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Phineas Finn

The Irish Member

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Phineas Finn

By: Anthony Trollope
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Phineas Finn is an Irish MPA who is climbing the political ladder, largely through the assistance of his string of lovers. The questions he is forced to ask himself about honesty, independence, and parliamentary democracy are questions still asked today.

Phineas Finn is the second of Anthony Trollope's six Palliser novels, which together comprise a large, coherent composition that captures the fashions, manners, and politics of two decades of society in the high Victorian period. Trollope's unrivaled understanding of the institutions of mid–Victorian England and his sympathetic vision of human fallibility are informed by an unobtrusive irony that shines in these stories.

(P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Linguistics Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Social Sciences Fiction
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Critic reviews

“The polished excitement that animates [Vance’s] reading comes across richly and compels the listener’s attention.”

(AudioFile)

“This gracefully written work is perfectly read by [Vance], who successfully evokes the Victorian era.”

(Booklist)

“The central tension in Trollope’s novel Phineas Finn is between independence and service. The title character is an Irish outsider who comes into Parliament vowing to be true to his individual conscience…Finn has to either chart his own course or allow himself to be put in harness for the good of the common effort.”

(New York Times)

“Phineas Finn's engaging plot embraces matters as diverse as reform, the position of women, the Irish question, and the conflict between integrity and ambition...Trollope explores the realities of political life, and the clash between compromise and conviction, that is as topical today as it was in the 1860s.”

(Oxford University Press)
All stars
Most relevant
The narration skips or is badly edited in a number of places. Otherwise it is perfect

Enjoyable

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My intro to Trollope's Phineas Finn was through the 1970s TV series, The Pallisers, since watched on video and more recently DVD. The Phineas in Trollope's Palliser series is a mite more macho and naughty - his indecision as to which lovely lady to pursue to promote his political career versus his longing for the lovely pure Mary back home are well drawn by Trollope and one sympathises for his predicament in an era where, without inherited wealth and position within society, aspirations towards political power were hard to realise. The audio book has added a complexity to the character, but at the same time, with the deftness of touch which characterises Trollope's novels, where the human condition and foibles are exposed, but with gentle irony. If the sight of those close printed Trollope novels has put you off, in case of boredom, then try this audio book - it bowls along and takes you with it, effortlessly - I was sorry when it finished.

Philandering Phineas - full of character

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