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Phineas Finn The Irish Member
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Product Description
About the Author
Anthony Trollope is the author of many titles, including BARCHESTER TOWERS.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By bookpike
Format:Paperback
The second novel in the Palliser's series, Phineas Finn follows the story of an Irish Member of the British Houses of Parliament from humble beginnings as the son of a doctor through the aristocratic and political salons of the mid-19th century.
Finn is something of a ladies man but Trollope writes him beautifully as someone who seems to blunder accidentally into good fortune and an interest in several women without the faintest trace of self-knowledge. He is unassuming, charming, deliciously shallow and, we are told, handsome to look at. Men and women alike are taken in by him.
Trollope as always slowly builds the many strands of his story from the start. But as you read on through, the narrative gathers pace until it is bowling hypnotically along with its own momentum. After the first 200 pages it becomes unputdownable as events and personalities unfold sometimes as you thought they would, and other times ending in surprise.
My favourite charcter became Lord Chiltern. He grew on me every time he appeared. He's a plain-speaking, unsophisticated man who has gained a reputation for being violent and difficult but gradually I began to wonder how much was truth and how much hearsay. He is the anti-thesis of the charming but deceptive Phineas Finn. Chiltern is disliked while Finn is admired and favoured by the same people and so Trollope makes his point that what you see isn't always what you get.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Didier
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This, the second novel in Trollope's Palliser-novels, is as good as one has grown to expect from such an immaculate novelist as Trollope.
Phineas is a penniless Irishman (his father being a modest country doctor) who, against all expectations (including his own) is elected to the British Parliament. This not only introduces him to the political world of the day (which Trollope describes with great acumen and at times sarcasm) but also to London society, where Phineas soon becomes a favorite. But before long Phineas is faced with two dilemmas. In his political life he has to decide whether, having become a government employee, it is his duty to always vote as the government does or to follow his own judgement (perhaps at the cost of his job). In his private life he is torn between staying true to his Irish childhood-love and (since she is penniless too) forsaking his dreams of a grand political career, or to dump her for one of the London heiresses...
The whole story is masterly told by Trollope whose style, once you've been introduced to it, is ever so charming and really like no other. I've been charmed and seduced by every single novel of his I've read so far and this one is no exception. Thoroughly recommended!
Phineas is a penniless Irishman (his father being a modest country doctor) who, against all expectations (including his own) is elected to the British Parliament. This not only introduces him to the political world of the day (which Trollope describes with great acumen and at times sarcasm) but also to London society, where Phineas soon becomes a favorite. But before long Phineas is faced with two dilemmas. In his political life he has to decide whether, having become a government employee, it is his duty to always vote as the government does or to follow his own judgement (perhaps at the cost of his job). In his private life he is torn between staying true to his Irish childhood-love and (since she is penniless too) forsaking his dreams of a grand political career, or to dump her for one of the London heiresses...
The whole story is masterly told by Trollope whose style, once you've been introduced to it, is ever so charming and really like no other. I've been charmed and seduced by every single novel of his I've read so far and this one is no exception. Thoroughly recommended!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The best known of the six "Palliser" novels, "Phineas Finn" is an entertaining account of a young man's progress through the London society of the 1860s. If that sounds dull, think again: this is a book full of brilliantly observed relationships, sexual politics, Westminster politics and many wise epithets, eg 'It has been the great fault of our politicians that they have all wanted to do something.' Palliser writes clearly and brightly, with wonderful irony, carefully measured humour and none of the self-consciousness which weighs so heavily on some Dickens novels. I've so far read the first four of the Palliser novels, starting with the little-known but outstanding "Can You Forgive Her?" and found them all excellent. If you fancy something entertaining with a bit of literary substance, you can't do better.
Upside: revelatory. Downside: quite long.
Upside: revelatory. Downside: quite long.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
I was a Trollope virgin
My first time reading Trollope - had no idea how good he is, and I breezed through with great enjoyment.
Reviewers seem polarised by the protagonist. Read more
Reviewers seem polarised by the protagonist. Read more
Published 3 days ago by shtove
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inside parliament
It is surely right to rate Phineas Finn among Trollope's greatest achievements. The novel, part of the Palliser series - which can all be read independently and in disorder even... Read more
Published 13 days ago by reader 451
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Irish Outsider
Warning: this review contains spoilers.
Phineas Finn, the Irish Member, is an outsider in British political life of the mid-nineteenth century and Trollope conveys his... Read more
Phineas Finn, the Irish Member, is an outsider in British political life of the mid-nineteenth century and Trollope conveys his... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. T. Harvey
4.0 out of 5 stars
You have to love a Trollope...
Phineas Finn, being the second novel of Trollope's Palliser series, has much to live up to by comparison with earlier Trollope works such as the Barset novels, which contain some... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Stracs
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deeper grooves
Despite being the eponymous hero of the novel, Phineas Finn serves as a curious device for Trollope to explore timeless themes of power, place, vocation and love. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2010 by Robert Cordner
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent and under-rated Trollope novel
Phineas Phinn is one of Trollope's best characters - attractive, charming, ambitious and passionate, he starts the book as a young man falling into fortune, but matures throughout... Read more
Published on 29 July 2006 by Roman Clodia
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