Phineas Finn was serialized in Saint Pauls Magazine (which Trollope edited) from 1867 to 1869 and published in book form by Virtue & Co. in 1869. Phineas Finn is an Irish barrister’s son with no money, modest talents, considerable charm, and genuine political convictions who wins a seat in Parliament through the patronage of Lord Tulla. Once in London, he must navigate two parallel worlds: the political world of the Liberal Party, where he rises quickly but discovers that advancement requires voting against his conscience; and the social world of great houses and beautiful women, where his attractiveness draws the attention of several women — Lady Laura Standish, Violet Effingham, Madame Max Goesler — each of whom offers a different version of the life he might lead.
Trollope’s Parliament is rendered with the authority of a man who had twice stood for election himself (and lost both times). The scenes in the House of Commons — the debates, the lobbying, the counting of votes, the tension between party loyalty and personal belief — are among the most convincing depictions of legislative politics in English fiction. Trollope understood, as few novelists have, that politics is not primarily about ideas but about people: their ambitions, their loyalties, their vanities, and their willingness to compromise.
Phineas’s central dilemma is the dilemma of any honest politician: the party system requires obedience, but obedience requires surrendering the independent judgment that justified entering politics in the first place. When Phineas votes his conscience on Irish tenant rights — a real political issue of the 1860s — he loses his seat and must return to Ireland, having gained nothing from his years in Parliament except experience and heartbreak.
Collecting Phineas Finn
First edition (Virtue & Co., London, 1869): Two volumes, cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition, two volumes, fine: $2,000–$5,000
- Very good: $800–$2,000