The Warden – Anthony Trollope by Anthony Trollope

"He was a good man, but he was not a practical man."

Septimus Harding is the gentle, elderly warden of a charitable hospital in Barchester. A young reformer, John Bold, launches a public campaign accusing Harding of receiving too high a salary from the charity's funds. Harding, a man of conscience who hates conflict, is caught between the aggressive reformers and his own defenders, the archdeacon Grantly, leading to a crisis of integrity.

The first of the Barsetshire novels, this is a quiet masterpiece. It explores the moral dilemmas of a good man trapped in a public scandal, critiquing both the corruption of the church and the self-righteousness of the press.