Scan barcode
A review by kellyhitchcock
The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope
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]