The 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.