The Prime Minister is the fifth in Trollope's six-volume Palliser series and a wonderfully subtle portrait of a marriage, political expediency, and misplaced love. Nicholas Shrimpton's introduction explores the many strands of this complex novel, the role of the "outsider" Ferdinand Lopez, and Trollope's great skill in integrating the two themes of love and politics, the marriage of Palliser and Lady Glencora and that of Emily Wharton and Ferdinand Lopez.