A delight

A beautiful reading of a tremendously touching novel. Timothy West is an outstanding narrator.

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26 people found this helpful

Utterly delightful

What a perfect piece! The Warden is a wonderful novel full of fabulous characters. It’s an exquisite observation of nineteenth century life, full of ascerbic witticisms and also a huge amount of love for several of the key characters. I had a smile on my face for most of it. And - best of all - Timothy West! Flawless in his delivery. I was bereft when it finished and have just bought the next in the series, Barchester Towers. Highly recommend.

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Loved it!

First foray into the literary charms of Trollope and I was entranced, despite the slow start whereupon I thought I would not take to it at all It is incredible that such a story can be founded upon the premise of the morality of a source of income,. and the wiles and motives of the main characters surrounding it and the perceived need of right and personal rights. On asserting one's own right does this impinge on another's?. The narrative makes you think about this which I find quite satisfying..a work of fiction that has the charms of a good storyline yet with the underlying need to think about the content. I think this would be an excellent choice for a book club to discuss.

The narrative was flowing and flowery brought to life by West. I found him so easy to listen to and his pronunciation was excellent.

I can well imagine that this book will not suit all tastes, having just finished a Margaret Dickonson novel also a first for myself The Warden was a completely different literary experience and took time to switch into the prose. The antiquated language may for some be a struggle and not suit the modern listener.Yet it is worth persevering with as there is richness in its tone.

Onto the next book in the series

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Loved the narrator, loved the story

Loved everything about this audiobook, will be listening to all of them now. Well done.

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Wonderful classic!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Warden to be better than the print version?

I really do believe that listening to this version of the audio book has been a better experience than reading the printed edition. Having loved the tv series some years ago it was easy to visualise the characters.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Warden?

Each scene that contains Dr. Grantley are moments to savour. The humour in how he displays his Victorian Christianity is legendary. The insights that Trollope gives us into the behaviour of the press in the 19th century demonstrates that little has changed in 150 years.

What does Timothy West bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Timothy West reads this story majestically. He brings the characters alive, makes the 19th century language easily understandable and his voice is comforting and confidential. So many books can be spoiled by the narrator but I would buy any narrated by Mr. West.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The Warden is the sort of tale that makes you smile a lot rather than laugh out loud. It certainly makes the listener consider the behaviours and attitudes of the 19th century communities - so little difference from today.

Any additional comments?

Usually I listen to my books in bed and very often fall asleep but with The Warden I didn't want to miss one word of this entertaining story (even though I already know it). I have savoured it over a full month. Trollope and West together are really that good in my opinion. Buy and enjoy. Excellent!

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8 people found this helpful

satisfying

Well narrated. Always a pleasure to read this tale. What honourable conduct in such formality.

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this reading is perfection

The book is classic Trollope - sharp, compassionate, engrossing. Fewer twists and turns than some and none the worse for that. But Timothy West's reading is sublime. Not a syllable or a breath that isn't absolutely perfect. How does someone even know a book well enough to bring it to life with such sureness? Brilliant.

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Blessed are the meek…

Septimus Harding is the Warden of Hiram’s Hospital, a charitable institution founded by a long-ago legacy to provide alms and accommodation to twelve old men of Barchester. Over the years the value of the legacy has grown so that now, as well as providing for the twelve pensioners, it also pays a generous stipend of £800 a year to the Warden and provides him with a large, comfortable house. Mr Harding is a conscientious man, neither ambitious nor particularly intelligent, who does his duty as pastor to the old men, and loves them. His elder daughter, Susan, is happily married to Archdeacon Grantly, and his younger child, Eleanor, hasn’t yet admitted to her love for a newcomer to town, the young doctor John Bold, but everyone knows that their eventual union is only a matter of time. So Mr Harding is a contented man. But John Bold is young and idealistic, and he sees the huge disparity between the alms paid to the twelve pensioners and the stipend paid to the Warden, and he feels the Church is misappropriating money that was intended to be spent on the poor of the town. Despite his as yet undeclared love for Eleanor, he begins a public campaign against what he sees as the Church’s abuse...

While I enjoyed all of the Barchester books to varying degrees, this first one has always been my favourite. A short book, it is perfectly formed, and what makes it so special is that Trollope shows all the characters as fundamentally decent people even while he allows them all to have wildly differing opinions on the subject of Church patronage. It is an idealised picture of a world that probably never existed, but that is what makes it such a comfortable and comforting read. It describes a world where even Church abuses are carried out with the best of intentions and where the worst accusations that can be aimed at the officers of the Church are of thoughtlessness and a certain lack of zeal. To Archdeacon Grantly, representing the views of the Church hierarchy, so long as the twelve bedesmen are being well looked after, and they are, then of course the remaining money should go to provide a comfortable living for the Warden, for the Church has a responsibility to provide good livings for all its officers (especially if they happen to be personal friends of the Bishop, who happens to be Archdeacon Grantly’s father).

John Bold’s position is given fair treatment too. Mr Harding has never given much thought to Hiram’s original intentions when he made his bequest because Mr Harding is not a thinker, deferring always to the Archdeacon and the Bishop as a good Churchman should. However, when Bold, whom he admires and likes, points out the disparity between what the Church receives from the legacy and what it pays out in charity to the old men, Mr Harding cannot fail to see that his point is valid. But if the Archdeacon thinks it’s justified, then surely it is? As the Archdeacon gears up to fight the accusations of abuse, John Bold turns to the campaigning press to make his case directly to the public. And this public trial by media is the book’s other great theme, as we see poor Mr Harding caught up in a storm not of his own making, publicly reviled and humiliated, and portrayed as a monster of greed, lining his own pockets at the expense of the poor.

Although he shows both sides of the argument fairly, Trollope’s sympathies are all with Mr Harding. He seems to be accepting that the Church does appropriate money to itself and its officers that could be spent on alleviating poverty. But, it feels as if he is saying, is the Church not such a great and beautiful institution that it is worth the money that it takes? Are not the buildings lovely and worth the cost of their upkeep, from the little parish churches to the great cathedrals like Barchester? Are not the services, with their comforting rituals and soaring choirs, designed to bring man closer to God? Do not the Church’s officers, drawn largely from the younger sons of the gentry, need to be provided with comfortable accommodation and a generous income? The poor, after all, are used to being poor, so should they not be grateful for the little charitable portion the Church allows them? In Trollope’s world, Bold is shown as having the misguided zealousness of youth, well intended certainly, but not quite understanding yet how the world works. While admitting the point at the heart of Bold’s argument, Trollope seems to be regretful that reforming zealots can’t simply leave a system that works so well alone. What’s to be gained by impoverishing churchmen simply to give a little more to poor people who already have enough for their simpler needs?

Despite my own atheism and my disgust at the various abuses that have been perpetrated in the name of religion over the centuries, I find each time I read the book that I too am on the side of poor Mr Harding, at least while I’m reading. My cynical brain knows that the picture Trollope is presenting of the Church is idealised, but my heart loves those ancient cathedrals and the choirs and the traditions, and the cloistered peace of mellow cathedral towns. In real life I would side with Bold, but in this fictional world I too believe that he is merely making the pensioners unhappy and greedy by telling them they deserve more. He is destroying the contentment of his love’s father, reducing her income, and simultaneously destroying the grateful acceptance of the bedesmen. To what end? In this world of Barchester even the poor are healthy, well-fed and rosy-cheeked, so why rock the boat?

If only that had ever been true. Trollope’s world is a fantasy, but it is a comforting fantasy, and one in which many of the respectable people of his time firmly believed. There is almost no point of connection between Trollope’s happy vision of the poor and that of his reforming contemporaries, like Dickens. This book was published in the same year as Little Dorrit, with its searing depiction of the debtors’ prison, the Marshalsea. Compare and contrast.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Timothy West who did a marvellous job. He has narrated many of Trollope’s works and I’m very much looking forward to listening to more.

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Suberb

I thought I didn't like Trollope until I listened to this. I had no idea he was so dry and amusing and Timothy West's narration is sublime.

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A riveting story flawlessly performed.

Who knew a story of a contested income could be so riveting and funny? I remember reading Trollope as a teenager and finding it mind-numbingly dull. Now at 34, I found it wonderful and such a treat - beautifully written, both gentle and razor-sharp, often acerbic and brimming with devastatingly accurate commentary on human nature and its imperfections. And so funny!

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1 person found this helpful