London’s oldest bookshop chooses first instalment of Trollope’s Barsetshire Chronicles, The Warden, as best novel published since the shop’s opening in 1797

The customers of London’s oldest bookshop Hatchards have eschewed the erotic appeal of EL James and the thrill-a-minute conspiracies of Dan Brown to choose Anthony Trollope’s gentle satire of the Church of England, The Warden, as their favourite novel of the past 200 years.

An initial list of about 100 titles was drawn up by Hatchards in what a spokesperson described as “an unsurprisingly lengthy meeting or two”. This longlist, drawn from books published in the 218 years since the shop opened on Piccadilly, London, was then whittled down to a shortlist of six.

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Ranging from Muriel Spark’s tale of an eccentric school teacher The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, first published in 1961, to Christopher Isherwood’s take on 1930s German society, Goodbye to Berlin, the shortlist was arrived at by combining a public vote and a tally of copies sold in the shop.

Also in the running were PD James’ Adam Dalgliesh mystery Original Sin, the first novel in Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time sequence, A Question of Upbringing, and Joseph Roth’s 1932 novel The Radetzky March, a look at the Austro-Hungarian empire through three generations of one family.

But, after Hatchards displayed the lineup in its store to keep votes coming, it was the oldest novel on the shortlist, Trollope’s 1855 title The Warden, which emerged triumphant on Thursday evening, with the bookseller – now part of the Waterstones group – again using a mix of public votes and sales to determine the winner. Hundreds of customers voted, according to Hatchards, and The Warden was the “standout” favourite.

The first of Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire series, introducing readers to the world of Septimus Harding and Archdeacon Grantly, The Warden covers the scandal that ensues when an almshouse for the elderly, run by the church, is accused of being financially mismanaged. The accuser, John Bold, is a surgeon, and also the suitor of almshouse warden Septimus Harding’s daughter, Eleanor.

The poet Michael Symmons Roberts, marking the 200th anniversary of Trollope’s birth in the Guardian this spring, selected The Warden as his favourite novel by the author, saying that “the brilliance of Trollope’s storytelling lies in his ability to twist and turn your allegiances as a reader, page by page”.

Trollope himself wrote of The Warden in his autobiography that “the characters of the bishop, of the archdeacon, of the archdeacon’s wife, and especially of the warden, are all well and clearly drawn. I had realised to myself a series of portraits, and had been able so to put them on the canvas that my readers should see that which I meant them to see.”

Hatchards’ Gavin Pilgrim described The Warden as “a thoroughly deserving winner”, which “beautifully symbolises, along with Hatchards itself, the unwavering love for great British books”.

“When we set out to find our customers’ favourite novel of the last 200 years we had no idea what they might select,” he added. “The initial list covered the full 218 years that this shop has been open and was full of excellent books.”

Hatchards events manager Simon Lewis added that the process had been “a lot of fun, a challenge as well – but we all remained friends at the end of it”.

“I would say that The Warden is a Hatchards sort of book in two ways. First, it will have been selling in Hatchards since it was published in 1855, but more importantly it is simply a brilliant book. The only thing a Hatchards sort of book will ever be is engaging, thought-provoking and enjoyable,” said Lewis.

Hatchards has commissioned a limited print run of The Warden from Penguin Classics, with the hardback featuring a new Hatchards introductory page and William Morris endpapers, as well as a new cover design. The bookseller, which was established in 1797 by John Hatchard, called the new edition “a particularly fitting tribute to Trollope in the 200th year since his birth”.