Books like Phineas Finn

Phineas Finn: The Irish Member isn't about an Irish penis.Rather, it is about a young Irish gentleman who who gets himself elected to the British House of Commons and the manner that he navigates through the very exciting legislative time period surrouding the Second Reform Bill! I bet I had you clicking the 'to-read' button there, but please don't be in such a rush and tear off to your amazon, your neighborhood bookstore, get on your reading device or head over to ProjectGutenberg.org to get your copy just yet and ignore the rest of this sure to be thrilling review of mine (or go off and do those things, but please come back, or at least click like, that way I'll think you read this even if you didn't). Did I keep you reading for a few moments? Because I should warn you while it does take place during the Second Fucking Reform Bill!!! and that is pretty exciting stuff, this is the second book in the Palliser series of novels. And while you don't need to read, Can you Forgive Her? (which I reviewed here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..., and which is actually probably a tedious read and has background in some 'ancient goodreads history' (ie., things that happened about four months ago), although interestingly enough that might be the last review I've written that I cared at all about while I was writing it, I mean and this one, and any other one you've read by me in the past three and a half months, none of these were just phoned in or anything like that), to understand or follow what is going on here, there are a couple of spoilers in the basic plot of this book to events that happen in the first book. But if you don't mind having the plot of the first novel spoiled and you just can't wait to get into a novel about the Second Reform Bill era, then read this first!Even though I only gave this book three stars it was quite good. I just didn't enjoy it as much as Can you Forgive Her?, so I rated it lower to show preference. It was probably like a 4 star to a 4.4 star of the other book though. I started reading the book as a book, and over Christmas I think I left the book somewhere in my parents house. This was sad, since the book had all the juicy footnotes giving historical information about the Second Reform Bill and it's major players (like you or I really need this sort of crib sheet, pshaw!). When I got back to the city I was despondent over leaving my Trollope at my parents house (c'mon Karen break your New Years Resolution), but then I realized I could download the book for free on the internets (legally, too!), so I did, but I no longer had the exciting notes. And a couple of chapters and transitions seemed rather abrupt, but that's probably just how they were written, although in each case I worried that I was missing something. Like maybe a little bit of dialogue about Tenant Rights and true participatory democracy. So I read more than half of this book on my nook, making it the longest novel I've read on my silly device, and twice(twice!) had the annoyance to trying to read only to find out that there wasn't enough power in the thing to turn on. But it was mostly an enjoyable experience, and the epub version of the book at ProjectGutenberg.org was formatted fairly well, except for the names at the end of any of the epistolary sections of the book. I have some gripes about the book. But I think they are more about the accepted behaviors of the time than with the novel itself, although a few of my gripes might have come from the serial format the novel was initially written in. I think if the novel had been conceived and executed as a whole a few of my gripes would have been cleared up, these were sort of things like, hey we need a character here that can do this to move the plot along, so blam, new major character!I'm not positive, and I'm sure I'm wrong, but the character Violet Effingham might be one of the earliest examples I can think of for the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (I'm sure there are earlier examples though). The book itself can be summed up as the story of a young man who is trying to not sell out. He's trying to do the right thing, stay true to his convictions and uphold his duty, two things that aren't always in harmony with each other. He is also trying to circumnavigate that thing called love, and in that quirky 19th century English manner, try to marry correctly while also being true to himself. Like in the first Palliser novel, the women generally steal the show, they get the best parts of the novel and are generally more interesting and dynamic than many of the male characters who are more fairly stock characters. Even if the story line doesn't sound that interesting (if it doesn't it is because you are some sort of cretin who doesn't realize that the Second Reform Bill era in the House of Commons was truly epic!), Trollope's writing is once again a joy to read. He's fun. And maybe it is more escapist reading for snobbish nerd types than seriously good literature, I don't know, but I have once again enjoyed my Trollope, even if the novel didn't turn out to be a seven hundred page tome about an Irish cock.