"The Warden", by Anthony Trollope

I am enjoying the combination of civility and seriousness I see in this book -- the mixture of mannerly, dignified writing and genuine sensitivity to the problems all people encounter. I just finished Ch. 14, a wickedly sharp satire on the British press at the time of the writing (late 19th century), and I particularly enjoyed, as usual in this book, the perfectly well-balanced sentences. Trollope obviously took pleasure in constructing sentences as carefully as a skilled carpenter constructs a beautiful house.

The story is growing more and more serious, ominous, and yet uplifting. It seems as thought the warden, the gentle Mr. Harding, is destined to be disgraced and ostracized, and yet something tells me that the might of goodness will get the upper hand.

We shall see ...