Phineas Redux (Trollope, Penguin)

'since the day on which he had accepted place and retired from London, his very soul had sighed for the lost glories of Westminster and Douning Street'

After the death of his Irish wife, Phineas Finn returns to London and to the House of Commons. But though drawn back apparently irresistibly, he never approaches politics with the zest of earlier days. What Trollope describes, in some of his most powerful writing, is a sad, at times almost sombre, progress towards maturity and self-wisdom.

Although Phineas survives an attempt on his life by the half-crazed and jealous Robert Kennedy, his involvement in this ugly scandal irreversibly damages his reputation. Not even the influential Duchess of Omnium can conjure an appointment for him. His trial for the murder of the hated Mr. Bonteen provides the final disenchantment and, through choice, he never again enters the charmed inner circle of power.

"Phineas Redux" (1874) is the fourth of the six Palliser novels, pubished between 1864 and 1880. As a group they provide us with the most extensive and telling expose' of British life during the period of its greatest prestige.