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{{Short description|Book by Michael Dobbs}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book
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| caption = First edition
| author = [[Michael Dobbs]]
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'''''House of Cards''''' is a political thriller novel by British author [[Michael Dobbs]]. Published in 1989, it tells the story of [[Francis Urquhart]], a fictional [[Chief Whip of the Conservative Party|Chief Whip]] of the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]], and his amoral and manipulative scheme to become leader of the governing party and, thus, [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]].
A [[
The novel was followed by two sequels
==Background==
Michael Dobbs began working for the Conservative Party in 1977, and from 1986 to 1987, served as Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s [[Chief of Staff]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Henley|first1=Jon|title=The house of Michael Dobbs|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/13/michael-dobbs-house-of-cards|website=the Guardian|accessdate=21 March 2018|language=en|date=13 September 2013}}</ref> Dobbs fell out with Thatcher during a cabinet meeting on 4 June 1987, exactly one week before [[1987 United Kingdom general election|that year's general election]]. Thatcher was concerned she would lose the election, and according to one participant at the meeting, she was "almost hysterical, with her arms sweeping everywhere".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Moore|first1=Charles|title=Margaret Thatcher biography part 14: Wobbly Thursday|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/margaret-thatcher-biography/11908715/margaret-thatcher-biography-general-election-panic.html|website=The Telegraph|accessdate=21 March 2018|date=4 October 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Dobbs|first1=Michael|title=Book Versus Show: 'House of Cards'|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-dobbs/house-of-cards-book_b_4783908.html|website=Huffington Post|accessdate=21 March 2018|date=14 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=From Fletcher to the House of Cards|url=http://now.tufts.edu/articles/fletcher-house-cards|website=Tufts Now|accessdate=21 March 2018|language=en|date=23 October 2017}}</ref> According to Dobbs, "It all started because Maggie Thatcher beat me up and was actually rather cruel to me. She took out all her pain and anger and frustration on me, when in fact I was perhaps the most innocent person in the room at the time."<ref name="NewStatesman">{{cite web|title=House of Cards creator Michael Dobbs: "I must have sold my soul"|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/07/house-cards-creator-michael-dobbs-i-must-have-sold-my-soul|website=New Statesman|date=7 July 2015|accessdate=21 March 2018|language=en}}</ref>
Shortly after leaving his post as Chief of Staff in 1987, Dobbs and his wife visited [[Malta]] on holiday. While sitting beside a swimming pool in Malta, Dobbs scribbled the letters "FU" and a drawing of two raised [[The finger|middle fingers]] on a piece of a paper. The letters would become the initials of ''House of Cards'' protagonist, Francis Urquhart.<ref name="NewStatesman"/> Dobbs stated that he had not planned to write the book saying, "None of this was planned. It was all a bit of a joke, an accident. I had no intention of being a writer, or even finishing the book. It was just a holiday distraction."<ref>{{cite web|title=What "House of Cards" creator, Lord Dobbs, can tell us about realpolitik|url=http://www.afr.com/lifestyle/arts-and-entertainment/film-and-tv/michael-dobbs-creator-of-house-of-cards-20160307-gncnmz|website=Financial Review|accessdate=21 March 2018|date=19 March 2016}}</ref> Dobbs insists that it is not a "book of revenge", but "most of the stuff I put into ''House of Cards'' was material from events I'd either seen, or participated in, or done, or watched other people do."<ref name="NewStatesman"/> Dobbs has also stated that the book was not a comment on contemporary politics, and also drew inspiration from the works of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]].<ref>{{cite web|title=House Of Cards creator Michael Dobbs on the dark arts of politics|url=https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/television/house-of-cards-creator-michael-dobbs-on-the-dark-arts-of-politics-1.215307|website=The National|date=27 March 2016|accessdate=21 March 2018|language=en}}</ref>
==Plot==
Following the resignation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the ruling Conservative Party is about to elect a new leader. In the subsequent leadership election, the moderate but indecisive [[Minor characters in the House of Cards trilogy#Henry Collingridge, MP|Henry "Hal" Collingridge]] emerges victorious. Francis Urquhart, an [[Member of Parliament|MP]] and the Government Chief Whip in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], is secretly contemptuous of the well-meaning but weak Collingridge, but expects a promotion to a senior position in the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]]. After the general election, which the party wins by a reduced majority, Urquhart submits a memorandum to Collingridge advocating a [[cabinet reshuffle]] that would include a prominent ministerial position for Urquhart himself. However,
Urquhart exploits his position as Chief Whip to
Prior to the final ballot, Urquhart murders the party's drug-addicted and increasingly unstable public relations consultant, Roger O'Neill, whom he forced into helping him to remove Collingridge from office. Urquhart invites O'Neill to his [[country house]] near [[Southampton]], gets him drunk, and puts rat poison in his [[cocaine]].
Mattie untangles Urquhart's web and confronts him in the deserted roof garden of the [[Houses of Parliament]].
===Revision===
After the initial TV series the author revised the published novel to bring it in line with the UK TV series, in which Urquhart throws Mattie from the roof rather than committing [[suicide]], thus allowing for a continuation of the story. The name of the newspaper that Mattie Storin works for was changed from ''The Daily Telegraph'' to the fictional ''The Chronicle,'' same as the TV series.
==Sequels==
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==Adaptations==
==References==
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{{House of Cards}}
[[Category:House of Cards|
[[Category:English novels]]
[[Category:1989 British novels]]
[[Category:British political novels]]
[[Category:Political thriller novels]]
[[Category:HarperCollins books]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into television shows]]
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