Audiobook · read by volunteers
Phineas Finn the Irish Member
Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
Read by Laura Koskinen, Mil Nicholson, Lee Ann Howlett, Philippa, Andy, Pete Lutz, Simon Evers, Steven Proctor, Bob Sage, Ed Meade · 66 chapters · 27 h 01
About the book
Phineas Finn is a young Irishman with charm, intelligence and very little money, who is invited to stand for Parliament and wins a seat in London. The novel follows his rise in the world of politics, society and love, where friendships, rivalries and ambitions all meet. Anthony Trollope, who himself longed to sit in the House of Commons, describes the workings of English political life with a lively eye for its personalities. At the same time he writes of relationships with delicacy, and Phineas finds himself drawn to several women whose lives will be touched by his choices. This is the second novel in Trollope’s Palliser series, and it can be enjoyed in its own right. A team of LibriVox volunteers shares the reading, and the 66 chapters run for about twenty-seven hours. It is a long, rich and absorbing story.
Introduction
Anthony Trollope, who lived from 1815 to 1882, was one of the most productive and most widely read Victorian novelists. He worked for many years for the Post Office, wrote early in the morning before going to his job, and produced some forty-seven novels. Phineas Finn began to appear in instalments in 1867 and is the second novel in the Palliser series, which began with Can You Forgive Her? The series follows politicians and their families over many years, and many readers count it among his finest achievements.
Trollope aspired to become a Member of Parliament himself. He stood as a candidate for the Liberal side in 1868, and was unsuccessful. This personal experience of political ambition, and of its frustrations, finds expression in the book, which describes the workings of the English political scene with a convincing sense of insider knowledge. The Irish member of the title must make his way among men who are born to power, and has to decide how far he is willing to compromise.
The book has a second theme, which concerns love and marriage and the choices open to women of the period. Trollope wrote with sympathy for the difficulty of their position, and the female characters are among the most memorable in the novel.
The recording opens with “Phineas Finn Proposes to Stand for Loughshane” and is a long listen, as befits a Victorian novel. A team of volunteers takes part. It rewards patient listening with an intimate picture of politics and manners, and it makes a good starting point for the whole Palliser series. It is the kind of book that rewards long listening, with its pleasures of character, conversation and plot unfolding at a Victorian pace.
Public domain
Anthony Trollope died in 1882: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text