Phineas Redux

As the title rather implies, this fourth part of the Palliser saga brings back the main characters from Phineas Finn, slightly older and rearranged, but in a plot that fels disconcertingly like a re-run of that first book. Phineas is back from Ireland to have another go at establishing himself in English politics; as soon as he arrives he finds himself back in touch with the three ladies who were the drivers of the plot before - Violet (now happily married to a foxhunting peer), Laura (still estranged from her gloomy Scottish husband) and Madame Max (busy consoling the old Duke of Omnium in his declining years). And Lady Glencora, as we would expect, is discreetly pulling the strings.

Politics also seems to have gone round in circles. show more The Great Reform that was fought over so bitterly hasn't made elections very much fairer yet, and the hypocrisy of parliament is unchanged - in a blatant move to split the opposition, a minority Tory Prime Minister is promoting a measure that he and his party have always opposed, and which none of them believe in (plus ca change!). When a cabinet minister is brutally murdered, the police arrest an Irishman and an immigrant from Eastern Europe...

There's always something very comforting in pulling on a big, thick Victorian novel on a winter's day, and Trollope is about as warm and wooly as they come. But that's not to say that the world he writes about is idealised and comforting - he is quite happy to show us corruption, fraud, hypocrisy (religious and political), mental illness, inequality, greed and all the rest. Parliament, the Church and the Law are all fully open to be mocked and criticised for their weaknesses. Unlike most British writers of the time, he also has no hesitation about breaking the convention that marriages in fiction have to be happy, and he's not completely convinced that there's any sound basis for setting up society in such a way that men run things and women are there only to help and support them.

A detail - only one among many - that really struck me was the way Trollope lets Phineas suffer a kind of emotional collapse after what should (by normal narrative standards) have been his big moment of triumph - as soon as the intense stress he's been under is taken away, he goes into a period of depression in which he doesn't want to talk to anybody, to be seen in public, or make any kind of plans for his future. When you read it, you feel that this is the only possible way someone like Phineas could possibly have reacted, but you have to wonder whether any other novelist of the time would have allowed a male character to show that kind of weakness. show less

I loved this follow up to Phineas Finn. All the characters are back: Phineas, of course, and Lady Laura, Lady Glencora (my favorite), Madame Max, Lord Chiltern, Lady Chiltern (formerly Violet Effingham) etc. There are of course some new characters as well, notably Adelaide Palliser, a cousin of Plantagenet's, and her love interest Gerard Maule.

I read along with a group read led by Liz (lyzard) which I found really added to my reading. Notably, Liz's comments led me to really notice the attitude towards work of the different characters. There is the Duke of Omnium who is revered for his ability to just be a Duke and spend his money without working at all. There's Plantagenet Palliser who inherits the Duke's money and title but cannot show more bring himself to leave his work ethic behind and is unsatisfied with the traditional role of a Duke. There's Gerard Maule who has no money but still only wants to hunt and not work. There is Lord Chiltern who I suppose you could say works hard at hunting, but I don't find that a very worthy endeavor. And there is Phineas, who wants to work in government but can't find a position and doesn't seem willing to make his way in any other field. I didn't feel that Trollope comes down on any one side, but he makes some interesting comparisons and has obviously thought about this.

This book has some great action and twists, especially in the second half, which I'm not going to go in to so as not to spoil anything. Suffice to say that I found the plot really moves along in this one and found it pretty easy to read, even with the politics which mainly have to do with the disestasblishment of the church. Trollope continues to explore the effectiveness and fairness of the political system.

As always, Trollope writes great female characters and this book is packed with them. One great contrast in this book is between Lady Laura and Adelaide Palliser. From Phineas Finn we know that Laura married Robert Kennedy knowing that she loved Phineas, choosing money and security over love with disastrous results. Lady Laura has made her bed and now has to lie in it throughout this novel. I found it interesting to contrast her choice with Adelaide's, who chooses to marry Gerard Maule for love despite their lack of money. Of course, we never see if Adelaide and Gerard live a happy marriage, but at least some things do work out for them since Adelaide persists in favoring love over practicality. I do wish Gerard Maule had been a more worthy suitor, as I found him a sort of boring lump.

Overall, I loved this continuation of the Palliser series. show less

I really didn’t mean to read Phineas Redux quite yet, I intended to give some other classic authors some time, after spending so much time with Trollope this year, but my fondness for Phineas and my curiosity to know what was happening in an a world full of so many characters I have come to love …..

I just had to know!

The story begins a few years after ‘Phineas Finn’ and a few months after ‘The Eustace Diamonds’. I’ve seen suggestions that you could read the two Phineas novels back to back, but if you did that there are things that you might not appreciate in this book, because it picks up a few threads and a few characters from ‘The Eustace Diamonds’.

Phineas Finn is living in Dublin, alone, since his wife has died, and show more though he has a good job and a healthy income he is bored. He misses parliament, he misses his London life, and so, when he sees a chance to return, he decides to risk everything , hoping that he will be able to pick up the threads of his old life.

He’s still the same Phineas, as charming, as straightforward as ever, but time and experience has made his just a little jaded.

He finds that some things have changed and some things are still the same.

Madam Max had turned down a proposal from the Duke of Omnium; she had hoped to win Phineas, not knowing that he had already decided that his future lay with Mary Flood-Jones. She remained a good friend to the Duke, whose health was failing, and whose death would bring her a bequest that she was not prepared to accept. And she proved to be the best of friends to Phineas.

That death meant that Plantagenet Palliser was the new Duke of Omnium. Lady Glencora was in her element; I love that was so passionate about her causes, and her friendship with Madame Max is a delight. Her husband, on the other hand, was concerned that he would be ineligible to be chancellor of the exchequer again, and that he may not be able to see his work to reform the currency through to the end.

Lord Chilton and Violet Effingham had married and were happily settled. They had house-guests, and that set off a subplot – a love triangle that had echoes of one from an earlier book and yet was quite different. Trollope does see to have lots of variants on the love triangle, and I have to say that he does them very well. It was a little strange, moving from characters I knew so well to brand new characters, but I understood why they were there. One of the reasons was to keep the Chilterns in the story – as he still refused to have anything to do with politics – I loved that Lord Chiltern had grown from an angry young man into a comfortable curmudgeon, that Violet had found her niche as a wife and mother, and that the two of the understood each other so well.

Lady Laura Kennedy had fled to the continent, to escape her cold, unsympathetic husband. Her situation was dreadful, because, if she returned to England her husband could compel her return to him, as she had no grounds for divorce. The shift in her relationship with Phineas was interesting – in the first book he wanted more of her than she would give, and in this book that reversed. The arc of her story was inevitable and it was heart-breaking;

Of course Phineas became part of all of their lives again, and he regained his seat in parliament.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Robert Kennedy objected to Phineas visiting his wife, and it became horrible clear that he was beginning to lose his reason. And Mr Bonteen, his greatest political foe, and maybe the next chancellor of the exchequer, is determined that Phineas will be kept from high office.

The consequence of all of this is that Phineas must fight, first against a terrible slander, and then against a charge of murder.

There’s a great deal going on, and inevitably there are highs and lows. There’s quite a bit of politics to wade through at the beginning of the book, there are quiet spells between that great dramas, and it has to be said that Trollope is not a great crime writer.

But the two great dramas, and the human dramas that spin around them, are wonderful.

It works so well because – I think – Trollope was what my mother would call a people person.

He understood his characters, how their relationships worked, how life and events would change them.

He understood how their world worked; he may or may not of liked that, but he presented it, clear-sightedly, as it was.

He cared and he made me care; it’s as simple as that. show less

After enjoying another wonderful Trollope, I fail to understand why Dickens, with his over-emphasised caricatures and crazy plot twists, has survived as the master of the Victorian era. Give me Trollope any day. And this is one of Trollope's best. As usual, his characters are convincingly drawn - in this case including a powerful description of a mental breakdown (post-traumatic stress disorder?) that shows how acutely Trollope observed and understood people. Unusually for Trollope, this book contains more plot action, and becomes quite a page-turner in parts. Lovely stuff. Read January 2011.

2013, Blackstone Audiobooks, Read by Simon Vance

Having spent the past seven years in Ireland, Phineas Finn returns to his old life in London upon the death of his young wife. Recalling the drawing rooms of several well-to-do London women, which had sometimes been open exclusively to him, he is tempted by his old haunts and wonders, “Would the Countesses’ cards be showered upon him again?” (Ch 6) As it turns out, such frivolities are superceded by far more gripping concerns: like avoiding a trip to the gallows, for one. For another, he needs to come to grips with an internal struggle between his parliamentary ambitions and his ever-growing distaste for the chicaneries of politics: “’I don’t know which are the falser,’ he show more said to himself, ‘the mock courtesies or the mock indignations of statesmen.’” (Ch 78) But all is not gloom and doom for Trollope’s protagonist: wealthy women and exclusive invitations, indeed!

I am completely taken with Trollope’s female characters, and in this regard Phineas Redux more than satisfied. Lady Glencora, now Duchess of Omnium (and my favourite) is delightful as ever – lively, dignified, not too weighted down by decorum, and in-the-know as regards any “rattle” in society. We see much more here of Madame Marie Goesler, gifted with charm, brains, and fortune – but the greatest of these is fortune! Lizzie Eustace has changed not one iota: “Poor Lizzie Eustace! Was it nature or education which had made it impossible to her to tell the truth, when a lie came to her hand? Lizzie, the liar! Poor Lizzie!” (Ch 72) Admittedly, newcomer Adelaide Palliser, first cousin (though not of the moneyed variety) to the new Duke of Ominum, is completely underwhelming. But the others more than made up! And finally, Lady Laura Kennedy has become a pathetic figure, personifying the impossible position of women in the nineteenth century. Having now deserted her scornfully jealous husband, she is tragically aware of her reality:

“I have done wrong, and have shipwrecked every hope in this world. No woman was ever more severely punished. My life is a burden to me, and I may truly say that I look for no peace this side the grave … 

He now threatens me with publicity. He declares that unless I return to him he will put into some of the papers a statement of the whole case. Of course this would be very bad. To be obscure and untalked of is all the comfort that now remains to me … I have not answered him yet, nor have I shown his letter to Papa … but I almost fear to talk to Papa about it. He never urges me to go back, but I know that he wishes that I should do so. He has ideas about money …“ (Ch 65)

I remain delightfully enraptured in Trollope’s Palliser series. If I have a criticism of Phineas Redux it is that I occasionally found the political comings and goings difficult to follow (and, yes, I am aware that these are Trollope’s “Parliamentary Novels”). That said, I think I’ve made it pretty clear that the women characters are more than fair compensation! And Simon Vance is … well, Simon Vance. show less

When we last met Phineas Finn in his eponymous novel, he was a young rookie Member of Parliament, somewhat idealistic and impetuous both at work and with the ladies. Phineas Redux opens a few years later, and our hero has mellowed after dealing with a few hardships. He assumes a new seat in Parliament and becomes involved in the issues of the day, most notably Disestablishmentarianism, the campaign to separate church and state. His personal life is still somewhat tumultuous, as he accepts the affections of two ladies simultaneously: his lifelong friend Lady Laura Kennedy, and the more exotic Madame Max Goesler. It’s fairly typical stuff for the Palliser novels, but then Phineas becomes a suspect in the murder of a prominent government show more figure, and Trollope turns his hand towards writing a 19th century crime novel.

Alongside the main storyline are those of characters we’ve met in previous novels including Plantagenet Palliser, his wife Lady Glencora, and Lord and Lady Chiltern. And Adelaide Palliser, a distant cousin, weighs her marriage options.

Because it’s Trollope, everything works out for the best but not without some sadness along the way. The crime and courtroom drama was well done, albeit in a characteristic style that left no doubt about “whodunnit”. Trollope’s depiction of post-trial Phineas was realistic and touching. I really enjoyed this installment in the Palliser series and look forward to reading the next book soon. show less

I just loved this. This painted such a vivid image of the politics of the day, and Phineas's struggle to reconcile his former ambition with his newfound distaste for the vagaries and mechanics of politics.

It was also an interesting picture of women's role in Victorian society, and I couldn't quite work out whether Trollope was satirising the generally beneficient influence that the Duchess and Madame Goesler had on general events.

One could not help but feel sorry for Lady Laura Kennedy, loving but unloved, and her constant struggle for Phineas despite knowing it was impossible that what she wanted would come to pass.

Most of all, though, it was the politics and the critical and in depth examination of the criminal justice system that got show more me.

So much to love about this, one of the best political novels I've come across. show less