Plantagenet Palliser, Duke of Omnium and former Prime Minister of England, suddenly loses his beloved wife, Lady Glencora. He is left alone to face a series of serious problems with his three children: his two sons are expelled from their respective schools, and his daughter becomes involved with a young man whose family belongs only to the gentry, leading to fears of a falling out.
The Duke's Children is very much in the vein of Anthony Trollope, the great novelist of Victorian society. Both political and familiar, the plot is agile and subtle. It is easy to get caught up (even without having read the previous installments of the “Palliser” cycle, which this novel closes) in this generational conflict between a father of noble sentiments and a brother who, even in his transgression, lacks neither style nor heart. Wandering through a world that is already very exotic to him - the English aristocracy of the 19th century - the reader becomes attached to the numerous and often picturesque characters. He is amused and moved in turn.
Anthony Trollope was born in London in 1815 and died in 1882. The son of an unsuccessful lawyer and a woman of letters who achieved a certain notoriety, he made a career as a postal inspector until 1867. Between 1847, the date of publication of his first book, and his death, he published almost fifty novels, as well as short stories, and achieved great fame.