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ph1lb's review against another edition
5.0
The Prime Minister has been another good read that kept me wanting to read more. Some of the political stuff could get a little tedious, but generally I enjoyed it.
I thought the fuss about Lopez's parliamentary expenses went on a bit. You would expect Glencora to write a letter to a newspaper explaining everything, and that would have been the end of it.
I also found Emily's attitude at the end a little overdone especially when compared with the death of a baby which was just glossed over and forgotten.
I thought the fuss about Lopez's parliamentary expenses went on a bit. You would expect Glencora to write a letter to a newspaper explaining everything, and that would have been the end of it.
I also found Emily's attitude at the end a little overdone especially when compared with the death of a baby which was just glossed over and forgotten.
kellyhitchcock's review against another edition
3.0
This was my first Anthony Trollope adventure, and after taking over a month to complete it, it felt more like an extended hospital visit. (Spoilers included - but this book is 2000 years old so it can hardly be considered a true spoiler.)
WHY I LIKED IT
I thought Emily (Wharton) Lopez (Fletcher) was a highly believable and sympathetic character. She finds herself madly in love with the eccentric man she can't wait to marry, much to the chagrin of everyone she knows and loves. It doesn't take long into her marriage to discover that she made a huge mistake, and even after her husband's untimely (but let's call a duck a duck here - fortunate) death, she blames herself and feels she must shoulder the mistakes of marrying him in the first place, and his demise. She wasn't the first woman to do it, nor will she be the last.
WHY I DIDN'T
I never quite got how the storylines between the Wharton (and Lopez) family and the Prime Ministerial hierarchy fit together. They seemed like two parallel storylines that never impacted one another. There were so many ancillary characters that I thought could have been given the brush off since they didn't add much to drive the plot. And speaking of the plot (I never thought I'd hear myself say this), there wasn't much of one and it bothered the crap out of me. There was no climactic action, unless you count Ferdinand Lopez's death, and that happened in part 12 of 21 (audiobook... a very, very long audiobook).
IF I WERE AN EDITOR, I'D SAY
Some of the more fun classic vocabulary kept me chuckling under my breath: ducal, plontaginate, etc. Cut half the story, and make Emily's battle have something to with the election (or is it appointment? I don't get Britain) that's obvious enough for the reader to get.
[a:Kelly I. Hitchcock|5322812|Kelly I. Hitchcock|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1328755713p2/5322812.jpg]
Author of [b:Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook|18374933|Portrait of Woman in Ink A Tattoo Storybook|Kelly I. Hitchcock|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1378684146s/18374933.jpg|25987942]
WHY I LIKED IT
I thought Emily (Wharton) Lopez (Fletcher) was a highly believable and sympathetic character. She finds herself madly in love with the eccentric man she can't wait to marry, much to the chagrin of everyone she knows and loves. It doesn't take long into her marriage to discover that she made a huge mistake, and even after her husband's untimely (but let's call a duck a duck here - fortunate) death, she blames herself and feels she must shoulder the mistakes of marrying him in the first place, and his demise. She wasn't the first woman to do it, nor will she be the last.
WHY I DIDN'T
I never quite got how the storylines between the Wharton (and Lopez) family and the Prime Ministerial hierarchy fit together. They seemed like two parallel storylines that never impacted one another. There were so many ancillary characters that I thought could have been given the brush off since they didn't add much to drive the plot. And speaking of the plot (I never thought I'd hear myself say this), there wasn't much of one and it bothered the crap out of me. There was no climactic action, unless you count Ferdinand Lopez's death, and that happened in part 12 of 21 (audiobook... a very, very long audiobook).
IF I WERE AN EDITOR, I'D SAY
Some of the more fun classic vocabulary kept me chuckling under my breath: ducal, plontaginate, etc. Cut half the story, and make Emily's battle have something to with the election (or is it appointment? I don't get Britain) that's obvious enough for the reader to get.
[a:Kelly I. Hitchcock|5322812|Kelly I. Hitchcock|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1328755713p2/5322812.jpg]
Author of [b:Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook|18374933|Portrait of Woman in Ink A Tattoo Storybook|Kelly I. Hitchcock|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1378684146s/18374933.jpg|25987942]
siguirimama's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
lbrex's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I'm writing this review late, but I found this book from the Palliser sequence to be very interesting, in part because of the way that Trollope presents an outsider figure, the speculator Ferdinand Lopez, and for his rendering of the complicated fate of Plantagenet Palliser, now the Duke of Omnium, who has become the Prime Minister. The conflicts between the Duke and Glencora about the kind of power the Duke would like to wield as Prime Minister were certainly compelling, as was the impact of Ferdinand's actions on his young wife. I'd like to reread this one if I have the chance.
richardr's review against another edition
One of the main themes of Trollope's Palliser is about the challenges faced by Phineas Finn in British politics owing to his foreign background. In this novel, Phineas is a more marginal figure and it instead presents the figure of Ferdinand Lopez. Much of the early sections of the novel appear to follow a similar narrative arc to that trodden by Phineas, as Ferdinand's background creates opposition to his marriage proposal to Emily Wharton from her Tory father; "It was monstrous and out of the question that a daughter of the Whartons, one of the oldest families in England, should be given to a friendless Portuguese,—a probable Jew... the world as it was now didn't care whether its sons-in-law were Christian or Jewish;—whether they had the fair skin and bold eyes and uncertain words of an English gentleman, or the swarthy colour and false grimace and glib tongue of some inferior Latin race. But he cared for these things;—and it was dreadful to him to think that his daughter should not care for them."
However, in this case the Tory worldview proves correct, as Ferdinand is revealed after his marriage to be a a self-seeking, intriguing adventurer. As always with Trollope, his politics is a rather conservative form of liberalism which views foreign born city speculators while presenting the landed gentry with approval; after Lopez's descent into penury and suicide Emily eventually marries an English Tory MP. It's an odd conception for a novel where the Liberal Prime Minister declares that "You are a Liberal because you know that it is not all as it ought to be." If this novel suggests limits to Trollope's previously liberal stances towards Ireland and Judaism, it does present a more familiar view that women are poor judges of character and circumstance. Emily's foolish love for Ferdinand is matched by Lady Glencora's equally foolish attempts to propose him as a by-election candidate. As she complains at one point; "Of course I understand nothing, because I'm a woman."
The novel does have some conventional liberal propositions; Mill would have approved of the way the novel criticises Lopez's domination of Emily, if not her unstinting loyalty to him; "He was most desirous to make her subject to his will in all things, and quite prepared to exercise tyranny over her to any extent." Trollope is equally critical of the way Lopez's speculation leads the family of his partner into poverty; "You're a lady, and your father's a rich man, and your husband thinks no end of himself. And we're poor people, so it don't matter whether we're robbed and ruined or not. That's about it."
However, in this case the Tory worldview proves correct, as Ferdinand is revealed after his marriage to be a a self-seeking, intriguing adventurer. As always with Trollope, his politics is a rather conservative form of liberalism which views foreign born city speculators while presenting the landed gentry with approval; after Lopez's descent into penury and suicide Emily eventually marries an English Tory MP. It's an odd conception for a novel where the Liberal Prime Minister declares that "You are a Liberal because you know that it is not all as it ought to be." If this novel suggests limits to Trollope's previously liberal stances towards Ireland and Judaism, it does present a more familiar view that women are poor judges of character and circumstance. Emily's foolish love for Ferdinand is matched by Lady Glencora's equally foolish attempts to propose him as a by-election candidate. As she complains at one point; "Of course I understand nothing, because I'm a woman."
The novel does have some conventional liberal propositions; Mill would have approved of the way the novel criticises Lopez's domination of Emily, if not her unstinting loyalty to him; "He was most desirous to make her subject to his will in all things, and quite prepared to exercise tyranny over her to any extent." Trollope is equally critical of the way Lopez's speculation leads the family of his partner into poverty; "You're a lady, and your father's a rich man, and your husband thinks no end of himself. And we're poor people, so it don't matter whether we're robbed and ruined or not. That's about it."
slrsmith's review against another edition
3.0
You definitely need to read this whole series in order to get the full picture. This one revisits many of the characters that have been featured in previous installments. This one focused more on the Pallisers themselves as they continue their political machinations. This one was not as dramatic as some of the other installments. It maybe lacked a little in suspenseful action but it was still enjoyable to keep up with characters who by this point I feel I know rather well.