The Prime Minister (The Palliser Novels , Vol 5)

Rating:
Summary: Not for the uninitated
Review: A reader of the Palliser novels will find THE PRIME MINISTER supremely satisfying, a splendid reward for the intermittent longueurs and annoyances of the previous four books. It's a little like climbing a mountain: only when you get to the top can you see where you are and be sure it was worth the trouble to get there. Trollope is working on a very broad canvas, and here we finally see the fruition of the Pallisers' marriage and of Plantagenet's political toils, if not ambitions, all rendered with sensitivity and truthfulness.

But this, the chief interest of the novel for me, is doomed to feel weirdly flat and over-detailed to a reader who comes to THE PRIME MINISTER cold. Phineas and Marie, Lord Cantrip, Mr Monk, Gatherum and the Duke of St Bungay will seem only ciphers to readers knowing nothing of their histories, and they may even think the Pallisers themselves unworthy of the attention devoted to them. For them the chief interest of the novel will be the Lopez-Wharton plot, which has plenty of dazzle and drive to sustain it -- but when Lopez is dispatched they may find themselves frustrated and at sea, with a book in their hands that is no longer the book they thought they were reading. Emily Lopez thereafter is not good company, perhaps not a false creation so much as one we see about 30 pages too much of.

The technical presentation of the novel is very fine. Trollope loves characters and situations, those are where his genius is most on display, and sometimes seems to regard plot as a necessary evil. Too often, elsewhere, he commits himself to subplots that canot really engage his interest, seemingly for no better reason than that is how novel-writing was supposed to be done. But here there are only two plots, with the marvelous Ferdinand Lopez serving as the hinge between them. (Trollope may have taught himself to do this in THE WAY WE LIVE NOW, where Felix Carbury serves a similar purpose. But in that book Trollope still felt obliged to rely on the uninspired subplot of Paul and Henrietta's romance.) The simplicity of the structure allows Trollope to do what he does best -- planning, rather than plotting, vivid scenes of intensity and character collision. The incidents of THE PRIME MINISTER are planned with a wonderful intelligence.

(My edition of the Palliser novels is not the Penguin but the Oxford World's Classics one, and I don't have a word to say in its favor. The notes are annoyingly overlong and too numerous; and the editors' introductions, with the exception of that to PHINEAS REDUX, are dumbfoundingly irrelevant, seeming not to have even the simplest grasp of the virtues and appeal of the work being introduced. They're like reading a disquisition by Plantagenet Palliser himself on the merits of decimal coinage.)

Rating:
Summary: Not for the uninitated
Review: A reader of the Palliser novels will find THE PRIME MINISTER supremely satisfying, a splendid reward for the intermittent longueurs and annoyances of the previous four books. It's a little like climbing a mountain: only when you get to the top can you see where you are and be sure it was worth the trouble to get there. Trollope is working on a very broad canvas, and here we finally see the fruition of the Pallisers' marriage and of Plantagenet's political toils, if not ambitions, all rendered with sensitivity and truthfulness.

But this, the chief interest of the novel for me, is doomed to feel weirdly flat and over-detailed to a reader who comes to THE PRIME MINISTER cold. Phineas and Marie, Lord Cantrip, Mr Monk, Gatherum and the Duke of St Bungay will seem only ciphers to readers knowing nothing of their histories, and they may even think the Pallisers themselves unworthy of the attention devoted to them. For them the chief interest of the novel will be the Lopez-Wharton plot, which has plenty of dazzle and drive to sustain it -- but when Lopez is dispatched they may find themselves frustrated and at sea, with a book in their hands that is no longer the book they thought they were reading. Emily Lopez thereafter is not good company, perhaps not a false creation so much as one we see about 30 pages too much of.

The technical presentation of the novel is very fine. Trollope loves characters and situations, those are where his genius is most on display, and sometimes seems to regard plot as a necessary evil. Too often, elsewhere, he commits himself to subplots that canot really engage his interest, seemingly for no better reason than that is how novel-writing was supposed to be done. But here there are only two plots, with the marvelous Ferdinand Lopez serving as the hinge between them. (Trollope may have taught himself to do this in THE WAY WE LIVE NOW, where Felix Carbury serves a similar purpose.) The simplicity of the structure allows Trollope to do what he does best -- planning, rather than plotting, vivid scenes of intensity and character collision. The incidents of THE PRIME MINISTER are planned with a wonderful intelligence.

(My edition of the Palliser novels is not the Penguin but the Oxford World's Classics one, and I don't have a word to say in its favor. The notes are annoyingly overlong and too numerous; and the editors' introductions, with the exception of that to PHINEAS REDUX, are dumbfoundingly irrelevant, seeming not to have even the simplest grasp of the virtues and appeal of the work being introduced. They're like reading a disquisition by Plantagenet Palliser himself on the merits of decimal coinage.)

Rating:
Summary: The Pallisers in Power.
Review: Plantagenet Palliser reluctantly becomes the Prime Minister of England. Lady Glencora continues her self-appointed task as a meddler in affairs of the heart and now politics. We are glad to see the couple back at the forefront of our story, the 5th entry of the Palliser saga. Re-appearing characters Lizzie Eustace and Phineas Finn are present, but only in minor roles. The delightful Marie, now Mrs. Finn, stands by Cora in triumph and trouble. Lopez slithers on the scene and courts Emily Wharton, much to her family's dismay. The novels of Anthony Trollope are the Victorian equivalent of daytime TV dramas. They are lightweight, but entertaining. The pace is leisurely, and the book goes on for 700+ pages. Graham Greene once wrote that Trollope's novels ease stress levels because nothing much happens. The stylish presentation in smoothly written prose compensates the reader nicely. Besides, nobody captured the comic essence of Victorian manners and morals as Trollope. The unyielding men and women are often the cause of their own dilemmas. This book is a pleasant contrast to the noise, bustle, and electronic hardware of modern life. Recommended reading. ;-)

Rating:
Summary: The Pallisers in Power.
Review: Plantagenet Palliser reluctantly becomes the Prime Minister of England. Lady Glencora continues her self-appointed task as a meddler in affairs of the heart and now politics. We are glad to see the couple back at the forefront of our story, the 5th entry of the Palliser saga. Re-appearing characters Lizzie Eustace and Phineas Finn are present, but only in minor roles. The delightful Marie, now Mrs. Finn, stands by Cora in triumph and trouble. Lopez slithers on the scene and courts Emily Wharton, much to her family's dismay. The novels of Anthony Trollope are the Victorian equivalent of daytime TV dramas. They are lightweight, but entertaining. The pace is leisurely, and the book goes on for 700+ pages. Graham Greene once wrote that Trollope's novels ease stress levels because nothing much happens. The stylish presentation in smoothly written prose compensates the reader nicely. Besides, nobody captured the comic essence of Victorian manners and morals as Trollope. The unyielding men and women are often the cause of their own dilemmas. This book is a pleasant contrast to the noise, bustle, and electronic hardware of modern life. Recommended reading. ;-)

Rating:
Summary: Outsiders and Insiders
Review: This book seemed to me to represent a return to form after the previous two rather plodding entries in the Palliser Saga. Trollope's depiction of relations between the intensely private Plantagenet and the injudiciously extrovert Glencora is a dead-on accurate portrait of middle-class marriage, and the fact that P. is made prime minister gives Trollope the chance to show interaction between the personal and political spheres in a way that I found absolutely fascinating.

The most intriguing part of the book, though, are the sections that deal with Ferdinand Lopez, a Jewish "outsider" to upper class London society, toward whom Trollope seems to have had a fascinatingly unsettled and ambivalent attitude. Is he a tragic figure whose relatively small-scale vices only bring about his downfall because he is trying to gain entry into a self-enclosed world of unearned privilege, or is he really the unscrupulous "adventurer" that the other characters all regard him as being? The fact that the author himself never really seems to have made up his own mind on this topic is perhaps a weakness in some sense, but it shows that Trollope was able to retain at least some of his intellectual honesty as the curious, inquisitive liberalism of his youth began to give way to the slightly paranoid toryism of his old age.

Rating:
Summary: Another book to read and cherish
Review: When Plantagenet Palliser (Duke of Omnium) is named Prime Minister, his wife, the Duchess Glencora, is delighted. Immediately she plunges into politics herself, giving huge parties intended to support the Duke, who is completely honorable, but unfortunately detached and reserved, seeming at times icy to those whose political backing is needed. Glencora, one of Trollope's most delightful creations, has a sparkling personality, but is occasionally too outspoken and is sometimes misunderstood. Eventually her well-intended machinations result in embarrassment for the Duke's ministry.

In the other main plot, Emily Wharton ignores the advice of her father and almost all her friends when she falls in love with Ferdinand Lopez, about whom very little is known except that he seems to be a wealthy gentleman. Finally she persuades her father to give his permission for her marriage. Very quickly she discovers that she has made a horrendous mistake, and her life becomes a living h! ell. Only one of her old friends remains true--Arthur Fletcher, who vows that he will always love no one but her.

Anyone who is interested in Victorian history and British politics will find the novel a pure delight. Others may find it slow going and mystifying in spots, although no such knowledge or interest is needed for the Emily-Lopez plot. Lopez is one of the most despicable villains in all of Trollope's fiction, ranking with George Vavasor of "Can You Forgive Her?" Emily, on the other hand, sometimes becomes tiresome in her queer, fastidious obstinacy.

The character of Plantagenet Palliser is finely drawn. He is a man who is scrupulously honest, too much so for partisan politics. He is a natural leader and yet a thin-skinned, conscientious man who takes any criticism to heart. He loves his vivacious wife, who teases him mercilessly when she wishes to upset him. The match seems very odd, and their marriage began under inauspicious circumstances, and yet she,! in her way, admires and adores her husband.

"The Pr! ime Minister" is an outstanding work by one of literature's greatest novelists, mainly because of his brilliant handling of character. No one does it better.