By a quirk of fate I started my reread of the Palliser novels with book 3 in the series, The Eustace Diamonds. As I then went in order after book 2, Phineas Finn, I will move to book 4, Phineas Redux. As the two books describing the romantic and political intrigues of our Irish hero were written some ten years apart, Trollope presumably never expected them to be read one after the other in this way, it will be interesting to see if it affects my reading enjoyment.
The second book makes quite a slow start. Trollope quickly despatches of Phineas' Irish wife Mary, leaving him to try his hand at life in London and Westminster once again. Of course Finn has to find himself yet another constituency, and this time the Liberal machine choose to send him to Tankerville, to get himself elected there.
This does tend toward some turgid reading for the first 150 pages or so. Phineas touches base with all his old flames, visiting Lady Laura in Dresden, where they have a very passionate embrace, and also visits Violet Effingham, now married to Chiltern (who is Master of the Brake Fox Hounds), where he bumps into Madame Max Goesler. Madame Max explains to Phineas that she is currently nurse maiding the Duke of Omnium (along with Lady Glencora).
 |
| Phineas and Lady Laura in Dresden |
There is a background story of Chiltern's on going annoyance with the Plantagenet clan for not keeping their fox coverts in good shape. There is talk of poison being used to kill the foxes which has also led to the death of some of the Brake hounds. We'll have to see how this develops.
For romance we have a distant relative of Plantagenet, Adelaide Palliser, who is being courted by Gerald Maule. Both are keen members of the hunting fraternity, and Gerald is in the lazy and needs to get a job mould.
The political background seems to be the disestablishment of the Church of England, a potential Liberal policy which the opportunist Tories appear to have nicked, while for Lord Chiltern the main issue appears to be the Pallisers not looking after their foxes as they should which is spoiling his hunting.
The mood of the book is set by Phineas' exploit out riding to hounds, where unlike his heroic exploits on Bonebreaker he finds his horse won't jump a ditch and having to return home with his tail between his legs. He also has a particularly unpleasant trip to visit Kennedy at Loughlinter, which gives Trollope chance to roll out all the mean old Scotsman tropes to describe the state of Kennedy's mind.
Eventually Phineas hears he has won his seat as his opponent has been found to have been guilty of bribing voters and Phineas heads off to Westminster for a new political term.
We have a slight diversion to catch up with Adelaide and Gerald. Adelaide finds herself drawing amorous attention of Mr Spooner of Spoon Hall. Spooner is sufficiently love struck that he gives up a days hunting to make his play for Adelaide. Adelaide, to her credit, gives him short shrift and sends him away with a flea in his ear. Spooner for his part can't understand why Adelaide should choose to ignore the benefits of Spoon Hall, especially as Gerald's family home is known to be in a state of decay.
Spooner's interest spurs Gerald into action and he proposes to Adelaide and is accepted. There is just the small matter of where they will live. Gerald goes off to see his father, Maurice Maule, who despite being known as "Maule of Maule Abbey" chose to live within his means in London and as we have seen allow Maule Abbey fall into a state of disrepair. Gerald puts it to Maurice that he could take up residence at Maule Abbey with Adelaide once they are married. However Maurice is having none of it as we then discover he might have marital ambitions of his own to take him out of his current state of lonely, and yet comfortable, widowhood.
 |
| The Maules discuss Maule Abbey |
Back to Phineas who as well as working his way through the politics of the Tory Church disestablishment act, has a visit from his old adversary Quintus Slide, editor of the People's Banner which we are informed has now become a Tory leaning paper.
This doesn't go well for Phineas who, as Keir Starmer has recently found out, realises that just because you think you haven't done anything wrong doesn't mean that's how other people will see it. The People's Banner have received a letter from Mr Kennedy detailing the state of his marriage and the part that he believes Phineas has played in wrecking it. Of course we know Phineas is innocent, but he realises that isn't necessarily how society will view his role in all this.
Phineas moves at speed and manages to pull in a few favours and obtain an injunction preventing Slide from publishing Kennedy's letter. Of course Slide is a duplicitous enough journalist to still publish some details from the story, especially as Phineas manages to get himself shot at by Kennedy (luckily the gun jammed and he missed). Trollope seems to enjoy people being shot at in these stories, I don't know if that means it was a frequent occurrence in Victorian England or if he was simply running out of plot twists.
And just when you think things couldn't get any worse, the old Duke of Omnium goes and pops his clogs with the result that Plantagenet finally becomes the Duke of Omnium and Glencora his Duchess.
Madame Max Goesler is called away from London to assist with nursing the Duke in his final hours along with Lady Glencora, and of course we have the dirty old Duke attempting to leave Madame Max all his diamonds in his will in return for "services rendered", the implications of which are such that Madame Max realises she cannot accept his bequest.
 |
| Madame Max attends the Duke of Omnium on his deathbed |
We are told that Mr Maule senior is also calling on Madame Max and is the subject of his marital ambitions, which could be bad news for both Adelaide and Gerald's future happiness as well as Phineas' future love life if he is that way inclined.
The book then spends quite a lot of time on the political debate around the disestablishment act, with the Liberals attacking the Conservative leaders right to be Prime Minister rather than his proposals on Church Reform. Phineas, as a Liberal, speaks well towards the end of the debate, explains why he has apparently changed his position on Church Reform from when he was electioneering at Tankerville, with the end result that the Government are defeated by 72 votes, which includes some Conservatives who have voted against their leader.
In the middle of all this Phineas manages to make an enemy of Mr Bonteen who, we are later told, is likely to become Chancellor of the Exchequer in any future Liberal Government now that Plantagenet Palliser has been elevated to the House of Lords. Mr Bonteen doesn't trust Phineas to vote with his party based on previous experience and based on the "promises" he made at Tankerville. He gets to Phineas and words are exchanged. When Phineas realises Bonteen is to be "pitchforked" into the Exchequer he sees the mistake he has made and tries to right the wrong with a letter to Bonteen explaining why he had "scuttled the ship" on a previous occasion as described in Phineas Finn.
Phineas tries to put things right by visiting his old friends Mr Monk and Lord Cantrip but Phineas begins to realise the future is bleak for him in terms of employment in any future Liberal Government. Madame Max Goesler tells Phineas Lady Glencora is canvassing her husband on his behalf but of course Plantagenet is steadfast that he "never interferes." Having said that he does suggest Phineas as deserving of a place in Government to Mr Bonteen, mentioning Glencora as the sponsor, and this gives Bonteen the chance to knock the proposal back with "what does the Duchess know". After Plantagenet fed this back to Glencora, "the Duchess swore that she wasn't going to be beaten by Mr Bonteen."
 |
"I never interfere"
The Duke and Duchess of Omnium |
We then turn our attention to Lady Laura and Lord Brentford who have reached Portman Square following their journey back from Dresden. Lord Brentford is not the force he was, but the plan appears to be to challenge Laura’s marriage legally on the grounds of Kennedy’s madness with the ultimate aim of separating Laura from Kennedy and restoring her wealth.
Back to the House of Commons and the fallout from the disestablishment debate. There is much detail around the defeated Conservative leader's resignation speech which results in the Liberal leader being called to form a Government. This is not as straightforward as it might have been as Lady Glencora has successfully blackened Mr Bonteen's character such that we learn that the King makers in the party will not accept him as Chancellor.
The Liberal leader (Gresham) is offered a compromise, find a job for Phineas Finn and perhaps Bonteen would be acceptable as Chancellor, but Gresham suspects a woman's hand at work and this makes the compromise unacceptable to him.
"Mr. Gresham was firmly resolved that no woman's fingers should have anything to do with his pie"
Ultimately Bonteen is sent off to the Board of Trade, Legge Wilson becomes Chancellor and Phineas ends up with nothing. Volume 1 closes with Phineas telling Madame Max that he is not in love with Lady Laura and would not marry her if Kennedy were to die, but not realising that Madame Max is in love with him.
 |
"You and I are friends"
Madame Max and Phin |
As I said earlier Volume I of Phineas Redux proved to be something of a turgid read, with great sections of description of political infighting in Westminster, and the situation for our hero Phineas going from bad to worse.
Let's hope things pick up in Volume II.
Useful Links
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 having to take
Comments
Post a Comment