DeepSummary
The episode discusses Anthony Trollope's novel Phineas Redux, part of his Palliser series about Victorian parliamentary politics. Trollope's book explores the tensions between integrity and hypocrisy in politics through the central character Phineas Finn, an Irish Catholic MP caught up in melodramatic personal and political crises. The novel contrasts the principled liberal leader Gresham (representing Gladstone) with the pragmatic conservative Daubeny (Disraeli), whose gambit of supporting disestablishment of the Church of England for political gain drives the main plot.
Phineas is falsely accused of murder, and Trollope uses this storyline to examine how politicians and the public react based more on self-interest than truth or justice. Despite being acquitted, Phineas feels disillusioned by his politician friends' lack of genuine loyalty and the superficiality of politics. The novel suggests there are no real depths behind politicians' public personas, only canny self-interest and pragmatism rather than true principles.
Runciman sees parallels between Phineas Redux and the recent Brexit era of parliamentary gamesmanship under Boris Johnson. He argues the book remains resonant in depicting politics as largely surface melodrama masking an absence of true conviction or substance beneath the public roles politicians adopt and discard based on expediency.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Trollope's Phineas Redux satirizes the melodrama, hypocrisy and lack of genuine principles in Victorian parliamentary politics.
- The novel suggests politicians adopt superficial public personas devoid of deeper conviction, guided solely by self-interest.
- Runciman draws parallels between Trollope's depiction and the Brexit-era political gamesmanship of figures like Boris Johnson.
- Phineas's false murder accusation highlights how politics values process over truth, with politicians prioritizing self-interest over justice.
- Despite its datedness, the novel feels timely in portraying politics as spectacle masking an absence of substance beneath the public roles.
- Trollope's semi-satirical approach mixes realism with heightened scenarios to underscore hypocrisy as intrinsic to politics.
- Characters like Gresham and Daubeny represent opposing principles subverted by mutual pragmatism and careerism.
- The book resonates by capturing the disillusionment felt by idealists confronting politics' inherent superficiality.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “It's a comforting read, and Trollope's always had many, many fans who read his books for comfort, including politicians.“ by David Runciman
- “And Finn knows they would have let him hang, and they don't believe it. He knows they're all hypocrites. He knows this is a world of hypocrisy.“ by David Runciman
- “Johnson's goal in 2019 was to so goad the other side that in their frustration and their rage and their inability to exercise pragmatic political judgment, they would allow him to have a general election.“ by David Runciman
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Episode Information
Past Present Future
Ben Walker
5/30/24
This week's great political novel is Anthony Trollope’s Phineas Redux (1874), his lightly and luridly fictionalised account of parliamentary polarisation in the age of Gladstone and Disraeli. A tale of political and personal melodrama, it explores what happens when political parties steal each other’s clothes and politicians find themselves hung out to dry by their colleagues. A story of integrity and hypocrisy and how hard it is to tell them apart.
Next time: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Coming next month on PPF: The Ideas Behind UK General Elections
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