This is the story of the warden of a hospital that takes care of a dozen older gentlemen. When it comes to the attention of a young man that these men are being robbed of some money due them, he decides to pursue the matter in the courts. It's a hard decision, because the warden is someone he considers to be a friend, and he's in love with the warden's daughter.
Things become more complicated when the case gains attention and damaging things end up in the newspaper. The men living in the hospital become divided in their loyalty and the warden's personal views on the matter become confused. He also has his friends' opinions and daughter's future to consider, and while she wants to give up her true love out of loyalty to her father, he encourages her to follow her heart.
The writing style of Trollope will bore many modern readers. He has a tendency to ramble and focus on great amounts of detail. But if you consider when the book was written, you have to expect this kind of thing and accept it. I was able to become attached to the characters, the warden in particular, and this romantic found herself more involved in his story than the relationship between his daughter and her love. That's saying something for me.
This was a good tale that I didn't find myself muddling through. When I watched Doctor Thorne, there were intros by Julian Fellowes (who made the adaptation). One thing he said that stuck with me was Trollope's characters were never all good or all bad. That intrigued me and I paid attention to the way he wrote his characters. The one character that came across as the villain in this one, the archdeacon, Trollope made sure to spend some time remarking on how the man seemed all bad in this story, but he wasn't. I thought it was interesting the way he did that. All in all, I enjoyed my classic for the year. Good Book!
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