Summer Reading for Politics Obsessives

For those of us who are unable to tear ourselves away from political gossip and intrigue – whether that be in OUCA or the vaguely more exalted Parliamentary political circles – the long vacation can be something of a fast amongst a year of feasts. August is, notoriously, a slow news month.

Readers of a more highbrow inclination may be pleased to know that I have not written a “silly season” story, but rather I provide a small morsel of political intrigue to help stave off the drudgery of the long vacation. No, I am not revealing leaked WhatsApp messages nor offering my resignation. Instead I would like to recommend a book for your summer beach reading.

The genre of modern political fiction was arguably started by Anthony Trollope in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, with his Parliamentary Novels. Although part of a longer series, the second book, Phineas Finn, works well as a stand-alone novel.

The young Phineas Finn, son of a successful Irish doctor, realises his dream of entering Parliament at the tender age of twenty-five. With little of his own money, he is forced to navigate through political high society with nothing but his natural charm, good looks and intelligence to support himself. Having achieved his first goal of becoming an MP, he must now balance his political ambitions with his integrity. When opportunities for marriage – either for love or much-needed wealth to support his career – arise, he has to decide which ambitions to achieve – and at what cost. In his Parliamentary life, he has to balance ingratiating himself with his political superiors in order to climb the greasy pole and staying true to his principles.

In short, the career and choices of Phineas Finn follow, to a greater or lesser extent, the path which most Oxford-educated aspiring politicians must tread, even down to the detail of Phineas’ great successes at his university debating society. All this, of course, is intertwined with Trollope’s own views on the political occurrences of the Victorian age. Reform, voting rights and rotten boroughs all feature heavily in the narrative and are all hotly debated throughout the pages of this novel. If divisions caused by Brexit and internecine warfare in the Conservative Party have tired you out, then what better way to relax by immersing yourself in the debates of yesteryear, now (with few exceptions) mostly settled and forgotten? Although possessing different names, figures from the great pantheon of Victorian statesmen surface again and again throughout the chapters, recognisable as tributes to, or caricatures of, some of the leading political personalities of Trollope’s day. The political tension at crucial votes, moreover, is so well written as to be palpable – as if the reader were in the lobby, willing the vote on, while Parliament Square outside heaves with potentially violent protesters.

Yes, of course, Trollope was a Liberal, and the Conservatives are “the Opposition” in the novel, a mortal threat to the career and success of our protagonist, but the long distance separating the present from Trollope’s day takes the sting out of it. If that does not convince you, then I can only appeal to one of the greatest authorities in modern conservatism, Margaret Thatcher, whose father said that it was the Conservatives who now stood for old Liberalism.

But why must I drag modern politics into this? August is upon us – the weather appears to be (marginally) improving – and we all deserve a rest. Those of you seeking Firsts and Undergraduate Prizes (whatever they are) may be taking textbooks onto the beach but for those of us who spend too much time thinking about politics, why not escape – into political fiction, courtesy of Anthony Trollope?

Benjamin Surguy (The Publications Editor, Brasenose) is going into his 2nd year reading PPE.