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The Palliser Chronicles Collection
The "Palliser Chronicles Collection" is a series of six novels by English author Anthony Trollope. In 1974 the BBC adapted the Palliser novels as a twenty-six part serial "The Pallisers."
The beautifully-written epic saga concerns the wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Lady Glencora. The plots involve love, murder, ambition, and English politics in varying degrees, specifically in and around Parliament.
Included in this volume:
Book One: Can You Forgive Her? - Alice Vavasor cannot decide whether to marry her ambitious but violent cousin George or the upright and gentlemanly John Grey - and finds herself accepting and rejecting each of them in turn. Increasingly confused about her own feelings and unable to forgive herself for such vacillation, her situation is contrasted with that of her friend Lady Glencora - forced to marry the rising politician Plantagenet Palliser in order to prevent the worthless Burgo Fitzgerald from wasting her vast fortune...
Book Two: Phineas Finn - Struggling to make his mark among gentlemen and to find a suitably rich and well connected wife, Phineas is an attractive, ambitious and adaptable young Irishman. In a time of radical political agitation, his story reveals both the splendour and absurdity of parliamentary proceedings, the sloganeering, jockeying for position and inevitable compromises of the party system.
Book Three: The Eustace Diamonds - Following the death of her husband Sir Florian, beautiful Lizzie Eustace mysteriously comes into possession of a hugely expensive diamond necklace. She maintains it was a gift from her husband, but the Eustace lawyers insist she give it up, and while her cousin Frank takes her side, her new lover Lord Fawn states that he will only marry her if the necklace is surrendered...
Book Four: Phineas Redux - In the fourth of the 'Palliser' stories, Trollope follows Phineas Finn's return to the dangerous world of Westminster politics. When his political rival is murdered, Phineas is thrown under suspicion and eventually finds himself standing trial at the Old Bailey. The situation is complicated by the presence of two women in his life: his old flame Lady Laura, whose estranged husband is determined to destroy Phineas's reputation, and the wealthy and enimgatic widow, Madame Max....
Book Five: The Prime Minister - Plantaganet Palliser, Prime Minister of England - a man of power and prestige, with all the breeding and inherited wealth that goes with it - is appalled at the inexorable rise of Ferdinand Lopez. An exotic impostor, seemingly from nowhere, Lopez has society at his feet, while well-connected ladies vie with each other to exert influence on his behalf - even Palliser's own wife, Lady Glencora. But when the interloper makes a 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. A novel of social, sexual and domestic politics...
Book Six: The Duke's Children - Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium and former Prime Minister of England, is widowed and wracked by grief. Struggling to adapt to life without his beloved Lady Glencora, he works hard to guide and support his three adult children. Palliser soon discovers, however, that his own plans for them are very different from their desires. Sent down from university in disgrace, his two sons quickly begin to run up gambling debts. His only daughter, meanwhile, longs passionately to marry the poor son of a county squire against her father's will....
These are wonderful, well-written thrilling and vigorous novels!
The beautifully-written epic saga concerns the wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Lady Glencora. The plots involve love, murder, ambition, and English politics in varying degrees, specifically in and around Parliament.
Included in this volume:
Book One: Can You Forgive Her? - Alice Vavasor cannot decide whether to marry her ambitious but violent cousin George or the upright and gentlemanly John Grey - and finds herself accepting and rejecting each of them in turn. Increasingly confused about her own feelings and unable to forgive herself for such vacillation, her situation is contrasted with that of her friend Lady Glencora - forced to marry the rising politician Plantagenet Palliser in order to prevent the worthless Burgo Fitzgerald from wasting her vast fortune...
Book Two: Phineas Finn - Struggling to make his mark among gentlemen and to find a suitably rich and well connected wife, Phineas is an attractive, ambitious and adaptable young Irishman. In a time of radical political agitation, his story reveals both the splendour and absurdity of parliamentary proceedings, the sloganeering, jockeying for position and inevitable compromises of the party system.
Book Three: The Eustace Diamonds - Following the death of her husband Sir Florian, beautiful Lizzie Eustace mysteriously comes into possession of a hugely expensive diamond necklace. She maintains it was a gift from her husband, but the Eustace lawyers insist she give it up, and while her cousin Frank takes her side, her new lover Lord Fawn states that he will only marry her if the necklace is surrendered...
Book Four: Phineas Redux - In the fourth of the 'Palliser' stories, Trollope follows Phineas Finn's return to the dangerous world of Westminster politics. When his political rival is murdered, Phineas is thrown under suspicion and eventually finds himself standing trial at the Old Bailey. The situation is complicated by the presence of two women in his life: his old flame Lady Laura, whose estranged husband is determined to destroy Phineas's reputation, and the wealthy and enimgatic widow, Madame Max....
Book Five: The Prime Minister - Plantaganet Palliser, Prime Minister of England - a man of power and prestige, with all the breeding and inherited wealth that goes with it - is appalled at the inexorable rise of Ferdinand Lopez. An exotic impostor, seemingly from nowhere, Lopez has society at his feet, while well-connected ladies vie with each other to exert influence on his behalf - even Palliser's own wife, Lady Glencora. But when the interloper makes a 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. A novel of social, sexual and domestic politics...
Book Six: The Duke's Children - Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium and former Prime Minister of England, is widowed and wracked by grief. Struggling to adapt to life without his beloved Lady Glencora, he works hard to guide and support his three adult children. Palliser soon discovers, however, that his own plans for them are very different from their desires. Sent down from university in disgrace, his two sons quickly begin to run up gambling debts. His only daughter, meanwhile, longs passionately to marry the poor son of a county squire against her father's will....
These are wonderful, well-written thrilling and vigorous novels!
3735 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1880
533 people are currently reading
813 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Trollope
2,334 books1,768 followersAnthony Trollope became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works, known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire; he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.
Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...
Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
May 6, 2015
Genius. Brilliant. Fantastic. 150 stars. And I still have the TV series to look forward to.
If you enjoyed the Forsyte Saga and Brideshead Revisited as books, you will love this too.
If you enjoyed the Forsyte Saga and Brideshead Revisited as books, you will love this too.
January 17, 2018
Trollope’s Pallisers books are a worthy reading challenge. Certainly padded but entertaining and thought provoking. National politics are a topic but more so are the politics of the home and heart.
On the surface Anthony Trollope’s six PALLISER NOVELS, also called the Parliamentary Chronicles are another in the many life styles of the rich and famous Victorian novels. Almost every major character is titled and all are or are looking to marry rich. What makes Trollope worthy of the time that might otherwise be devoted to more by Jane Austen or Charles Dickens is his keen analysis of the complexities within this otherwise detached society.
Like much of Austin’s novels there flashes humor and the focus is on people for whom work is optional rather than a matter of survival. Like Dickens Trollope has an awareness of work as a means of survival but also as a way to live out a mission at least superficially based on an image of the public good.
Rather than many specific about each book, a more general discussion may help a potential reader.
In common with Dickens, Trollope was writing to a contact for publishers that were printing his books as a serial. He was contracted to produce about 4 chapters at a time, each of a certain length with the goal being 80 chapters or over 700 pages per book. Taking up this series is a commitment to about 4200 pages of reading. You will find entire pages of padding and the occasional sub plot that however entertaining is not a necessary contribution to further the larger plot of the books. This means that characters may appear as important only to disappear.
The Pallsers are said to be the political novels. Politics are a running theme through the books, but more as a background. A faint one in The Eustice Diamonds and Phineas Redux and not all that central to The Prime Minister.
The time period of the novels, roughly form the 1830s to the 1880s was a very busy time for the British Government. There were wars to fight, major changed to the rules for electing members to Parliament, the legal relationship between England and the Church of England, Even The reformulation of Victoria, Queen of England to Empress.
Much of the important things before the Parliament of the Pallisers is trivial or where important is about character development rather than politics. Trollope as a failed politician has an ax to grind. To him Parliament is unimportant and more a matter of management than of governance. His single most prominent male figure is Plantagenet Pallister, later the Duke of Omnium and Gatherum. For all of his seriousness and honest earnestness; his most important goal is to move the British money system to decimal coinage. Trollope at his slyest, making our protagonist a figure of fun. One of the few characters know by a nick name, he is Planty Pal.
The real politics of the novels is in the politics of the household and of the heart. Who is to marry who, why and what is allowable. Across the novels, Trollope carefully crafts a series of literary experiments. We get ladies who are rarely anyone’s passive vessel, actively seeking their own advantage whether advantage to their hearts or to their income. The female characters are almost always his best and most completely presented figures. Each has her initial starting points on the social and economic latter and each her own methods for allowing a suit to be paid. Likewise the males vary, ranging from obvious scoundrels to the nicest of gentlemen. There is a regular presence of potential suitors who are comically bad at romancing. There are the usual mix of overly protective fathers and threats to withhold money from otherwise impoverished ‘ungrateful’ sons.
Trollope is very good about giving us women with independent minds and fixed determinations to control how they are to be disposed among the various males to whom they are presented. Even so, the one common goal is marriage, never an independent existence.
Given how central romance is to every novel. Trollope rarely admits us to anything private. Rarely do we see the wooing that might inspire the passions we are told loving pairs share. Conversation is mannered, indirect and carefully crafted to be only just personal. The passive voice rules. People are in love because we are told that they are. The initial impulse may be no more than looks or a turn of phrase. Rarely is there anything more than a common childhood to give any sense of what any one person actually knows about the other. Almost every pairing in this books would be more credible had Victorian society admitted to anything like dating. Neither the reader nor, I suspect, most of the future spouses could recognize their significant other given a sample of their unguarded conversation.
One of my favorite smaller aspects of the book is how much you can know a character by their name. Can there be a more ostentatiously over grand name than Plantagenet Pallister, Duke of Omnium and Gatherum? How much can we guess about a supervising aunt named Lady Baldock? What can we expect from Burgo Fitzgerald or the well-off Mr. Cheeseacre? What kind of politician is Sir Timothy Beeswax .
On the less certain side is the characterization of outsiders. Madame Max Goesle is not merely of foreign origins, but may have had a Jewish (now deceased) husband. She is allowed to carefully earn her way into this society but is also the target of rumors. Other darkly completed, and perhaps Jewish characters are less sympathetic.
On the surface Anthony Trollope’s six PALLISER NOVELS, also called the Parliamentary Chronicles are another in the many life styles of the rich and famous Victorian novels. Almost every major character is titled and all are or are looking to marry rich. What makes Trollope worthy of the time that might otherwise be devoted to more by Jane Austen or Charles Dickens is his keen analysis of the complexities within this otherwise detached society.
Like much of Austin’s novels there flashes humor and the focus is on people for whom work is optional rather than a matter of survival. Like Dickens Trollope has an awareness of work as a means of survival but also as a way to live out a mission at least superficially based on an image of the public good.
Rather than many specific about each book, a more general discussion may help a potential reader.
In common with Dickens, Trollope was writing to a contact for publishers that were printing his books as a serial. He was contracted to produce about 4 chapters at a time, each of a certain length with the goal being 80 chapters or over 700 pages per book. Taking up this series is a commitment to about 4200 pages of reading. You will find entire pages of padding and the occasional sub plot that however entertaining is not a necessary contribution to further the larger plot of the books. This means that characters may appear as important only to disappear.
The Pallsers are said to be the political novels. Politics are a running theme through the books, but more as a background. A faint one in The Eustice Diamonds and Phineas Redux and not all that central to The Prime Minister.
The time period of the novels, roughly form the 1830s to the 1880s was a very busy time for the British Government. There were wars to fight, major changed to the rules for electing members to Parliament, the legal relationship between England and the Church of England, Even The reformulation of Victoria, Queen of England to Empress.
Much of the important things before the Parliament of the Pallisers is trivial or where important is about character development rather than politics. Trollope as a failed politician has an ax to grind. To him Parliament is unimportant and more a matter of management than of governance. His single most prominent male figure is Plantagenet Pallister, later the Duke of Omnium and Gatherum. For all of his seriousness and honest earnestness; his most important goal is to move the British money system to decimal coinage. Trollope at his slyest, making our protagonist a figure of fun. One of the few characters know by a nick name, he is Planty Pal.
The real politics of the novels is in the politics of the household and of the heart. Who is to marry who, why and what is allowable. Across the novels, Trollope carefully crafts a series of literary experiments. We get ladies who are rarely anyone’s passive vessel, actively seeking their own advantage whether advantage to their hearts or to their income. The female characters are almost always his best and most completely presented figures. Each has her initial starting points on the social and economic latter and each her own methods for allowing a suit to be paid. Likewise the males vary, ranging from obvious scoundrels to the nicest of gentlemen. There is a regular presence of potential suitors who are comically bad at romancing. There are the usual mix of overly protective fathers and threats to withhold money from otherwise impoverished ‘ungrateful’ sons.
Trollope is very good about giving us women with independent minds and fixed determinations to control how they are to be disposed among the various males to whom they are presented. Even so, the one common goal is marriage, never an independent existence.
Given how central romance is to every novel. Trollope rarely admits us to anything private. Rarely do we see the wooing that might inspire the passions we are told loving pairs share. Conversation is mannered, indirect and carefully crafted to be only just personal. The passive voice rules. People are in love because we are told that they are. The initial impulse may be no more than looks or a turn of phrase. Rarely is there anything more than a common childhood to give any sense of what any one person actually knows about the other. Almost every pairing in this books would be more credible had Victorian society admitted to anything like dating. Neither the reader nor, I suspect, most of the future spouses could recognize their significant other given a sample of their unguarded conversation.
One of my favorite smaller aspects of the book is how much you can know a character by their name. Can there be a more ostentatiously over grand name than Plantagenet Pallister, Duke of Omnium and Gatherum? How much can we guess about a supervising aunt named Lady Baldock? What can we expect from Burgo Fitzgerald or the well-off Mr. Cheeseacre? What kind of politician is Sir Timothy Beeswax .
On the less certain side is the characterization of outsiders. Madame Max Goesle is not merely of foreign origins, but may have had a Jewish (now deceased) husband. She is allowed to carefully earn her way into this society but is also the target of rumors. Other darkly completed, and perhaps Jewish characters are less sympathetic.
April 11, 2020
From BBC radio 4:
Based on The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope. Dramatised by Mike Harris.
Episode 1 of 6
A pacy, radical reworking of the Palliser novels about high life and low politics in Victorian England. Vivacious 19-year-old Lady Glencora Palliser is married to the older, conscientious politician Plantagenet Palliser. Life should be good, but she is in love with someone else - the wastrel Burgo Fitzgerald. Starring Jessica Raine as Lady Glencora Palliser.
Episode 2 of 6
Plantagenet and Cora Palliser have gone abroad in an effort to repair their marriage.
Episode 3 of 6
A scandal surrounds the Palace of Westminster. Sir Nicholas Bonteen MP has been murdered in a street attack.
Episode 4 of 6
High Life and Low Politics in Victorian England
Episode 5 of 6
High Life and Low Politics in Victorian England
Episode 6 of 6
Bold adaptation of High Life and Low Politics in Victorian England.
Cora .... Jessica Raine
Plantagenet ..... Tim McMullan
Phineas Finn ..... Edward MacLiam
Burgo ..... Blake Ritson
Violet ..... Scarlett Courtney
Marie Goesler ..... Melody Grove
Kennedy/Slide ..... Neil McCaul
Bonce/Grimes ..... Greg Jones
Commons Speaker ..... Hamilton Berstock
Director/Producer Gary Brown
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...
It seems BBC won't finish to provide this whole series of books, pity.
Based on The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope. Dramatised by Mike Harris.
Episode 1 of 6
A pacy, radical reworking of the Palliser novels about high life and low politics in Victorian England. Vivacious 19-year-old Lady Glencora Palliser is married to the older, conscientious politician Plantagenet Palliser. Life should be good, but she is in love with someone else - the wastrel Burgo Fitzgerald. Starring Jessica Raine as Lady Glencora Palliser.
Episode 2 of 6
Plantagenet and Cora Palliser have gone abroad in an effort to repair their marriage.
Episode 3 of 6
A scandal surrounds the Palace of Westminster. Sir Nicholas Bonteen MP has been murdered in a street attack.
Episode 4 of 6
High Life and Low Politics in Victorian England
Episode 5 of 6
High Life and Low Politics in Victorian England
Episode 6 of 6
Bold adaptation of High Life and Low Politics in Victorian England.
Cora .... Jessica Raine
Plantagenet ..... Tim McMullan
Phineas Finn ..... Edward MacLiam
Burgo ..... Blake Ritson
Violet ..... Scarlett Courtney
Marie Goesler ..... Melody Grove
Kennedy/Slide ..... Neil McCaul
Bonce/Grimes ..... Greg Jones
Commons Speaker ..... Hamilton Berstock
Director/Producer Gary Brown
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...
It seems BBC won't finish to provide this whole series of books, pity.
January 22, 2009
I loved the Palliser novels. I watched the entire PBS series and bought the set so I could read them all. I began when in May 1977 about the time I learned I was pregnant with my son. I completed the final novel while I was in the hospital on January 9th, 1978. It was an endeavor well worth the effort. It is not often that one gets to read an author who can make one sentence into a paragraph, but I soldiered for the glory of the stories. I recommend reading them all for anyone who can take the excess of language and love it for its time and its author's heart.
February 24, 2024
I was reluctant to read another Trollope after my first and only experience with The Warden, but I know that many love his writing and, between them, my mother-in-law, whose literary taste I trust.
So I decided to listen to this BBC dramatization: almost 12 hours of intelligent entrainment on my daily commute.
I enjoyed it so much that I am now ready to attempt to read another novel by Trollope.
The Palliser are know as the political novels if Anthony Trollope; and politic you will have in high doses. But, don’t worry. If you, like me, are inclined to think politics boring or too intricated, you will find that it can be highly entertaining and interesting, especially when it is entwined with love (or not love) affairs, wedding plotting and social skirmishing.
I ended up getting affectionate to some of the characters, in particular to the two fathers of the story: Plantagenet Palliser and Mr Wharton.
We see them growing and changing through the story and I feel that they were the ones that kept things from falling apart, both personally and politically.
So I decided to listen to this BBC dramatization: almost 12 hours of intelligent entrainment on my daily commute.
I enjoyed it so much that I am now ready to attempt to read another novel by Trollope.
The Palliser are know as the political novels if Anthony Trollope; and politic you will have in high doses. But, don’t worry. If you, like me, are inclined to think politics boring or too intricated, you will find that it can be highly entertaining and interesting, especially when it is entwined with love (or not love) affairs, wedding plotting and social skirmishing.
I ended up getting affectionate to some of the characters, in particular to the two fathers of the story: Plantagenet Palliser and Mr Wharton.
We see them growing and changing through the story and I feel that they were the ones that kept things from falling apart, both personally and politically.
January 17, 2024
Trollope is a wonderful storyteller. He sets up seemingly unsolvable conflicts - between generations and sexes, about class and money and relationships - and you never know until the end how they will be resolved. His characters are rounded. He makes you understand his villains and heroes. There are both sad and happy endings. You are into the story on the first page. The dialogue is brilliant, rich and gripping. These six political novels are deepened by the backdrop of Parliament and elections. I particularly enjoyed The Eustace Diamonds and The Prime Minister for the machinations of their vivid villains, and The Duke’s Children for the characters, the impasse and the resolution. Yes, Trollope has ‘stock scenes’ - the fox hunt, the first speech in Parliament, the local election - which can feel repetitive. And his prejudices - eg depiction of Jewish moneylenders - are abhorrent to the modern reader. But here is an author who can hook you on the first page, who can make you laugh and bring a tear to your eye. My abiding memory of reading these Palliser novels is sheer enjoyment.
March 6, 2011
So far I've read Can You Forgive Her?, Phineas Finn, and The Eustace Diamonds. All enjoyable and looooong. Excellent writing with insights into human behavior, but reading about the British 19th century upper crust is kind of surreal. Most of these people could solve most of their problems by getting a regular job. But that's not possible because...oh because fancy people don't work. I'm going to take a little break from this series because the books are long and the style, themes, and subject matter not varied enough to sustain for thousands and thousands more pages on top of the thousands I've so recently savored.
May 23, 2008
An excellent series of books that highlight London society, although the text can be very lenghty the development of the plot makes the length of the books worth reading in most cases...Michael Hardwick has also abridged the six novels into one volume that is half the length of the first book, but many of the subplots are eliminated from this text.The series has also been released as a mini-series by the BBC I believe.
August 21, 2008
I had never read anything by Trollope before I started this series. There are a total of 6 books and I liked 3.5 of them. While I found each book interesting in their own way, I wasn't glued to all of them. The female characters really helped pull the story along.
January 3, 2011
A great portrait of a time, a place, and a class of people while still preserving their individuality.
March 17, 2020
Listened. BBC Sounds. Abridged. Superb.
February 21, 2017
Not easy to read but so worth the effort!
Between the Barsetshire Chronicles and the Palliser novels I have spent the better part of six months in the world of Anthony Trollope. (I'm rather a slow reader and have multiple books going at once). It has been a very satisfying time. I love these books. They are dense and time consuming, yet also compelling and totally absorbing. I've asked myself many times how I could be so caught up by a story in which absolutely nothing happens. Yet I am so involved in these characters lives I can hardly bring myself to close the book. The writing is rich and lively. The characters are unforgettable. The political commentary is timeless. The fox hunting scenes are some of the most exciting passages I have ever read. These books are beautiful. Read them. But be prepared to read nothing else for some time.
Between the Barsetshire Chronicles and the Palliser novels I have spent the better part of six months in the world of Anthony Trollope. (I'm rather a slow reader and have multiple books going at once). It has been a very satisfying time. I love these books. They are dense and time consuming, yet also compelling and totally absorbing. I've asked myself many times how I could be so caught up by a story in which absolutely nothing happens. Yet I am so involved in these characters lives I can hardly bring myself to close the book. The writing is rich and lively. The characters are unforgettable. The political commentary is timeless. The fox hunting scenes are some of the most exciting passages I have ever read. These books are beautiful. Read them. But be prepared to read nothing else for some time.
March 25, 2020
LOVE THIS BOOK
Love historical fiction & this book is fascinating. English politics, English romance in Vistorian times seems over thought but that's the way of the era.
Trollope fits the time into our world effortlessly.
Love historical fiction & this book is fascinating. English politics, English romance in Vistorian times seems over thought but that's the way of the era.
Trollope fits the time into our world effortlessly.
August 21, 2015
The earlier characters (Lady Glencora, Phineas Finn, Lopez) are more interesting than the children but overall an engaging read.
March 19, 2019
I cheated a little bit in that I did not read six separate books in this instance. Instead I read a single book which was essentially a summary of the television show that was on back, I think, in the 70s on PBS. Generally, I’m not all that fond of Victorian literature; however, I also am fairly familiar with the way that English society is structured, so I was able to follow the story without feeling like I had to figure out why certain social customs were playing off against one another. Many of the things that people were doing here and the experiences that they had were familiar to me from the television program, as well, and that helped. I enjoyed reliving the story and I enjoyed reminiscing a little bit about the actors and the events that I remember from that television show.
But I give it only three stars because I did feel as though, in the process of abridging the stories, Michael Hardwick took enormous liberties. The characters seemed to career madly from one set of events to another. The personalities were not well developed in the individual books. Huge portions of time got skipped over. And it truly did not seem like a well-rounded, meaty story. While I doubt seriously that I will go and dig up the six-volume set, I recommend this particular book, “The Pallisers” for anyone who wants what I would call a Taste of Trollope. With that caveat, enjoy!
But I give it only three stars because I did feel as though, in the process of abridging the stories, Michael Hardwick took enormous liberties. The characters seemed to career madly from one set of events to another. The personalities were not well developed in the individual books. Huge portions of time got skipped over. And it truly did not seem like a well-rounded, meaty story. While I doubt seriously that I will go and dig up the six-volume set, I recommend this particular book, “The Pallisers” for anyone who wants what I would call a Taste of Trollope. With that caveat, enjoy!
March 30, 2020
While this book was a little difficult to get into because of it's slow start and build up of all the characters, it was an excellent read. Towards the end of the book I had a hard time putting it down. Can you forgive her? revolves around one main female character, Alice, and brings in other female characters that are linked to Alice that both have their own stories and issues that they possibly need to be forgiven for by the end of the story.
This was a complex but highly enjoyable read (once you get past all the introductions, of which there are many!). It has the familiar air of the Austen/Bronte era style of writing and story line. I read this because it was a favorite of a new author I've been reading (Jeff Wheeler).
This was a complex but highly enjoyable read (once you get past all the introductions, of which there are many!). It has the familiar air of the Austen/Bronte era style of writing and story line. I read this because it was a favorite of a new author I've been reading (Jeff Wheeler).
January 5, 2022
Many years ago I read Trollope's Barsetshire series, which I enjoyed a lot. I also liked "The Way We Live Now." Having finally gotten around to reading the Palliser novels, I have to say I did not find them as enjoyable on the whole. The marriage plots, fox hunts, and Parliamentary politicking get very repetitious. That's not say there are not some great moments and well-drawn characters, as well as occasional doses of Trollope's idiosyncratic wit. They just felt a bit too formulaic. Of the six, I liked "Can You Forgive Her?" and "The Eustace Diamonds" the best, and the Phineas Finn books hold up pretty well. If you only want to dabble, I would recommend the first volume to start with, and "The Eustace Diamonds" actually have very little to do with the other five.
December 31, 2017
I've reviewed this books serially. A pretty stupendous achievement albeit without the innovative power of Dickens or Balzac. Trollope was the novelist, and to an extent the apologist, of the English ruling class, both politically and socially. Outsiders are dealt with and the system absorbs just enough change to replicate and continue itself, at least in Trollope's time.
July 21, 2022
This is the lovely edition my dad gave me. It's beautifully printed on good paper--not that awful pulp they use in so many paperbacks. If you are a Trollope fan, and you have a choice, do yourself a favor and buy this set. A pleasure to read.
February 24, 2018
Brilliant characters, but lots of nineteenth century politics to wade through too. Six novels in all, some easier to like than others!
July 20, 2020
Trollope is extraordinary. Love everything he's written. Written in 1860's but feels like we haven't changed a bit. He was a contemporary of - and friends with - George Elliott. It figures.
November 16, 2020
I'm a fan of Trollope's novels. He's an easy read with short sentences which is great if you are travelling or tired. There are however a lot of characters to keep track of. Most of the characters are stock Victorian era fare, and the issues follow many of the issues of the day, like marrying out of rank or poor nobility marrying for money and women's rights within the home.
The Palliser novels are really no different with some engaging characters like Glencora, Madame Goesler, and Lady Laura. Overall good and involved storytelling, but I always have the same criticism....most of the difficulties of the heroes or heroines could be sorted out by just speaking plainly instead of hiding the meaning in ambiguity.
The Palliser novels are really no different with some engaging characters like Glencora, Madame Goesler, and Lady Laura. Overall good and involved storytelling, but I always have the same criticism....most of the difficulties of the heroes or heroines could be sorted out by just speaking plainly instead of hiding the meaning in ambiguity.
February 4, 2021
Perfect pandemic escapes.
August 17, 2021
Been at this for years, off and on! Some better than others.
March 31, 2023
A bit too long winded for the modern reader with a busy life!
August 18, 2024
a lesson to all politicians
Present day politicians would learn a lot from these novels. They ought to be read as obligatory by all would-be politicians.
Present day politicians would learn a lot from these novels. They ought to be read as obligatory by all would-be politicians.
March 20, 2016
Magnificently accurate and on occasion heartily funny view of life in the "upper 10,100" of Great Britain during the second half of the 19th century, the great age of reform. The portrait of Plantagenet Palliser is particularly subtle, but many others are almost as telling, whether they be of Phineas Phinn, the ambitious and attractive Irish MP who is making his fortune, Lady Glencora, the future Duchess of Omnium, Planty Pal's wife, whose giddy political ambitions illustrate the limitations of many intelligent women in VIctorian Britian , or Madame Goesler, whose continental antecedents and great wealth and charm are suspicious but whose judgment is impecccable. Improper as well as proper marriages, scoundrels and gentlemen, Parliamentary proceedings, they are all intertwined in these tales. No wonder the BBC made a series of it. It is as good an introduction to Victorian Great Britain as I know, except for Trollope's Barshetshire series, which is also enjoyable,, albeit not not so fine. One might consider Trollope Great Britain's equivalent to Balzac in many respects, although Balzac is more interested din the lower classes. N.B. Trollope was quite happy with the status quo, and shared his contemporaries' prejudices about Jews and other peoples who were not innately British These are as fascinating to read about as his other characters. THis is very fine social history
April 6, 2016
Magnificently accurate and on occasion heartily funny view of life in the "upper 10,100" of Great Britain during the second half of the 19th century, the great age of reform. The portrait of Plantagenet Palliser is particularly subtle, but many others are almost as telling, whether they be of Phineas Phinn, the ambitious and attractive Irish MP who is making his fortune, Lady Glencora, the future Duchess of Omnium, Planty Pal's wife, whose giddy political ambitions illustrate the limitations of many intelligent women in VIctorian Britian , or Madame Goesler, whose continental antecedents and great wealth and charm are suspicious but whose judgment is impecccable. Improper as well as proper marriages, scoundrels and gentlemen, Parliamentary proceedings, they are all intertwined in these tales. No wonder the BBC made a series of it. It is as good an introduction to Victorian Great Britain as I know, except for Trollope's Barshetshire series, which is also enjoyable,, albeit not not so fine. One might consider Trollope Great Britain's equivalent to Balzac in many respects, although Balzac is more interested din the lower classes. N.B. Trollope was quite happy with the status quo, and shared his contemporaries' prejudices about Jews and other peoples who were not innately British These are as fascinating to read about as his other characters. THis is very fine social history
July 15, 2013
Trollope did not have the humor that leavens Dickens and I found my eyes glazing over during some of the lengthy diatribes on the politics of the day. None the less,there's a reason his books are still around-- his characters leap off the page and delight the reader.
Note:There was an excellent BBC miniseries done of "The Pallisers"--having read the books I am now watching it with great pleasure. It's available via YouTube--you can find the first episode at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUwqJz... But read the books first--they're worth it.
Note:There was an excellent BBC miniseries done of "The Pallisers"--having read the books I am now watching it with great pleasure. It's available via YouTube--you can find the first episode at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUwqJz... But read the books first--they're worth it.
January 12, 2014
Given that I only recently finished The Barsetshire Chronicles, I feel like I've had a Trollope marathon upon finishing The Palliser Chronicles! So wonderful to immerse onself in 19th century British society and culture for a good long haul. The characters are so beautifully developed, and their problems sometimes seem rather modern. The politics of the time were not well known to me, so that was interesting, too. Just a wonderful read, start to finish, and I'm sad to see the saga of the Palliser family come to an end.
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