Reviews

Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope

aliibera's review against another edition

4.0

Once again I find myself really glad to have spent some time in Trollope's world. I'll admit that I found some of the parliamentary politics slow going. But I'm fascinated by how much true empathy there is for the female characters and how, Trollope seems to be at heart, a feminist (although a man of his era would never think to be so). Phineas Finn may be the protagonist of the novel but a strong case can be made that he is merely the object through which a set of women (Lady Laura, Violet Effingham, Mrs M-G) attempt to discover how to make a place for themselves in a world with so little active work available to them.