Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister

Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister

From Publishers WeeklyVeteran historian Hibbert summons up the ghost of Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), who along with Gladstone dominated English politics in the Victorian era. Hibbert finds Disraeli's character and personal history intriguing, and the reader will agree. Disraeli was the consummate outsider to the English ruling caste: he was from the wrong class, the wrong schools, the wrong ancestry (the scalding remarks of Disraeli's enemies reminded him all his life of his Jewish origins). Yet Disraeli's ambition and brilliance made him prime minister and a favorite of Queen Victoria. The author has chosen hundreds of quotations from contemporary sources; written by, to or about Disraeli, these excerpts bring the era to life. All who wrote about Disraeli's powers of oratory stressed how spellbinding he was in the House of Commons. Disraeli himself joined in this chorus, characterizing each of his oratorical triumphs as his greatest achievement to date. Hibbert (The English: A Social History) plainly appreciates Disraeli's many abilities (self-assurance, eloquence, gregariousness) as well as his deficits (cynicism, vanity). This is an adroitly written evocation of a compelling but enigmatic personality, a man whose ambition, idealism and opportunism would not seem out of place on the political scene today. (May 30)Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.To Thomas Carlyle he was "not worth his weight in cold bacon," but, to Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli was "the kindest Minister" she had ever had and a "dear and devoted friend." In this masterly biography by England's "outstanding popular historian" (A.N. Wilson), Christopher Hibbert reveals the personal life of one of the most fascinating men of the nineteenth century and England's most eccentric Prime Minister. A superb speaker, writer, and wit, Disraeli did not intend to be a politician. Born into a family of Jewish merchants, Disraeli was a conspicuous dandy, constantly in debt, and enjoyed many scandalous affairs until, in 1839, he married an eccentric widow twelve years older than him. As an antidote to his grief at his wife's death in 1872, he threw himself into politics becoming Prime Minister for the second time in 1874, much to the Queen's delight.From BooklistTwo-time British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81) was a literary and political fame seeker whose story biographers have regularly visited. British historian Hibbert amplifies Disraeli's private life and drastically mutes his public career, a pattern in the veteran author's series of "personal" biographies of British figures. Thus Disraeli's sowing of wild oats, sartorial vanity, conversational wit, and voluble correspondence consume Hibbert's writing, which faithfully reflects the flamboyant Disraeli's engendering of devotion, distaste, and anti-Jewish prejudice. Born into comfortable but not extravagant circumstances, the young Disraeli eschewed the conventional occupation of political prominence, lawyer, instead attracting attention as a society novelist. Disraeli entered the House of Commons in 1837 heavily in debt. Marriage to a wealthy widow, a match, according to Hibbert, that was happy as well as convenient, permitted Disraeli to concentrate on politics and his jousts with William Gladstone over the next decades. Within its private-life framework, Hibbert's portrayal contains much to entertain. Gilbert TaylorCopyright ? American Library Association. All rights reservedReview?ibbert? lively and engaging portrait of Benjamin Disraeli joins the author? numerous other well-received, popular biographies...A supremely readable and enjoyable study of a colorful, often astonishing and modern character.?An adroitly written evocation of a compelling but enigmatic personality, a man whose ambition, idealism and opportunism would not seem out of place on the political scene today.