Phineas Finn ( Oxford World's Classics No. 447 ) (original 1869; edition 1951)

Phineas is a weak hero, but he comes through in the end. Tempted by early success in Parliament he comes to realize that he cannot make his living at it without surrendering independence of conscience. He is also tempted by marriage to a wealthy widow who would finance a Parilamentary career, but he returns to the sweet Irish girl at home.

50c @charity shop 30.4.2011

2005, Blackstone Audiobooks, Read by Robert Whitfield

Phineas Finn, a handsome young Irishman, has just passed the bar when he is elected to Parliament from the Irish borough of Lochshane through the support of his father’s friend. His affable personality and charming good looks soon win him many influential friends in London society, among them Lady Laura Standish, daughter of the Earl of Brentford. Lady Laura decides that Phineas will be her own political exploit, and to that end she makes “promises on his behalf to various personages of high political standing, — to her father, to Mr. Monk, to the Duke of St. Bungay, and even to Mr. Milmay himself. She had thoroughly intended that Phineas Finn should be a political success …” (Ch 27)

And indeed, Phineas is a political success. He is promoted to a Government post in London and appears destined for political fortune — that is until a bill on Irish tenant right is introduced, and conscience threatens to interfere with political obligation. “Individual free-thinking was incompatible with the position of a member of the Government.” (Ch 43) Finn finds himself in the unenviable position wherein exercising free will may end his political career, but towing the party line stands to harm his very countrymen.

But, bah! enough of politics. The novel’s charm for me was in the doings and undoings of the female characters. When Phineas arrives to London, he is promised to Mary Jones in Ireland. Alas, both are penniless, and a political career must be handsomely financed — from this vantage point, Trollope launches his oft debated theme of marriage for love versus marriage for money. The first to fall for Phineas is his self-appointed political advisor, Lady Laura Standing. Surely she has the resources to finance his rise, but does she value her social position and wealth above the notion of romantic love? Within the social circles of Lady Laura and of London society, Phineas is also introduced to both Violet Effingham and Madame Max Goesler. Both are enormously wealthy and well positioned. Madame Max is the widow of an Austrian banker; she would love to “service” Phineas, politically and perhaps otherwise. Violet had been promised to Lady Laura’s brother, Lord Chiltern, but he may well have ill-behaved himself entirely out of her good graces. In any case, she has a most decided view of love and of husbands, and may be a very difficult catch. Hands down my favourite character in the novel, Violet, talking to her friend, Lady Laura, has this to say of love:

“I know, — or fancy that I know, — that so many men love me! But, after all, what sort of love is it? It is just as when you and I, when we see something nice in a shop, call it a dear duck of a thing, and tell somebody to go and buy it, let the price be ever so extravagant. I know my own position, Laura. I'm a dear duck of a thing …” (Ch 10)

And of husbands, Violet declares that the timing and the selection process is merely a matter of favour and convenience:

“I shall take the first that comes after I have quite made up my mind. You'll think it very horrible, but that is really what I shall do. After all, a husband is very much like a house or a horse. You don't take your house because it's the best house in the world, but because just then you want a house. You go and see a house, and if it's very nasty you don't take it. But if you think it will suit pretty well, and if you are tired of looking about for houses, you do take it. That's the way one buys one's horses, — and one's husbands." (Ch 10)

I am thoroughly taken with Trollope’s Palliser novels. I loved the Barsetshire series, too, but I think I favour this one even more! Trollope drives his drama with characters, and they are so perfectly drawn. With each novel, both Barsetshire and Palliser, I’ve latched on a to a favourite, and now keep myself entertained with the collection of Trollope creations which lives in my head. I must add that Robert Whitmore does a superb job of narration in this edition.

Highly recommended! ( )

This is the point in the Palliser sequence where the politics start to get interesting in their own right, with a lightly-fictionalised version of the events surrounding the campaign for electoral reform in the late 1860s. In real life the 1867 Reform Act was passed (almost by accident) by a Tory government in an unholy alliance with the radical side of the Liberal party; in Trollope's version it's rather more elegantly contrived by a Liberal government, which then gets into a mess over Irish land reform (an issue Gladstone was to try to sort out a couple of years after this book appeared). Trollope of course has a lot of fun with the "turkeys voting for Christmas" aspect of reform: most of the MPs agitating for a wider franchise have themselves been elected by patronage or bribery, and many of them are manoeuvred into voting to abolish their own seats.

However, most people won't be reading this for the politics. The human story is interesting, but it's not Trollope on top of his form. The pacing at the beginning and end aren't quite right: the story takes rather too long to get going and the resolution of the plot in a couple of paragraphs at the end just seems like a cop-out. The balance between the English and Irish storylines doesn't quite work as it should, either. All the same, the treatment of Lady Laura and Madame Max is brilliant, whilst Mr Kennedy and Lords Chiltern and Brentford are all splendid examples of the Trollope stubborn male, in their various ways. Even Lady Glencora, in a couple of brief cameo appearances, makes a big impression. Phineas himself is rather a hard character to identify with, as he's meant to be: we never quite know what he really thinks, but then neither does he.

Probably the most interesting part of the novel for most people will be the examination of Lady Laura's marriage. Victorian novelists didn't very often venture into this sort of territory, so it's fascinating to see what Trollope makes of it, despite the limitations that the conventions of the time imposed. We know that it is bound to end unhappily for the woman (Trollope can't get out of it by making her pregnant, because he did that last time...), but it is interesting to see how he does lead the reader to question whether it is right for a husband to take his authority over his wife for granted, and even hints that observance of the Sabbath taken to excess might not be a good thing. (Of course, there's a bit of self-interest here: Trollope is losing business if ladies aren't allowed to read novels on Sundays!) ( )

Audiobook..........In the big picture of literature I have read, "Phineas Finn" is probably more of a three star read, but I really like Trollope's ability to create characters who struggle with moral dilemmas and then lets the reader watch them mature over time. In this case, our "dear Finn", starts out as a young man who chooses the path of least resistance to reach an idealized goal....to be a Member of Parliament. He falters in Parliament and in love, yet discovers, almost to his own surprise, that he is actually an honorable, good fellow. I don't think I give anything away by saying things work out in the end. Along the way, the reader is treated to Trollope's view of the politics of the time, the
"Irish" issues, and as is always true, the author's perceptions of women. I love this stuff, but if you want excitement in your novels.....probably not a good selection. Think Dickens...... ( )