On a second reading, I enjoyed this book much more than the first time, I think primarily because of the development of the characters in the subsequent Phineas Redux. AT, in his autobiography, admits to having mucked up the ending, and it is a little maudlin and unfortunately plot-complicating, but all is quickly set to rights early on in PR. But my real problem are the poorly portrayed and uninteresting men in this novel. At least four of the women are wonderfully portrayed, although for Laura (for whom I feel unending pain) he's doing his "if you marry for the wrong reasons, I will make your life miserable" thing, which to me is a unbearable flaw in his writing-why doesn't this work for men? However, why so many dull, uninteresting or obnoxious men? Kennedy, Planty Pall, Slide, Erle, and Finn himself most of the time are just not interesting characterizations that make you care about what happens to them.
I recommend skimming the political parts of this (as well as the obligatory and tedious hunting scenes) and probably the next just to get to the personal dialogues involving women, which can be clever and emotionally iridescent. There is a conversation near the end between Laura and Violet that is worth the whole book. Only a late discussion between Monk and Phineas comes close to sounding remotely real to me among the male characters. ( )

This is Trollope at the 'top of his game' - an engaging plot, romance aplenty, a little humour and some very noteworthy characters, both male and female. Minus half a point for the boring (political) bits. ( )

Our hero is the son of an Irish doctor. Phineas defies his father, who wants his son to become a barrister, and instead embarks upon a career in Parliament. He falls in love with Lady Laura, but she chooses instead to marry Robert Kennedy, who is sufficiently wealthy to assist her brother, who has had problems in the past with drink and gambling - and an ongoing problem with idleness.

Although Phineas and Laura remain friends, things become rocky when he confesses his love for Violet, whom Laura wants her brother to marry. She would not admit as much to Phineas, but Laura is still in love with him. Her marriage, she realises very soon, is a mistake. She resents her husband's attempts to control her and rebels against his authority.

For the sake of his conscience, Phineas decides to leave Parliament. He also vows to marry Mary, a sweet and simple Irish girl who has always loved him, yet who has no social position or money. He is still, right until the end of the book, torn between doing what is right and doing what would make life easy. "Then had come Mr Monk and Mary Flood Jones - and everything around him had collapsed...with, however, a terrible temptation to him to inflate his sails again, at the cost of his truth and his honour."

Violet and Chiltern (Laura's brother) finally become engaged. Chiltern thinks that Phineas still carries a torch for Violet, but she is more perceptive. "He is broken-hearted," she realises, "about everything. The whole world is vanishing away from him." Phineas has decided to leave behind his English life. He will become a barrister in Ireland, though it will mean a great deal of hard work and it will take him a long time to earn much money, and therefore he won't be in a position to marry Mary for many years. At the age of thirty he is still poor, because he impetuously decided to become an MP before establishing himself in a career - a course of action he was warned against, but he chose to ignore the warnings.

At the end of the book Laura is still living apart from her husband and she is to move abroad, where it will be harder for her estranged husband to force her to come back to him. Her life, she feels, is over, and yet to live abroad is preferable to her than to return to the far less socially ambiguous position of dutiful wife.

Phineas is rewarded for following his conscience rather than going after wealth and social position: he is offered the post of poor law inspector in Ireland, with a salary of £1,000 a year, which will enable him to marry Mary. [Dec 2004]