House of Cards (novel)

House of Cards

First edition
Author	Michael Dobbs
Language	English
Series	House of Cards trilogy
Genre	Political thriller
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	July 1989
Publication place	United Kingdom
Pages	384
ISBN	1492606618
OCLC	880303283
Followed by	To Play the King
Website	www.michaeldobbs.com/house-of-cards/

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, and his amoral and manipulative scheme to become leader of the governing party and, thus, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

A television adaptation, written by Andrew Davies and produced by the BBC was aired in 1990. A six-part radio adaptation of the first novel, written by Neville Teller aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1996.^[1] In 2013, the serial and the Dobbs novel were the basis for a US television adaptation set in Washington, D.C., commissioned and released by Netflix.

The novel was followed by two sequels: To Play the King and The Final Cut. Both were adapted for television by the BBC and aired in 1993 and 1995 respectively.