House of Cards by Michael Dobbs

House of Cards Reviews

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  Clemens A. Schoonderwoert

  Read this book in 2011, and its the 1st volume of the great Francis Urquhart trilogy.This book is mainly, as you might suggest, about Francis Urquhart, Chief Whip, and who has his hands on every secret an willing to betray them all to become Prime Minister himself.Also a very important figure in this book is the journalist, Mattie Storin, a young tenacious political correspondent.She will become intrigued when faced by the biggest challenge in her life when she stumbles on a scandalous web of intrigue, blackmail and financial corruption at the highest levels, and possibly murder.Determined to come up with the truth, she must risk everything, even her own life, in her effort to publish the revelations to the public.What is follow is a thrilling story of political ambition, where life and death know no bounds, and in this political environment everything will be settled and ruled by man of power and greed.Highly recommended, for this is a tremendous begin of a great trilogy, and that's why I like to call this first episode: "A Brilliant Start Of Trilogy"!
• 
  BELISAIRE

  This captivating trilogy can be seen as a compilation of case studies in politics. Too bad the "special relationship" is missing. A real page turner. That said, the series with Ian Richardson is darker and slightly better.
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  S. Parkin

  Having recently seen both the US and British adaptation of this classic tale of political skullduggery, I thought I'd give the book a try. It's very readable, and the plotting propels it despite a couple of slightly cringey attempts at descriptive writing in the early chapters. The casual sexism is a bit harder to take, though. I'm not entirely sure it's just down to the characters and the milieu, either the author habitually describes women by the colour of their hair and the quality of their tits. To a modern reader this strikes a slightly discordant note, as do the rather patronising references to Northern towns. A bit of racial stereotyping, too. Still, all in all it has stood the test of time pretty well.
• 
  Nabil Shaban

  When I got to the end of the novel, I felt rather let down to find it was not as good as the BBC television serial "The House of Cards". Interesting that. Usually it is the other way round.
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  Alex Cyrson

  Still as relevant then as now. The story of a Chief Whip in the British Government destroying his enemies to become Prime Minister is just brilliant.