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The Prime Minister

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The Prime Minister

By: Anthony Trollope
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

Unscrupulous financial speculator Ferdinand Lopez, aspiring to marry into respectability and wealth, has society at his feet, with well-connected ladies vying with each other to exert influence on his behalf. Even Lady Glencora, the wife of Plantagenet Palliser, prime minister of England, supports the exotic imposter.

Palliser, respectable man of power and inherited wealth, is appalled by the rise of this man who seemingly appeared out of nowhere. When Lopez achieves his socially advantageous marriage, Palliser must decide whether to stand by his wife’s support for Lopez in a by-election or leave him to face exposure as a fortune-hunting adventurer.

This fifth installment in Trollope’s six-volume Palliser series is a brilliantly subtle portrait of love, marriage, and politics.

About the author: Anthony Trollope (1815–1882), the author of 47 novels, was one of the most prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. He is best known for his series of books set in the English countryside as well as those set in the political life, works that show great psychological penetration.

Public Domain (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Marriage

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Critic reviews

“Considered by modern critics to represent the apex of the Palliser novels…The novel brilliantly dissects the politics of both marriage and government.” ( Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature)
“In The Prime Minister Trollope was working at the top of his powers. It is a book for when one wishes to be challenged, rather than merely charmed, by a novel.” (Nicholas Shrimpton, emeritus fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University)
“ The Prime Minister is the key work in the Palliser series.… The political storyline tells us that although the practicalities of political life demand frequent moral compromise and social discomfort, a man of the highest rank can be found who for a brief interlude will bring to the office of Prime Minister an idealism which is rare amid the hurlyburly of government.” (David Skilton, emeritus professor, Cardiff School of English, Communication, and Philosophy)
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I’m working my way through his novels in some sort of order - probably the seventh or eighth one I’ve enjoyed - and most definitely the best (so far) : )

Best Trollope I’ve found so far!

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It takes someone like Trollope to write at such length about such horrible behaviour, and at - to some people at any rate - will look like inexplicable loyalty without the reader becoming irritated or disconnected. I wasn't prepared by any of his previous novels for such a clear-eyed and comprehending descriptive of prolonged domestic abuse. He knows all about gaslighting and the many other sophisticated tactics of the abuser. He understands how little impulsive behaviour and "anger management" has to do with this, and how much planning, control and insight is actually involved.

The descriptions of how effectively the victim is isolated from support not only by the abuser but by the judgement of friends and family, who join in the bullying in the belief (which they share with the abuser, ironically) that that's what is required, were painful to read. Injustice, patience and the eventual triumph of right over wrong are such recurring themes of Trollope's novels that you can't but hang in there. It's like when your team is taking a cuffing on the pitch, 5 nil down and ten minutes left to go, but something inside you tells you to hang on in till the bitter end. When Trollope shows you a hero or heroine, they become that to you, too. Who cares whether they win or lose, you think: it's doing the right thing that counts. (But you still want to see a villain sprawled, unmoving, at the foot of a very long, very steep flight of stairs with a banana skin stuck to their shiny footwear, or the 6-5 final score when the whistle blows, so you hang on.)

The Devil in a Top Hat

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