Images of political figures in Anthony Trollop’s novel “The Prime Minister”

Abstract

   The paper, devoted to Anthony Trollope’s novel “The Prime Minister”, analyzes the author’s use of the fact for creating his personages, in particular, his making use of biographical facts of real political figures. The work traces historical events of British political life in the second half of the 19th century and lives of famous politicians – William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. Special attention is paid to the images of political figures, both conservatives and the so-called new politicians, represented in the novel. The paper is focused on the author’s attention to the fact and his scrupulous depiction of political life, including facts from his own biography and his own political experience, which is a characteristic feature of the whole “parliamentary” series of Anthony Trollope’s novels. The work reveals analogues in the plot of Trollope’s novel, connected with the destiny of one of his main personages, with the destiny of Leo Tolstoy’s heroine as well as with the events that took place in Russia and in England in the end of the 19th century. The paper also focuses on the lives and things that motivate the actions of the rebel-characters in English political and social system in the Late Victorian period.