The Warden by Anthony Trollope, 5/5

This sweet little novel is about a mild churchman named Septimus Harding, whose quiet life and untested convictions are disrupted by scandal instigated by church reformer, would-be suitor to his daughter, and family friend, John Bold.  The story is as simple as its characters, but this is no reproach: there is a sweetness and authenticity to Trollope’s style that charms and warms, while avoiding the over-sentimentality and contrivance that plagues much 19th-century literature.

[Why I read it: I seemed to encounter more Trollope novels on the shelves of bookstores in Hay-on-Wye than any other author (including Dickens), which made me curious.]