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| Marie and Phineas - happy ever after? |
If Volume 1 of Phineas Redux was turgid reading, I’m pleased to say Volume 2 starts with great pace and fresh plot twists every couple of pages.We start with Adelaide Palliser and Gerald Maule falling out over the hopelessness of their situation now that Maule Abbey isn’t an option for their future home.
Then the People’s Banner launched another thunderbolt at Phineas, this time concerning the part our hero had played (together with his coterie of female admirers) in ensuring that Mr Bonteen did not become Chancellor.
A slight diversion, but next we have the trial of Mr Browborough for corruption at the Tankerville election which had given Phineas his seat in Parliament. Although it was clear Browborough had tried to bribe his way through the election, and always had, his peers were not hypocritical enough to see him incarcerated for the crime. Instead Browborough ended up being seen as the hero of the hour, which was another bummer for Phineas.
Next we return to Lizzie Eustace, remember her from The Eustace Diamonds?, who is having difficulty in her marriage with the oily Mr Emilius. I think when we discussed The Eustace Diamonds we noted that Lizzie had fallen into the arms of Mr Emilius and hadn’t perhaps been as careful as she should have been in protecting her fortune.
Trollope has it that Lizzie has sought refuge with the Bonteens, and that Mr Bonteen has been doing some investigating on her behalf in Emilius’s home city of Prague. The investigations are targeted at finding out if Emilius was in fact married when he married Lizzie, which would mean the Eustace family fortune was safe.
The first indication we have that the investigation is closing in on the truth is when the clerk that Bonteen has sent to Prague to continue the investigation is found murdered. And then, following a disagreement at their club, Bonteen is found murdered and Phineas and Emilius are arrested.
Trollope quickly informs us that Phineas is innocent and that Emilius is the cunning murderer, but of course the London bobbies don’t have the author’s insight and have to go through due process.
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| The death of Mr Kennedy at loughlinter |
While Phineas is incarcerated we then witness the conclusion of the slow demise of Robert Kennedy, who ends up dying and leaving Loughlinter to his estranged wife, Lady Laura. Laura is one minute declaring her love for Phineas and the next in full mourning for her late husband; oh well, who minds a bit of hypocrisy if it keeps the neighbours quiet.
We then concentrate on Phineas’ trial and the various endeavours by his various lady friends to assist him. Lady Glencora uses her influence to get the great and the good to support him during the trial; Lady Laura visits him in prison and Madame Max takes herself off to Prague to find out what Emilius had done while he was there.
As readers we know Emilius did it, we just don’t know how.
The trial in the Old Bailey is described in great detail by Trollope. The defence attorney is Mr Chaffanbrass who sets about dismantling Lord Fawn's circumstantial evidence which revolves around a man in a grey coat heading in the same direction as Bonteen and with Phineas just happening to own a grey coat himself. From his treatment here and in the Eustace Diamonds you get the impression Trollope doesn't want us to like Lord Fawn who, by the time Chaffanbrass has finished with him, doesn't know whether he's coming or going.
In the end Phineas is saved by Madame Max who travels to Prague and finds a blacksmith who has made a latch key for Emilius and which blows apart his alibi that claimed he was safely locked up in bed on the night Bonteen was murdered. In addition, a weapon is found near to the murder site. Despite his acquittal the trial nearly breaks Phineas, as he finds it hard to believe that his peers thought he might have been guilty in the first place.
Phineas continues to hang around in a bad place till eventually he decides to resign his seat at Tankerville. He visits Lady Laura but it is a difficult discussion and he leaves her weeping and thinking that things had been better when he had visited her in Dresden or she had visited him in prison.
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Phineas visits Lady Laura
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We leave Phineas for a while to concentrate on Adelaide and Gerald to see if we can manage to get the two of them back together. Luckily Lady Glencora takes a shine to Adelaide and sets about getting Madame Max to sign over her share of the old Duke's legacy (which you'll remember Madame Max wouldn't accept) to Adelaide. Lady Glencora was clearly the Mr fixit of her day!
With the Duke's first cousin seemingly sorted it is back to Lady Laura who, we are left in no doubt, now realises that she is deeply in love with Phineas. Unfortunately the feeling is not reciprocated and although in correspondence she suggests that perhaps she will see him again at Loughlinter in the autumn, he leaves her in no doubt that he "will not go to Loughlinter" but he does not tell her that this is because he has received an invite to Matching Priory from the Duchess, and where he hopes to meet Madame Max.
Another slight deviation to deal with Mr Emilius and Lady Eustace, the latter who escapes with her finances intact due to Mr Emilius's bigamy, and the former who escapes with his life intact as there is no hard evidence that he actually murdered Mr Bonteen.
Before the parliamentary term is over Phineas is re-elected to Tankerville and returns to parliament led by Mr Monk and overall the experience is not as bad as Phineas had expected. After the parliamentary term has finished he makes his way to Matching where he is re-acquainted with Madame Max. The disagreement over the foxes in Trumpeton Wood is settled by retiring the Duke's ageing gamekeeper before all is put right for Adelaide and Gerald thanks to the generosity, and some might say obstinacy, of Madame Max (who refuses to receive the old Duke's legacy).
(As a slight aside I would say that the chapter "The Trumpeton Feud is settled" makes fascinating reading as it describes Trollope's belief that the preservation of foxes for hunting is at the heart of what makes England great. He describes the unwritten obligation placed on any landowner to preserve his coverts, even though he might not choose to hunt himself.)
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| Foxes return to Trumpeton Woods |
While at Matching Phineas receives a telegram from the Prime Minister asking him to see him in London. Plantagenet tells Phineas that he is to be offered a government position. Madame Max encourages Phineas to take the position, but as he leaves Matching for London, we are not certain he will take it.
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| Marie Goesler encourages Phineas to take up a position in Government |
When he arrives in London Phineas receives a letter from Lady Laura imploring him to take up the post that he has been offered. We learn that he is to replace Lord Fawn in the Foreign Office, who is still suffering from the vapours following the part he played in nearly getting Phineas hung. Lady Laura asks him to come to Saulsby to discuss the offer with Lady Laura's father Lord Brentford before he makes any decision, especially a decision to decline the post, and Phineas feels obliged to accept her invitation.
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Yes or No. Nothing more will be wanted
Phineas meets Mr Gresham the Liberal Prime Minister |
Phineas meets the Prime Minister who is a bit shocked that Phineas asks for time to make his mind up. The Prime Minister agrees to this telling Phineas that a simple yes or no will do. But Phineas is torn as he feels it is impossible for him to accept a post from a man who was previously prepared to believe the word of Mr Bonteen against him.
Keeping his word and arriving to Saulsby late in the evening, Lady Laura is disappointed to hear that Phineas will only spend one night at her ancestorial home. Phineas has further bad news for her as, and knowing her dislike for the woman, he tells her he intends to ask Madame Goesler to be his wife.
Lady Laura acknowledges that she has made an idol of Phineas and that this unrequited love has destroyed her life. They part, with Laura asserting that she can never meet Phineas again once Marie Goesler is his wife. What a sad figure Lady Laura has become; she had her chance of a life with Phineas but she threw it away to make her position safe financially. A decision she is to regret for the rest of her life.
After leaving Saulsby, Phineas sent the Prime Minister his message, No. After a night in London he returns to Matching and tells Madame Goesler of his decision which she accepts was his to make. The next day they meet and Phineas finally tells her that he loves her, and in a moment she is in his arms.
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| "Oh Phineas;- at last, at last!" |
Phineas is concerned that she will think he has only proposed to her for her money now that he has lost the chance of an income by turning down the offer of a job in the government but Marie assures him that their marriage will be a partnership of equals.
And that, as they say, is that. Trollope brings all the threads together in a very short conclusion. We leave Mr Emilius in prison and Lizzie Eustace a free woman, free to marry Lord George de Bruce Carruthers (of Eustace diamonds fame) in Naples.
Lord and Lady Chiltern still live at Harrington Hall, where Lord Chiltern still grumbles about Trumpeton Wood. Mr Spooner gets over his disappointment with Adelaide and returns to hunting after a short break.
Gerald and Adelaide are married and Mr Maule gives in and agrees that they should live at Maule Abbey. Gerald agrees to give up hunting and to attend to farming. His father has put his rejection by Madame Max Goesler behind him and goes off in pursuit of another wealthy widow.
We are told simply that ignominy has got the better of Lord Fawn and he has simply disappeared.
Quintus Slide finally got his comeuppance when in attacking Phineas in The People's Banner he made allusions to Lady Laura which resulted in Lord Chiltern taking out an action for libel against the paper. The paper lost and Quintus Slide was fired.
Phineas and Marie were married in October and spent six months touring Europe. Trollope hints that Phineas will be "in office" before long.
Lady Laura lives the life of a recluse at Saulsby with her father.
Plantagenet, we are told, is on the verge of success with the decimal coinage (I suspect this is tongue in cheek from Trollope). The final sentence goes to Glencora. "Nothing will ever change the Duchess".
But as the next book is entitled "The Prime Minister", we will have to see how she gets on as the Prime Minister's wife.
Will she be Samantha Cameron or Victoria Starmer? - we'll wait and see.
References
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Harveywetdog/Author - David Robinson CEng FIET
David spent approaching 50 years in Her Majesty's Electricity Supply Industry before retiring
He was part of the highly successful design team on the Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station Project before spending 25 years producing safety cases to keep our aging AGR fleet generating for the good of the nation
He is responsible for the Harveywetdog YouTube Channel which he maintains as an outlet for his creative talents
David has twice experienced blood cancer treatment but absolutely refuses to be a victim
All views are of course his own but might be influenced by the medication he's had to take
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