The Warden

'It was so hard that the pleasant waters of his little stream should be disturbed and muddied . . . that his quiet paths should be made a battlefield: that the unobtrusive corner of the world which been allotted to him . . . made miserable and unsound'

A controversy is set to erupt in a peaceful cathedral town. The zealous young reformer Dr John Bold believes that the Church is mishandling an almshouse's funds, and recruits to his cause the outrage of the national press. Soon the elderly, well-meaning warden, Mr Septimus Harding, finds himself at the heart of the scandal, even as its instigator courts his daughter.

Pitting the ancient institution of the Church against the new power wielded by newspaper editors, The Warden was the first of his novels to give full voice to Trollope's genius, and the first in his Chronicles of Barsetshire.

About the Author

Anthony Trollope (1815-82) was one of the most widely enjoyed and prolific novelists of the nineteenth century. His books include the great Chronicles of Barsetshire, of which The Warden is the first volume. Trollope worked for the Post Office for much of his adult life, combining postal and literary business as he travelled around the British Empire. He has been credited with the creation of the distinctive British pillar box. The other five titles in the Chronicles of Barsetshire are Barchester Towers, Dr Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset, all of which are published in the Penguin English Library.