The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope

Yikes! I forgot to post yesterday because I was in Philadelphia for work all week and got home very late last night. Sorry for the delay and thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

No one, probably, ever felt himself to be more alone in the world than our old friend, the Duke of Omnium, when the Duchess died.

-- from The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope.

The Duke's Children is the sixth and final novel in Trollope's Palliser series, also known as the Parliamentary Novels. I've been reading the series all year with a readalong group on Instagram. I love them, although maybe not quite so much as I enjoyed the Barchester Chronicles. 

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Duke's Children:

But all this was now at an end. He told himself that he did not care how the elections might go;—that he did not care much how anything might go.

That seems like an appropriate teaser for this election week.  

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

After the sudden death of his wife, two years after he has left office as Prime Minister, the Duke of Omnium must become deeply involved with his children for the first time. They vex him enormously: with school expulsions, vast gambling debts, and what he considers to be calamitous romantic attachments. He tries to compel them to do what he wants, but they are not so easy to manage.

Even when his eldest child and heir, Lord Silverbridge, makes him proud by embarking upon a political career, the Duke grapples with heartache. For Silverbridge becomes a Conservative rather than a Liberal, flouting the family tradition. The relationship between father and son is drawn with remarkable subtlety, and the book as a whole becomes a piercing, yet often humorous, exploration of change: how both the young and the old resist, tolerate, or embrace it.