Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40652 in Books
• Published on: 1994-02-24
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

Synopsis
Plantaganet Palliser, Prime Minister of England - a man of power and prestige, with all the breeding and inherited wealth that goes with it - is appalled at the inexorable rise of Ferdinand Lopez. An exotic impostor, seemingly from nowhere, Lopez has society at his feet, while well-connected ladies vie with each other to exert influence on his behalf - even Palliser's own wife, Lady Glencora. But when the interloper makes a socially advantageous marriage, Palliser must decide whether to stand by his wife's support for Lopez in a by-election or leave him to face exposure as a fortune-hunting adventurer. A novel of social, sexual and domestic politics, The Prime Minister raises one of the most enduring questions in government - whether a morally scrupulous gentleman can make an effective leader.

Customer Reviews

Exquisite on politics, but this Palliser lacks passion
The fifth of Trollope's six "Palliser" novels, "The Prime Minister" follows the Prime Ministerial career of the languid and honourable Duke of Omnium. In parallel, we also follow the love affair of Emily Wharton with the dastardly Ferdinand Lopez. The politics of all this is outstanding: the book teems with contemporary-sounding epithets ("ministers are always indecent in their haste or treacherous in their delay") and the Duke's travails sound astonishingly modern. But the relationship side of things is far weaker than in earlier Palliser novels, notably The Eustace Diamonds or Can You Forgive Her, both far stronger. And the fact that Lopez is an object of suspicion because he is Jewish and foreign, and subsequently turns out to be utterly untrustworthy, leaves an unpleasant taste.

For: brilliant on politics. Against: long-winded and a touch anti-semitic

A Deserved Classic
What I love about Trollope is his scope and vision. He writes so brilliantly about politics and just makes them come alive. There is not a moment of boredom from start to finish, and that is because Trollope has a fundamental understanding of what politics is all about, it is about people, and he cares passionately for people. I get so attached to the characters in his novels because they are given real, interesting lives. This book is about compromise in politics, about how ideals have to be tempered for real life and is an interesting precursor to the final book in the series "The Duke's Children" for what Palliser learns in politics here he has to learn more brutally in his private life next. Fantastic