Disraeli: A Biography - Hardcover

Weintraub, Stanley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525936688 ISBN 13: 9780525936688

Publisher: Dutton, 1993

Synopsis

Offering new perspectives on the Victorian era's political and literary giant, this portrait chronicles Disraeli's brilliant and varied career, set against the backdrop of the British Empire at its height. 20,000 first printing. BOMC. History Bk Club.

About this title

About the Author

Stanley Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor of Arts and Humanities at Pennsylvania State University.

Reviews

Perceived by his well-born contemporaries as an outsider and discriminated against as a Jew, despite his Anglican conversion at age 12, Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) could not escape his origins, so "he made the most of them, with an authentic pride," notes the author in this magisterial, exhaustively researched biography. More than any other biographer, Weintraub ( Victoria ) makes us see the relentless anti-Semitism Disraeli faced, as well as the Conservative prime minister's strong identification with his Jewish roots (he spoke passionately about "restoring the Jews to their own land"). Using Disraeli's novels as a mirror of events, Weintraub ably charts his metamorphosis from heavily indebted dandy to caustically witty politician, favorite of Queen Victoria, domestic reformer and architect of British imperial policy. One chapter is devoted to tantalizing new circumstantial evidence that Disraeli, while married, may have fathered two illegitimate children by two different women. Illustrated.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Disraeli (1804-81) was an outsider who cultivated the art of letters as successfully as he practiced the craft of politics. Here, Weintraub (Arts and Humanities/Pennsylvania State University; Long Day's Journey into War, 1991, etc.) meticulously traces the British PM's life and personae. Son of a minor literary antiquarian, Disraeli--partly because, as a Jew, he was excluded from most other professions--began at age 21 to write social and political novels. Mysterious, prodigal, and theatrical, he cultivated a Byronic style as a womanizer and dandy, even undertaking a tour of the Mideast. His charm and charisma helped him overcome the many barriers to public office, and, in 1868, he became PM and confidant to the enfeebled Queen Victoria, permitting him, as he put it, to hold the ``top of the greasy pole'' as the leader of England during its imperial age. Unable to accomplish domestic reform in Parliament, he expressed his radicalism in his many influential novels, especially Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845), and Tancred (1847), evoking the horrid conditions of the poor, the ineffectualness of the law, the irrelevance of the aristocracy, and the spiritual poverty of the Church. In his unique aphoristic style, Disraeli claimed to ``live for Power and the Affections,'' finding love among many women; marrying, in order to escape debt, a 40-ish widow 12 years his senior; reputedly fathering two illegitimate children; and flirting with a whole series of women when, in his 60s, he was at the height of his political power. ``Somehow,'' Weintraub says, ``England survived Disraeli's separation from reality.'' With erudition and zest, Weintraub explains the byzantine nature of 19th-century politics, the significance of Disraeli's Jewishness, and the relation between the fiction and reality. But the inner life eludes him--just as it seems to have eluded Disraeli. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A dandy, a best-selling novelist, and a womanizer are not the usual descriptions applied to Prime Minister and professional intimate of Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli. Yet after reading Weintraub's encompassing work, these are the adjectives that stick. Weintraub has a good background for this work, having written Victoria: An Intimate Biography ( LJ 1/15/87). It is evident that he has done his homework; letters, newspapers, diaries, and contemporary works of the day are all thoroughly quoted. But it is this very detail that makes the book hard going, tending to swamp the reader. As much time and effort seems to be spent on Disraeli's having yet another love affair as on Disraeli's opinions on the American Civil War or even Victoria's becoming empress of India. There is a continual flow of encyclopedic facts but not enough flavor of the man. Still, from the work Weintraub has done, this biography should be on most academic and larger public library shelves. -- Katherine Gillen, Mesa P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525936688
• ISBN 13: 9780525936688
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 736