The Warden by Anthony Trollope

I have long been familiar with the name of this author and knew he was one of the most popular Victorian novelists, but I had never read any of his works. I decided to start with this one, which is the first of six which comprise The Chronicles of Barsetshire, his most popular series. I expected exaggerated characters and high drama, but that was not at all what I found.

Instead, the central characters are all rendered in a very realistic manner and are similar in personality to people you could meet today. None are completely without fault or entirely evil. In fact, the antagonists are all acting out of principle rather than personal animosity, and the hurt they inflict on the protagonist is not out of malice. The protagonist, a clergyman, reacts as his conscience dictates, but is perhaps remiss in not recognizing an inequity before he has it pointed out to him. His sacrificial reaction (which turns out not to be that enormous a sacrifice) is prompted as much by his concern for his reputation as by a realization that he has behaved wrongly.

The plot is certainly not sensationalistic or melodramatic: An arrogant liberal do-gooder who specializes in crusading against perceived inequities in society takes up the cause of a charity home for old men which was funded by a long-ago will and is administered by the Church of England. He contends that the old men are being short-changed (although not ill-treated otherwise), since the estate has much increased in value, and the Warden (or on-site administrator) wrongly receives too large a portion of the charity bequest. He files a lawsuit and speaks to members of the press, who spread the news of the case, much to the embarrassment of the Warden. A conservative archdeacon who defends the policies of the Church on all matters strongly opposes the lawsuit and also seeks legal counsel. The poor Warden is caught in the middle.

Ah, but complicating the matter is the fact that the Warden's youngest daughter is in love with the reforming do-gooder and the Warden's oldest daughter is married to the conservative archdeacon. What's the poor man to do? Believe the suitor of the youngest daughter that he is behaving wrongfully or follow the advice of the husband of the oldest daughter to uphold the dignity and authority of the Church by ignoring the adverse publicity?

All of this is rendered in so low-key a style as to be rather boring, frankly.

Actually, the most interesting part of the novel is Trollope's attack on his contemporary, Charles Dickens, as he has one of the characters read a book by Mr. Popular Sentiment (obviously meant to be Dickens). The character comments, "...his good poor people are so very good; his hard rich people so very hard; and the genuinely honest so very honest." The rest of the attack is also scathingly accurate about Trollope's literary rival.

Still, when it comes down to reading fun, I choose Dickens. But I will give Trollope another chance.