A review by jakebittle
Phineas Finn by Simon Dentith, Anthony Trollope

This is a long book about a boring Irish guy who succeeds in Parliament because he's really hot, tries and fails to get married to three women, then resigns Parliament because he believes Irish tenants deserve rights. I know it sounds terrible, but it's actually so good—a cosmological depiction of how money moves people, moves on behalf of people, moves between and underneath people. As in Can You Forgive Her?, Trollope is trying to figure out whether political life is noble or ignoble, and whether politicians are the best people or the worst people. As a result the book represents both an embodiment and a savage criticism of what might be called "the liberal imagination" or even "the reformist imagination"—the idea that it is possible for people to better the world by debating principles and enacting laws. You and I might like to believe this is possible, but then you meet the people involved—embittered lords, idiotic duchesses, stodgy heirs to Scottish factories—and you have to reconsider.