The Prime Minister

First published in 1876, this Palliser novel follows Plantagenet Palliser, now Duke of Omnium, as he heads a shaky coalition ministry he did not seek. His wife Glencora works the social machine of Gatherum and London to hold allies, while he finds public life a torment. A parallel plot follows Emily Wharton, who marries the adventurer Ferdinand Lopez against her father's judgment; Lopez's speculation, political ambitions, and collapse draw in the Duke and Duchess. The novel treats marriage, money, and the manners of late-Victorian high politics. It is fiction of a ministry, not a biography of a real premier.

Quarter bound in grey-brown series binding, pale grey paper boards with the border in grey-green. Pale grey endleaves. Pale grey or black slipcase.