DINAH BIRCH

The Duke's Children is the last of Trollope's six Palliser novels and concludes the story of Plantagenet Palliser, former Prime Minister and latterly Duke of Omnium. Lady Glencora is dead and the Duke, widowed and grieving, is left with the responsibility of three difficult children. His sons are sent down from university in disgrace and the Duke is further dismayed when his daughter Lady Mary and his eldest son Silverbridge both propose to marry out of the English nobility. One by one the Duke's dearest wishes are thwarted, yet at the same time he discovers how parents can learn from their children, and is rescued from his own inflexible pride and snobbery by the strength of his private affections. As Birch remarks in her introduction, 'of all the many late developers in Trollope's fiction, Palliser is the most impressive'. The Duke's Children (1880) is resonant with the memories of the Duke of Omnium who had come to be more than a fiction to Trollope, 'so much do I love the man whose character I had endeavoured to portray'.