Review: The Warden

This week has been truly awful. The only good thing about it is that I finished another book on my list of books to read this year. So here's a review of it.

Searching for a cover to put here brought up some really weird results. Most of them had nothing to do with Anthony Trollope or Victorian novels, and were instead a mixture of true crime and fantasy.

The Warden was Anthony Trollope's fourth novel, first published in 1855. It's the first in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series. There have been at least two miniseries based on it.

As the title implies, the story revolves around Mr. Harding, warden of an almshouse. John Bold, a reformer and also Mr. Harding's future son-in-law, decides Mr. Harding is getting too much money from the almshouse. It leads to a complicated muddle of lawyers, newspapers, and Mr. Harding's retirement.

Barchester Towers manages to turn an uninteresting subject -- rivalries between clergymen -- into an interesting novel. Alas, The Warden doesn't manage to do the same. Even though it's a short novel I found it frequently dragged. None of the characters are as sympathetic as they would be in the sequel. And the whole time I was reading, I could only think, "What a lot of fuss about nothing!"

I must say I was disappointed in this book. It has its good moments, but just as often it becomes a plodding bore.

Is it available online?: Yes, on Gutenberg.

Rating: 5/10.

(Not Really a) Review: New Year's Book Resolutions

Happy New Year! 😃 Almost everyone makes New Year's Resolutions today. I'm no exception. But my resolutions are a list of books I intend to read in the New Year. This is the top 5 on my list.

The Warden is the first in the Barsetshire series. I want to read literally anything by Anthony Trollope, and this is the top of the list. If it's anything like Barchester Towers, this book is well-worth reading.

He Knew He Was Right, also by Anthony Trollope, is one of those books I want to read because I saw the miniseries based on it. (I'll review the miniseries. Eventually.) Since I already know the plot it shouldn't take too long to read. Though "shouldn't take too long to read" is not a phrase I'd ever expect to use about a Victorian novel.

It's about time I read an Agatha Christie novel! I chose Murder on the Orient Express mainly because I love the film. Some people don't like reading mystery novels when they already know the ending, but I don't mind. It's always fun to spot the clues along with the detective, and when you know the end you see things you'd never have noticed before.

Lark Rise of Candleford is another of those books I want to read because of its adaptation. But in this case, I want to see just how badly the series butchered it. Unlike the other books on this list I've already started this one. So far it's slow going. It's not actually a novel; it's a collection of scenes from the author's childhood.

I've only read one of Shakespeare's works before. I was twelve, Much Ado About Nothing was required reading for English... and it might as well have been written in Ancient Egyptian, for all I understood of it. That experience put me off reading any more of his works for years. Now I've decided to try again. Romeo and Juliet is such a well-known play that it should be easy to follow. (I hope.)

Will I manage to read these and the other books on my list? Time will tell. If I review any of them, you'll know I've finished them. If I don't, I probably haven't.