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Sign up todayThe Warden
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Learn moreThe Warden is the first of the six classic Chronicles of Barsetshire novels, Trollope's best-loved and most famous work.
Anthony Trollope's classic novel centers on Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity, whose charitable income far exceeds the purpose for which it was intended. On discovering this, young John Bold turns his reforming zeal toward exposing what he regards as an abuse of privilege, despite the fact that he is in love with Mr. Harding's daughter, Eleanor.
Though the bishop and archdeacon stand behind him, the honest Reverend Harding is caught in a moral dilemma, questioning whether he truly deserves the money or should resign.
Set in the world of the Victorian professional and landed classes that Trollope portrayed so superbly, The Warden explores the complexities of human motivation and social morality.
Anthony Trollope (1815โ1882) grew up in London. He inherited his motherโs ambition to write and was famously disciplined in the development of his craft. His first novel was published in 1847 while he was working in Ireland as a surveyor for the General Post Office. He wrote a series of books set in the English countryside as well as those set in the political life, works that show great psychological penetration. One of his greatest strengths was his ability to re-create in his fiction his own vision of the social structures of Victorian England. The author of forty-seven novels, he was one of the most prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era.
Simon Vance is the critically acclaimed narrator of approximately 400 audiobooks, winner of 27 AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a 12-time Audie Award-winner. He won an Audie in 2006 in the category of Science Fiction and was named the 2011 Best Voice in Biography and History and in 2010 Best Voice in Fiction by AudioFile magazine.ย
ย Vance has been a narrator for the past 25 years, and also worked for many years as a BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London.ย Some of his best-selling and most praised audiobook performances include Stieg Larssonโs The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hilary Mantelโs Bring Up the Bodies (an Audie award-winner), Ian Flemingโs Casino Royale, Oscar Wildeโs The Picture of Dorian Gray, Patrick OโBrianโs Master and Commander series (all 21 titles), the new productions of Frank Herbertโs original Dune series, and Rob Giffordโs China Road (an AudioFile 2007 Book of the Year). Vance lives near San Francisco with his wife and two sons.
Reviews
โKeen observation of public affairs, a pungent closeness of style, and great cleverness in the author, are the distinguishing features of The Warden.โ
โThere is considerable talent displayed in this volume.โ
โThe incomparable Simon Vance parses Anthony Trollopeโs famously circumlocutory, phrase-filled style with aplombโฆHis ability to create character-revealing accents, from the illiterate grumble of a local farmer to the nasal bray of a highborn clergyman, makes the nineteenth century come aliveโฆWinner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.โ
โA clever, spirited, sketchy story...and smartly told.โ
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