Sydney M. Williams
Burrowing into Books
“Phineas Finn” by Anthony Trollope
January 14, 2019
“When a man has
means of his own, he can please himself. Do you marry a woman with money,
and then you may kick up your heels and do as
you like about the Colonial Office. When
a
man hasn’t money, of course he must fit himself to the circumstances of the profession.”
Anthony
Trollope (1815-1882)
Phineas Finn, 1867
Mr.
Low, with whom Phineas had studied for the Bar, offering Finn advice.
Apart from the modest task of
building an empire that would, by the end of the Century, encompass one fifth
of the Earth’s land surface, British life in the late 19th Century
was dominated by two institutions – the Anglican Church and Parliament. While
Trollope does not show up on a list of 19th Century-born satirists –
a Wikipedia list that includes Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll and P.G.
Wodehouse – he poked gentle fun at the two institutions mentioned above. The
Barsetshire novels were set in the cathedral city of Barchester and the
surrounding county of Barsetshire, while the Palliser series, of which Phineas
Finn is the second, were set in London, within the context of Parliament. In
both sets of novels, Trollope is more interested in people – their lives, loves
and losses – than in an accurate description of the institutions. The reader smiles
as he or she makes his or her way through each succeeding chapter.
Trollope understood the construct of government. For thirty-three years
he had worked for the postal service, retiring in 1867, the year Phineas
Finn was published. When we meet him, Phineas is a tall, well-spoken, pleasant,
good-looking 25-year-old Irishman who had studied law with Mr. Low in London, and
now impatient to enter Parliament. Though he had no income – his father was a
doctor in Ireland – he enjoyed the company of the socially prominent, ruling
classes, to whom he has been introduced. Parliamentarians, in that day, were
unpaid[1] servants of the people,
yet principally loyal to the Duke or Lord whose district or borough they
represented. The system was not democratic according to 21st Century
standards, and not especially amenable to young Phineas. Government ministers
were paid, but such positions depended on the Party in power. There were, of
course, bureaucrats – as Trollope had been – whose jobs survived political change.
The story tells of Finn’s transformation from a youth brushed with fame
(against great odds, he is elected to Parliament) and fortune (he claimed three
well-heeled young ladies as good friends) into a thirty-year-old, more serious
young man who returns to his Irish roots. His landlord Mr. Bunce, sounding like
many of us today (and perhaps uttering Trollope’s own views), is quoted: “For myself, I don’t think half so much of
Parliament folk as some do. They’re promising everything before they’s elected;
but not one in twenty of ‘em is as good as his word when he gets there.” By
mid-19th Century, Women had begun to advocate for equal rights, but
young noblewomen were often conflicted. Lady Laura Standish, one of Phineas’
young lady friends who encouraged his ambitions, said she wanted to be “brought as near to the political action as
was possible for a woman without surrendering any of the privileges of feminine
inaction.” However, “…the cause of the Rights of Women was odious to
her; but, nevertheless, for herself, she delighted in hoping she might be
useful.” In reading that passage, written 152 years ago, we must remember
it is we the reader who must travel back in time, not the author who should
travel forward.
A second lady friend, Violet Effingham, was a wealthy young woman for
whose hand Phineas dueled Lord Chiltern, brother of Laura. Finn lost. She
remained true to her childhood love. But, listen to her on the subject of men:
“I hate a stupid man who can’t talk to
me, and I hate a man who talks me down…I abominate a humble man, yet I love to
perceive that a man acknowledges the superiority of my sex…” His third
young female friend, Madame Max Goesler, was a beautiful young widow whose
Continental origins gave her a mysterious aura. It was her enormous wealth that
allowed her access to the socially prominent. Phineas was tempted, but, unlike
Adam, he resisted: “Had he taken the
woman’s hand and her money, had he clenched his fist on the great prize offered
to him, his misery would have been ten times worse the first moment that he
would have been away from her.”
Phineas’ mentor is Mr. Monk, the most “advanced Liberal in the Cabinet.” While Mr. Monk told Phineas that he
disliked the word “equality,” as it “misleads and frightens, but the wish of every honest man should be
to assist in lifting up those below him, till he be something nearer his own
level than he finds them.” Later, on patience: “Mr. Monk had told him that Rome was not built in a day – and had told
him also that good things were most valued and were more valuable when they
came by installment.” It was a trait Phineas acquired by the end of the
story. As he takes leave of the glamour and excitement of his five years in the
shadow of London’s Parliamentary society, he is intercepted by Quintas Slide,
an unsavory member of press. Mr. Slide warned Phineas about his liberal tendencies,
especially as regards Ireland: “Well, Mr.
Finn – I don’t often quote the Bible; but those who are not for us must be
against us.”
The book ends with Phineas returning to Ireland. “He, like Icarus, had flown up close to the sun, hoping that his wings
of wax would bear him steadily aloft among the gods.” While his wings were pretty
good, he had matured and knew he must start again. He does so, with Mary Jones,
the young woman he had known before he soared in London, but that story will be
told in Phineas Redux, to be published in 1873.
A life-long Liberal and a man
who longed to serve in Parliament, Trollope wrote this novel during a time when
the Second Reform Act was being debated. The Act, which doubled the number of
eligible voters from one million to two million (out of five million adult
males), was proposed by William Gladstone’s Liberal Party in 1866, but was
passed in July by the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Lord Derby and
Chancellor Benjamin Disraeli.
The reader will note how far we have
advanced politically but will also recognize how little we have changed.in
terms of relations between the sexes. This is a book to savor, to enjoy. Many
of the characters one has met before. Many will remain friends through the next
four volumes.
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