age
• Short Stories
• Great character names
• Themes:  inevitability of darkness, evil touching all lives, moments of grace, deception, distrust, I question whether O'Connor may have been latent homosexual and struggled with the Catholic homophobic doctrine, perhaps even seeing her lupus as God striking her down for it
• Vocabulary:  no new vocabulary
• Quotes I Liked:
• p.3..."In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady."......grandmother on why she dressed so nicely when going in the car
• p.21..."I call  myself  "The Misfit" because I can't make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment."
• p.33...."They looked like the skeleton of an old boat with two pointed ends, sailing slowly on the edge of the highway."...Mrs. Connin and the children waling along the highway on a summer afternoon
• p.52...."He seemed to be a young man but he had a look of composed dissatisfaction as if he understood life thoroughly.".....author does too?
• p.57...."......the monks of old slept in their coffins!"....."They wasn't as advanced as we are,' the old woman said."
• p.95...."She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick."
• p.131......"He understood that it (mercy) grew out of agony, which is not denied to any man and which is given in strange ways to children."
• p.163..."He didn't have any use for history because he never expected to meet it again."
• p.177...."Besides the neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used in her human dealings."
• p.179...."Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people's in such a constructive way that she never felt the lack.".......LOL
• Review:  Hard to believe I have never read Flannery O'Connor's stories before!  She was an absolutely amazing writer.  Her stories are dark, distrustful of humanity, and clearly support her belief that "A Good Man is Hard to Find".  The author's early diagnosis of lupus and her devout Catholicism are a matter of record, and the impact of these two aspects of her life is clear throughout the stories.  There are a few moments of grace, there are frequent religious symbols, portents, and consequences.  Bottom line......no one is immune to tragedy, to darkness, and to disillusionment.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.....I know....who would want to read such dark stuff?  I say, anyone who appreciates clear, well-crafted prose.  And, believe it or not, there are phrases which are drop dead funny that appear every so often, and O'Connor has that delightful Dickensian ability to choose great names for her characters!