The novel is set against the background of the Reform Bill of 1867, and focuses on an Irish Member of the British House of Commons; in it Trollope explores the relations between the distinct elements of 'the United Kingdom'. Phineas has a personal chronicle which largely dominates the political calendar and it is noteworthy that Trollope wrote Phineas Finn at the same time as Gladstone's accession to power and the momentous consequences for Ireland that followed. Phineas Finn (1869) is the second of the Palliser novels, published between 1864 and 1880. As a group they provide us with the most extensive and telling exposé of British life during the period of its greatest prestige.