"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!