Anthony Trollope: Phineas Finn, the Irish Member

Trollope began writing his series of political novels in 1863. In the first of these novels, Can You Forgive Her?, cabinet ministers, members of parliament, and aspiring politicians figure as characters, but the focus is less upon their political activities than upon the way those activities affect their personal lives. In An Autobiography, Trollope recalled that when he decided to write his second political tale in 1866, he spent several months in the visitors’ gallery of the House of Commons researching its background. His goal was to write a novel in which political matters were the main focus. “As I was debarred from expressing my opinions in the House of Commons, I took this method of declaring myself [on