The Warden

Anthony Trollope

Septimus Harding is the warden at the hospital connected to the cathedral at Barchester Towers. This position was created through a bequest to oversee and care for poor men also provided for in the bequest. These men's hospital positions are ongoing, a new person being provided for when one of the other men die of old age. The warden is paid a handsome annual wage to care for these men spiritually as well as for their comforts.

John Bold is a young man who seeks to right the injustices of the world. He believes that the warden's position is overpaid and that the twelve men should be receiving more of the bequest. He has been courting Warden Harding's daughter as well. He does not dislike the Warden. It is the bequest itself he is questioning. Finally, he has a suit filed.

Now the Bishop and the Archbishop have to deal with the situation. The Bishop is an old friend of the Warden's. The Archbishop is the Warden's son-in-law and quite forceful. He takes over the situation, browbeating the Warden and the Bishop in righteous anger. Meanwhile, the Warden has started questioning the veracity of his position. Is it really fair?

This novel was published in 1855. Yet the phrase "The more things change the more they stay the same" applies so well. The politics, the romance, the self doubts, the relationships are the same as found today with a different background. I enjoyed this quiet novel, often smiling as I read a passage that I have heard reworded in other situations today. All the characters in this novel are likeable, even the most aloof. Each believes his rightness. This is instead a book testing each character's faith and belief in himself.

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope