"The Warden" by Anthony Trollope
A boring old story with riveting modern themes.
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Anthony Trollope is my new favorite author. I have read Austen over and over again, and needed a new voice in the mix. I had read an article that said something along the lines of, “If you like Austen, you should also read….”. Trollope was in that list. I went out searching for him in a used bookshop and found one of his books: “Can You Forgive Her”. I absolutely loved it. (I don’t have a review for that one, but I will write one once I read it again.) It was then my goal to buy a Trollope book whenever I found him in a used bookshop.
The next book I found was “The Warden”. This was his first novel, originally published in 1855 at 117 pages. “Can You Forgive Her” was published 10 years later at about 900 pages. However, reading through “The Warden” felt like it was the 900 page book instead. It is an incredibly dense story - especially if you have no background on church and political roles and structure back then (points to self). I’m not going to lie, those first three chapters were a struggle to get through.
“The Warden” is a book about an older Father becoming Warden of a church home that houses about 11 old men. They are given a very small allowance, and then the Warden keeps the rest. The old men find out that according to a will from the previous owner, they should be getting much more and now feel robbed of their rights and money. It sounds pretty boring and it definitely is. But once I got a sense of who was who, who did what, and all that jazz - I was able to focus on underlying social and political themes within this small story. It seemed like Trollope was packing them in. I’m sure I missed a few, but one that jumped out was: Fake news and its influence on society
Yes, apparently this happened back in the 1800s too!!! There is a quote in the book:
It is a fact amazing to ordinary mortals that “The Jupiter” is never wrong.
The Jupiter is their local paper and he goes on explaining that no matter what the government does, the paper will have the final say and the people will believe it. In so many ways, its words are more powerful than money. Based on these last few years especially, we know the extent of what people will believe when they read the paper, see T.V., or glance at their Facebook feed. It took me by surprise that this was happening back in the 1800s as well - I guess we haven’t really changed.
Overall, this book was OK. Trollope saves it with his fine writing and social satire that is very reminiscent of Jane Austen. It also helps that this is supposed to be the slowest of all his books (thank God). I’m still trying to determine his viewpoint on feminism. At times, he is really putting women in power and in control, but also has many moments of stereotyping the female character. I will just have to read some more. Up next is "Eustace Diamonds” (1872).
Interested in reading Anthony Trollope? Here is the list of his books in order (in case you come across any in a used bookshop): Anthony Trollope Books in Order
| Pub Date: | July 23, 1998 (org. 1855) | Page Count: | 336 Pages | ISBN: | 9780192834089 |