A match made in heaven

Timothy West is to the prose of Trollope what apple sauce is to roast pork

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My favourite listen

I think I have listened to this at least five times over the years and it continues to delight and absorb me every time. Timothy West’s perfect performance and the content - Trollope’s finest work IMO - make for the most enjoyable experience.

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Loose and baggy - and the better for that.

If you could sum up Phineas Finn in three words, what would they be?

Politics without politics.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Phineas Finn?

Laura Kennedy leaving Mr Kennedy.

What does Timothy West bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He gets the pauses just right and expresses exasperation perfectly. Moreover, while Trollope is ostensibly a moderate conservative, his less obvious liberal sympathies come across in Timothy West's reading.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Vote Quintus Slide!

Any additional comments?

Two of Henry James’s criticisms of his contemporaries and immediate forerunners probably apply to Anthony Trollope’s “Phineas Finn” (1869). James disliked “loose and baggy monsters” and preferred “showing” to “telling.” “Phineas Finn” is certainly over-long and indulges in many sub-stories and character developments that a more form-conscious novelist, such as James, would edit out. As the novel drew to a close I just wished that Violet Effingham and Lord Chilton would decide whether to stay with each other or not. And Trollope remains the teller throughout, giving little to his characters’ consciousnesses. Yet there are qualifying comments to make in order to do Trollope justice.

On the showing and telling, while Trollope holds little back – they are his characters and they do what he wants them to do – he devotes chapters to their respective stories, with the result that the sum of the parts is far greater than the parts. Phineas, himself, gets viewed from different angles, even though it is – more than other Trollope novels – a quite traditional story of innocence to experience. As for the the looseness, it is what many readers like and here there is just so much going on in love (and property) and politics (and property) that, mostly, it is a delight.

On the politics, it is, of course, good to have a novel that takes politics seriously and is knowledgeable. However, like many political moderates, Trollope is, in the end, very interested in the processes and institutions but much less interested in the content of this or that parliamentary bill or issue, even important bills such as those on reform and Ireland. The Reform Bill, for instance, gives a structure and narrative to parts of the novel, rather than defining character and meaning.

But, for all that, Trollope is such a great read and if “Phineas Finn” doesn’t quite match “The Way We Live Now” or “The Prime Minister”, for me, it comes in well ahead of the Barchester novels.

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2 people found this helpful

Phineas Finn

Another brilliant read by Timothy West. It's a long listen but is never tedious thanks to the way each character is sympathetically and convincingly portrayed.

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Timothy West reading Trollope perfection!

Dear Audible
Please buy the rights to the other Trollope novels in the same series read by Timothy West. If ever there was pleasure in audiobooks then the combination of Trollope and West personifies this.
Phineas Finn I think is a great place to start if someone has never read Trollope before. I think it is one of his very best novels. Phineas is a young man who becomes attached to more than one woman at a time. But more than this he is a complex character, not a two-dimensional cutout. The politics of the time is interesting and informative and even the interactions with the tabloid press that existed then. And ch is life it is clear to see that some things never change in politics and in life. Social manners may be different but the core is still the same through time.

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Perfection

This is one of Trollope's best novels. Phineas himself is a variation on one of his stock protagonists - the callow young man who finds himself simultaneously attached to more than one woman at a time. But he is a real character with a personality of his own, not a cardboard cutout. The Irish dimension adds to the interest and the picture of politics and the media is fascinating and never, ever dull. Lady Laura is one of Trollope's strongest and most interesting women, though as a man of his time he doesn't find her a way of exercising her talents. But that's how it was, and the waste of it is his point, even though he can't see a way out. And finally, as ever, Timothy West's reading couldn't be bettered. Roll on 'Phineas Redux' and the rest of the Palliser series.

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13 people found this helpful

Passion and politics in a classic novel, expertly read.

Timothy West is the ideal reader/performer for Trollope’s novels. I am working. my way through the Palliser series and this is the second I have heard with great enjoyment. Trollope wrote for an audience with more leisure - and patience - than most people had even in his day, and certainly in ours. The story builds slowly at first, gradually filling out the characters of a cross-section of Victorian society. Trollope writes in long, reflective sentences of narrative and unashamed authorial opinion, but is also expert in rendering lively and sophisticated dialogue, and dramatic action. All of this Timothy West delivers with practised professional skill and apparent ease. He distinguishes all the characters by their individual voices, accents and manner, and negotiates long sentences, twisting and turning as smoothly as an expert ski-er, with never a tumble.

Trollope’s examination of the ideals and ambition of politicians, the conflicts and dilemmas arising when those two things clash, and the struggles and devious strategies arising as a result, is as relevant today as ever. His remarkably fine understanding of the way men’s - and more particularly women’s - minds work makes for compassionate sympathy, even for the less attractive characters. As for the main personalities, I found myself completely engaged with them, agonising with them, fearing for them and caring about them. I hope Timothy West has recorded all the books in the series, but in any case I shall certainly continue to listen. Highly recommended.

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Superb narration

The usual Trollope mix of strong characters, lively dialogue and wobbly structure, but all brought brilliantly to life by Timothy West.

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Fab Phineas!

I remember hearing this novel on Radio 4 (abridged) many years ago but had forgotten enough of it to make it seem as fresh as ever. Nobody reads Trollope as intelligently as Timothy West, nor makes the voices come alive the way he does.

This story combines a background of 19thC political and social history with the story of ambitious Phineas Finn, fresh from Ireland and intent on making a career in London. He starts with the Law and then enters politics. Characters from previous novels cross his path, like Plantagenet Palliser en-route to becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer, adding to the sense of returning to familiar friends.

You'll get impatient with Phineas as he vacillates between loves and political causes but he comes good in the end!

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2 people found this helpful

great book

not my favourite in this series but very enjoyable nonetheless. Phineas Finn isn't my favourite Trollope character but there are other great characters in this book. I would recommend. I'm straight on to the next Palliser novel now

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