Lady Glendora has died and the Duke is beside himself with grief. Plus, his children are not behaving as he would like. His daughter, Mary, is in love with a penniless commoner(albeit a classmate of his son Silverbridge and a prospective member of Parliament) Frank Tregear. His younger son Gerald, is at Cambridge, but seeming to lead a rackety life. And most disappointing, his eldest son and heir, Silverbridge, has been sent down from Oxford for painting the deans house red and now is in partnership with the dubious Major Tiflis in the ownership of a race horse. Nothing could be worse until Silverbridge decides to throw over the beautiful Lady Mabel Griex for an even more beautiful American heiress Isabel Boncasson.

The Duke is full of high-minded principles and is determined to stand firm. Yet he doesn't expect that his children are prepared to be even more stubborn in defense of their more modern ideas

This last of Trollope's Palliser novels is a joy to read and puts the perfect t bow on this most entertaining family saga. ( )

Trollope, Anthony. The Duke’s Children. Palliser No. 6. 1880. Penguin, 1995.
In 1874, Lord Randolph Churchill married the daughter of an American speculator. It was a sensation at the time. She would become the mother of Winston Churchill. In 1879, Henry James had his first literary hit with Daisy Miller, a novella about a charming American tourist who dies of a fever in Rome. In 1880, Anthony Trollope, perhaps sensing a trend, published the sixth and last of his Palliser novels in which a charming American tourist is courted by the heir to the Palliser title. In 1881, Trollope’s novel would be overshadowed artistically by Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady, a novel about a charming American girl who makes a terrible marriage with an American ex-patriate in Italy. Poor Trollope, he was a writer who knew his audience and was quick on the uptake, but not quite quick enough. He was overshadowed on one end of his career by Thackeray and Dickens and on the other by Hardy and James. That is a shame, because The Duke’s Children does have some profound things to say about parenting and about how the cultural conception of an English gentleman was changing in the last quarter of the century. Does nobility derive from professional education, industry and competence, by the accumulation of money, or by one’s luck in the genetic lottery? The Duke’s Children would have encouraged a Victorian reader think deeply about these and other issues. ( )

In many respects the last novel of Anthony Trollope's "Palliser" series is about new beginnings -- particularly the beginning of adulthood and the changes that brings about. This is especially difficult for Plantagenet Palliser, the eponymous Duke of Omnium, who must serve as sole parent for his three children after the untimely death of his wife, Glencora. The focus of the novel is on the eldest son, Lord Silverbridge, and the daughter, Lady Mary, who are challenging the duke with their courses in life -- particularly those of matrimony, which the duke finds especially difficult to navigate.

It is not a criticism of the novel to say that it is not the best entry in the "Palliser" series. Perhaps this is because of the editing Trollope was forced to agree to (which led to the excising of a quarter of the novel) in order to publish it, and I am reserving final judgment until after I read the unexpurgated version, which is due to come out in a limited edition later this year, and will hopefully be published for a larger audience later on. As it is, though, it offers a frustrating sense of promise, as it seemed to me that he was introducing a new generation of characters to take on further adventures in the British political world that he wrote about so enjoyably in the previous novels in the series. Alas we are left only with this one, which will have to do as a conclusion to the world of the Pallisers. ( )

Love Trollope.
Though I only skim the chapters that have to do with politics.
Lady Mary — will she or won't she out-will her father over Mr. Tregear. ( )

So, I finished this sixth volume in the Palliser series. I loved it! Yes, it is sexist in many ways. However, I focus on the fact that it was written over 100 years ago. A grieving widower feels the burden of settling his grown children financially amd socially. Being a single parent is a timeless theme. Other themes included coping with the changes of the younger generation, the death of the aristocracy, fathets and sons, fathers and daughters, and more. Women are described as limited in their ability to chase their dreams, and must wait for life to happen to them at the whim of others, yet using feminine eiles to manipulate men. Frankly, I just enjoyed the character of the father, trying to cope with grief and change, not an easy pairing. Wonderful series! ( )