Phineas Redux cover

Phineas Redux

Rating 4.3
Word count
1.4M words
Chapters
143

Tags

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Phineas Redux by Anthony TrollopeAuthor: Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 21, 2006

Editor's review

Phineas Redux is the fourth novel in Trollope's Palliser series. Continuing the fate of the characters from Phineas Finn, it places an Irish MP returning to politics in the swirl of Victorian London politics and social networks. The appeal of the book lies not in thrilling plot but in the author's patient depiction of the subtle relations among parliamentary procedure, party maneuvering, press opinion, and personal friendship: an apparently ordinary political choice may affect career, marriage, and reputation at once. Trollope's calm, restrained pacing shows how public life seeps into private life, and how characters waver between interest and principle. As a public-domain eBook, it suits advanced reading in the Victorian political novel, especially for readers who have finished the earlier book and wish to follow the characters' fates. Note the narrator's irony toward political rhetoric and social talk—that is the key to the book's enduring readability.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers of Victorian English fiction who want to explore more of Trollope's series
  • Readers of historical fiction interested in parliamentary politics, party maneuvering, and the workings of public opinion
  • Readers who have read Phineas Finn and want to follow the characters' fates
  • English literature students studying narrative technique in the nineteenth-century political novel

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who prefer fast pacing and strong plot conflict; this book is leisurely and long
  • New readers who have not read the earlier book and hope to follow the relationships independently
  • Beginners wholly unfamiliar with Victorian political institutions and social conventions

Reading tips

  1. Read Phineas Finn first; the relationships and political situation will be much clearer
  2. Keep a simple character chart, noting as you read the connections among MPs, publications, and families
  3. Read a fixed number of chapters each week and note the narrator's ironic tone toward political speeches
  4. Pause at key choices and look back at earlier foreshadowing to appreciate Trollope's patient plotting

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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  139. 139
  140. 140
  141. 141
  142. 142
  143. 143

FAQ

Can I read this without having read Phineas Finn?
Yes, but the relationships and political backstory will seem abrupt. The book continues Phineas's career and romantic threads from the earlier novel, and many supporting characters' positions build on it. At minimum, read a summary of the earlier book, or read the series in order for a fuller experience.
Is this book mainly about politics or romance?
Both are interwoven. Parliamentary maneuvering, party changes, and press opinion form the outer frame, while the characters' courtships, friendships, and reputations run throughout. Trollope is interested in how public choices change private lives, so it should not be read as purely a political novel or a love story.
How is the Project Gutenberg edition best read?
This is a public-domain English eBook, suitable for e-readers or tablets and easy to search for names and chapters. Use a device with adjustable font size and bookmark where characters first appear for easy reference.

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About the author

Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) was a prolific English novelist of the Victorian era, with 83 works held in this collection. He is best known for the Barsetshire novels, including The Last Chronicle of Barset, Barchester Towers, and Framley Parsonage, which are set in a fictional English county and portray the daily life, social manners, and power struggles of the clergy and gentry. Other major works, such as The Way We Live Now, The Prime Minister, Orley Farm, and Can You Forgive Her?, turn to politics, business, and marriage, revealing with careful restraint and gentle irony the tension between social convention and personal ambition. Public information is limited, yet his plain narrative style, large casts of clearly drawn characters, and depiction of Victorian social structure retain lasting value for readers.

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