2007-05-02 Exquisite on politics, but this Palliser lacks passion

The fifth of Trollope's six "Palliser" novels, "The Prime Minister" follows the Prime Ministerial career of the languid and honourable Duke of Omnium. In parallel, we also follow the love affair of Emily Wharton with the dastardly Ferdinand Lopez. The politics of all this is outstanding: the book teems with contemporary-sounding epithets ("ministers are always indecent in their haste or treacherous in their delay") and the Duke's travails sound astonishingly modern. But the relationship side of things is far weaker than in earlier Palliser novels, notably The Eustace Diamonds or Can You Forgive Her, both far stronger. And the fact that Lopez is an object of suspicion because he is Jewish and foreign, and subsequently turns out to be utterly untrustworthy, leaves an unpleasant taste.

For: brilliant on politics. Against: long-winded and a touch anti-semitic