'Tis a pity that he should not have recognized the fact that in this world no good is unalloyed, and that there is but little evil that has not in it some seed of what is goodly.
The Warden is a charming book peopled with characters who are neither wholly good nor wholly evil. They are vividly imagined and realised beings, each with their own particular set of virtues and foibles; and the main characters are set a problem that exercises their sense of discrimination of right from wrong.
The scene is Victorian England. The Reverend Septimus Harding is enjoying his twilight years. As the Warden of Hiram's Hospital, a hospice for disabled rural workers, he receives a substantial stipend in return for no work whatsoever. His problems start when someone points this out to the local newspaper. Is it right that one man should receive twice as much as twelve invalid pensioners combined for no other reason than this is the way the Church of England has seen fit to administer a centuries-old bequeathment?
This is the main moral question for the characters in the book. The Reverend Harding is stung by the accusation and wrestles with his conscience. Archdeacon Grantly leads the Church's defence against the claims of the pensioners to a fairer treatment, while the Bishop vacillates about the matter.
In The Warden, Trollope has created a gentle, thoughtful and likeable Reverend, a decisive but bullying Archdeacon and an ineffectual Bishop. Set against these are a socially-minded suitor, a crusading newspaper man, and a dozen damaged and ill-educated pensioners. These characters are so skilfully drawn that the reader can engage with and care for them all. And even though the setting of the action is now more than 100 years in the past, it is easy for the modern reader to be immersed politics of the little world of Barsetshire.
I liked this book a great deal, and I look forward to reading the sequel, Barchester Towers.
No comments:
Post a Comment