Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister

by Christopher Hibbert

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.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Politics, British Literature, Biography Memoir, European History

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Christopher Hibbert, MC, FRSL, FRGS (5 March 1924 - 21 December 2008) was an English writer, historian and biographer. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of many books, including Disraeli, Edward VII, George IV, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, and Cavaliers and Roundheads.

Described by Professor Sir John Plumb as "a writer of the highest ability and in the New Statesman as "a pearl of biographers," he established himself as a leading popular historian/biographer whose works reflected meticulous scholarship.

Reviews

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disraeli was one of the foremost British statesmen of the 19th century. His story has odd echoes at the moment. It's the story of a man, brought up in an affluent family, with a background in the entertainment industry, notorious for womanizing, not paying his debts and lacking any principles or political background. He runs for elected office, not so much because of any particular policy, but simply because he craves power and prestige. He has a penchant for nasty personal attacks and demagogic rhetoric against free trade, and a tendency towards self-praise. Somehow he puts himself at the head of the conservative party.

Here the Trump similarities end. Disraeli was a successful novelist, not a TV game show host. Disraeli married only once, to a woman 12 years older than him, and while their marriage was bumpy, it was generally close, loving and rewarding. They wrote each other constantly and affectionately -- the book leans heavily on their notes to one another. Disraeli was highly effective as party leader and Prime Minister -- he pushed through the Reform Act of 1867, drastically expanding the franchise. He was one of the presiding geniuses of the Congress of Berlin in 1880. Bismarck, the organizer of the conference, commented "Der alte Jude, das ist der Man" -- "the old jew, he's the man." It was meant as praise -- the two realists got along very well.

Disraeli got along extremely well with Queen Victoria. As he explained, "Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel." As Prime Minister, he made a point of always acting as though the Queen were really in charge, and wrote long illuminating and gossipy letters to her. She was greatly pleased by this, and he became one of her favorites. He was the person who had her retitled as "Empress of India."

Disraeli's family converted to the Anglican church when he was 12. However, he was widely regarded at the time as Jewish, and described himself that way at times. Early in his career, he got into a feud with Daniel O'Connell, and when O'Connell made a disparaging remark about his background, Disraeli responded "Yes, I am a Jew, and while the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon." The Rothschild family took him under their wing as one of the tribe, and the antisemites were vicious. When Queen Victoria visited him at his country manor, the historian Edward Freeman complained that the queen was "going to eat with Disraeli in his ghetto."

While Disraeli was a fascinating and unusual person, this biography doesn't portray him especially clearly. There's considerable recitation of places and names, interspersed with many contemporary letters and accounts. This means there isn't nearly enough analysis or interpretation. Moreover, as the subtitle implies, it's a "personal" biography, not a political or literary one. We get nothing about the content or quality of the novels. We get very little about Disraeli's political views or even political rhetoric. He was one of the great orators of his era, and yet the biographer gives few examples of his style.

I would try a different biography next time.

[Adriana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. I have thoroughly enjoyed other books by Hibbert, and Disraeli is a fascinating figure, but this book was mainly focused on his personal life, and reads more like a series of invitation lists for the hundreds of dinners he attended...it doesn't even quote any of his speeches in Parliament!

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit that I had mixed feelings about this particular book.  The author did a good job at writing about the life of Benjamin Disraeli, a man who lived an almost impossibly complex life and whose later success and regard were completely at odds with the rakish reputation that he had during his early career when he was viewed as a thoroughly disreputable character.  And yet the complex life of Disraeli is one that demonstrates the sort of corruption that laid at the heart of even Conservative British society that helped explain why it is that the 20th and 21st century has been so disastrous for Great Britain, with fears of losing influence and identity related to leftist anti-Semitism and the moral decline of those who were supposed to be defending traditional British moral virtues.  This book demonstrates that the popular touch that was necessary to make Conservative politics appealing to a broad spectrum of British society (something that remains to this day) was often tied to behavior that often undercut the traditional virtue that the Tories have sought to defend, which reminds us that defending tradition rhetorically and politically and through one's example are not the same thing, and it is easy to confuse that sort of matter.

This book is a bit more than 350 pages long and is divided into two parts and 40 chapters.  The first part, which takes up the first 20 chapters, examines the part of Benjamin Disraeli's life from his birth in 1804 to his assumption of leadership of the Conservative Party in 1846.  These 20 chapters examine the Disraeli's childhood, including his close relationship with his sister and his ambivalent relationship with his father, his education, his early study of the law and his decision to seek to make a living through being a novelist, as well as his adoption of the Anglican faith instead of his ancestral Judaism, even if his Jewish identity hung around him like a millstone around the neck at times.  His youthful immaturity and demagoguery (he was, like many, a young radical who got more conservative as he got older) mellowed into statesmanship as his political ambitions were satisfied through first the office of Chancellor and then through his multiple terms as Prime Minister.  The book details Disraeli's relationship with his wife, his possible illegitimate children, his novels and plays, his efforts at diplomacy and his skilled handling of the Royal Family, and his decline in old age up to his death in 1881.

Ultimately, the author is fond of Disraeli and finds much to respect about him and the way that he was able to use his undoubted rhetorical skills to build an enduring Conservative identity in an age where repeated reforms that expanded the electorate in the period from 1832 to 1890 were thought to have made Conservatism an obsolete political party because of the inherent support of working class urban and rural voters for more radical political options.  Conservatives not unlike Disraeli in their ability to combine nationalistic and traditionalist appeals with an interest in the well-being of all classes and segments of society are still able to win elections thanks in part to the skilled leadership of Disraeli.  And let us not forget that in addition to a massively important political figure Disraeli was also a popular novelist whose popularity was due in large part to the skillful way he blended his plots with real life characters that his readers could identify.  For all of that, the author also demonstrates an interest in contemporary matters like Disraeli's apparent homoerotic friendships with younger men throughout his career, although the author is at least discreet enough not to think of it as a physical matter.  But a contemporary book is going to wallow in contemporary concerns just as people in the past exploited the concerns of their own place and time.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a certain affection for Victorian history, and kept coming up against Disraeli as a personage of the age. I thought perhaps I should learn a little bit more about him.

I have now read an entire book on the guy, and I still feel like I don't know anything about him.

I have no idea what Hibbert's goal was in writing this book. As far as I know, it's not inaccurate, and it's not unreadable on a sentence level. But it's just...pointless. He somehow miraculously drains any interest from his subject's life. We know Disraeli is a mesmerizing speaker...from being told. Repeatedly. Without any excerpts from his speeches. Or explanations of what his speeches accomplished. In fact, there's next to no background info here whatsoever--on the political situation, on almost any of his accomplishments as a politician, on the actual content of his novels, on Jews in England, on why people disliked him so much, on practically anything of importance about his life.

What we do have is enormous amounts of trivia. We have endless excerpts of the most uninteresting diary entries and letters imaginable. (Yes, we understand his wife kept every note he ever wrote to her, including the "Writing is going well, send up some tea darling" kinds of notes. That doesn't mean it's interesting to read them.) From his first term as prime minister, we have something like three paragraphs about the fact he made some speeches, and then multiple chapters on the (completely unimportant) social engagements he attended while on vacation in the country. We have a brief mention of the Crimean War, without a good explanation of why it toppled an administration, but repeated updates on the state of the peacocks on his terrace. We know which long-dead personages characters in his novels are modeled after, but not the plot or themes of the novels. For pity's sake, we have next to no explanation of how he got his second term, but almost a full page explaining the care regime for his wife's pearl necklace.

This book assumes you already know everything important there is to know about Disraeli's political and literary career, and that the only burning question you have left is what he ate on holiday that one time.

An infuriating waste of time.

[David Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Hibbert, in his 'Personal History' of Benjamin Disraeli, makes a valiant and highly satisfactory effort to capture the enigmatic and seemingly unknowable character of his subject, the most extraordinary and unlikely man to have become Prime Minister. This is not by intention a political biography, and, indeed, political events and ideas provide only the background against which Disraeli's private life is revealed, in a reversal of usual practice, but this allows, through wide use of primary documents, including personal letters and diaries, the reader to understand the unique man who was Disraeli as a private individual separate from his cultivated public persona.
What emerges from Hibbert's entertaining book is an engaging study of Disraeli's somewhat dissipated youth, his early, checkered literary career, his selfishness and reckless indebtedness, and his burgeoning, self-serving political role as a backbench MP, first as cheerleading acolyte of Peel, and then, after being denied the office to which he, almost uniquely, believed himself entitled in 1841, as scourge of Peel and all his works. As such, rather than focus upon the national political disputes around the repeal of the Corn Laws and policy towards Ireland which split the Conservative Party in 1845-6, Hibbert frames this as a battle of wills between two differing types of political leader, the experienced and cautious statesman and the ambitious orator, who would turn out, to most of his colleagues' surprise and offen alarm, to be the coming man.
From this, Hibbert goes on to show how Disraeli, through his growing command of the House of Commons and assiduous social climbing, allied to marriage to the recently widowed, and moderately wealthy (and fourteen years his senior), Mary Anne Lewis, was able to establish himself not only as an unlikely country gentleman, but also, after the death of Lord George Bentinck in 1848, as the undisputed leader of the Tory Party in the Commons and, subsequently, once the earl of Derby had retired, the country. What this reveals is how Disraeli, the ultimate nineteenth century self-made man, was able to transform himself from social dandy and literary gadfly, a waspish 'ton' peacock dressed in outrageous colours, into the respectable party leader who served as Chancellor of Exchequer and effective deputy in Derby's three administrations in 1852, 1858-9, and 1866-8. Again, the focus is not upon the political battles, with even the Great Reform Act of 1867, which made Disraeli the undisputed leader of his party, mentioned only briefly, while the contentious budget of 1852, and its role as the piquant cause of the famed antagonistic rivalry with Gladstone (whose part in this book, except with regard to personal comments, is much diminished compared to other biographies) is entirely ignored.
What we get, therefore, is a personal portrait of the man who reached the top of the greasy poll in 1868, and, who born to a Jewish bibliophile and prolific but pedantic author, and without either public school or university education, had by his sheer éclat and drive made himself the tribune of establishment values, standard-bearer of Church, Nation, and Empire, and the Queen's most adored first minister. This is a remarkable achievement, and, as Hibbert reveals, one of a most remarkable person, who once a rather dissolute, selfish, and unpleasant young man had been transformed by his effort and opportunism into statesman and educator of his party.
This middle part of Disraeli's life is framed by Disraeli's marriage to the devoted, if eccentric, Mary Anne, who gave him the stability and uxorial love he required to support his highwire parliamentary career, and who, for all her idiosyncracies and social faux pas is portrayed affectionately here, while the last part, that which pertains to his great, reforming Second Ministry, 1874 to 1880, is dominated by his relationship with the other woman in his life, and the dominant one after his wife's death in 1872, Queen Victoria. And so, we see this important administration almost entirely through the letters between Monarch and Prime Minister, and can so admire Disraeli's deft management of this 'secret ministry', which, while time consuming and often frustrating, harnessed to his government the full and valuable support of the Queen, something Gladstone, to his disadvantage, was temperamentally unable to do.
What emerges from the biography of the private Disraeli is an attractive portrait of a man of tremendous talent and self-assurance, who often shamelessly seized every opportunity to advance his career, either literary or social (Disraeli was an inveterate country house guest) or political, and so from self-obsessed and dissolute youth developed into one of the towering figures, both at home and abroad, of the nineteenth century. Through the Disraelis' correspondence we gain an intimate picture of a truly loving marriage, and can then fully appreciate Disraeli's devastation at her death, and the loneliness which ensued, which he assuaged through his personal and epistolary devotion to the Queen when her prime minister, and in his close, platonic relationships at the end of his life with two married sisters, Anne, countess of Chesterfield, and, in particular, Selena, countess of Bradford. Disraeli always abhorred male-only society, as necessary as it was for his public career, much preferring the company of intelligent women upon whom he could deploy his considerable charm, which means he appears a more modern and sympathetic subject than most of his contemporaries in the paternalistic and overwhelmingly homosocial (and, as this book shows, antisemitic) political society of his age. And so,as we take leave of Hibbert's Disraeli upon his touching deathbed (during his life he had often been ill, so much of his adventures were punctuated by sickbed episodes, especially with gout, although often with a hint of melancholic or exhausted hypochondria), it is of both an extraordinary and attractive politician, who emerges through widespread and effective use of personal sources in this fine biography of a private life well lived, as a man of whom most were wary or even heartily disliked upon first acquaintance, but whom became admired, and even loved, as his true personality was revealed over time.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although a decent biography of the man himself, this book is ultimately disappointing, as it fails to adequately place Disraeli in the wider historical context. Although his personal life is detailed exquisitely, the details of his political career are glossed over. This often leaves the narrative feeling disconnected. A pity, as he was one of the most fascinating figures of the 19th century, and one of the major inspirations for my own (rather heterodox) conservatism.

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

BORING

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Benjamin Disraeli died, a contemporary wrote “No more curious figure ever appeared in English political life.” Certainly true. Disraeli became Prime Minister twice during the reign of Queen Victoria despite serious handicaps: he didn’t go to the right schools, he had a Jewish background, and most importantly he was just an odd duck. But he was brilliant, gifted speaker in Parliament who became the indispensable man for his Conservative Party.

Hibbert’s book is almost exclusively about the personal life of Disraeli. Little analysis of Disraeli’s political views or his decisions and their results. This book is not one to read if you want to learn about social change in England or international events during Disraeli’s lifetime. (E.g. Oh, by the way, there was a war in the Crimea.)

Disraeli was always a bit strange; he had a foreign air about him. He always dressed flamboyantly, especially when he was young, when he wore velvet trousers, gloves with rings, gold chains, rouge, and perfume.

Disraeli started his rise to power by being a sparkling conversationalist at social gatherings such as lunches and dinners. After a while he had more invitations than he could accept. To get an idea of why this was so, Hibbert relates a woman’s observation: “When I sat next to Gladstone, I thought he was the smartest man in the world, but when I sat next to Disraeli, I thought I was the smartest woman in the world.”

It was astonishing, how Disraeli went into debt. At times he was paying 40% interest on loans to pay back previous 40% debts. It wasn’t until late in his life, after marrying a rich widow, that he finally became debt-free. It makes you choke to read that (my God) his first government position was First Lord of the Treasury.

Besides being Prime Minister, Disraeli was also a successful popular novelist. Not in the same league as Victorian writers such as Jane Austen or Dickens, but he was respectable.

As a child, Disraeli was Jewish, but when he was 12 his father converted his whole family to Christianity. Disraeli was Anglican the rest of his life, and practiced about the normal amount, but people still thought of him as sort of Jewish, and he suffered some anti-Semitism.

Disraeli had good relations with Queen Victoria. This was partly because Disraeli arranged for elaborate ceremonies after Victoria’s husband Albert died. But when Disraeli was at the end of his life, and people asked him if he wanted Victoria to visit him, he replied “No. She would just ask me to deliver a message to Albert.”

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit I gave up. It's the facts, interspersed with contemporary correspondence and the expected cross references, but if fails despite the reputation of the author, who's penned many a biography and an account of past times, to rise above flat recitals of what happened, chronologically. You don't even get the name of who his father remarried, a fearsome harridan. Isn't this expected of research?

Hibbert recounts events, if without energy of transcending note collation or information stacked. I wonder where there's a decent study of Disraeli. Recently a couple of short takes on the Jewishness supposedly inherent (despite him being baptized along with his siblings as a teen at the behest of a friend of his father's, who seems miffed at paying up at venerable Bevis Marks Synagogue, Aldgate).

Hibbert seems he can barely be bothered to analyze the fiction that made Disraeli's reputation. You get a bit more on the travails of publication and critical reactions than the goings on within novels. A curious lack of attention to what, for many of us who know of his subject, remains his a key factor in the continuing appeal of his career, after the Queen and Gladstone have gone the way of all flesh.

Robert Blake (not the actor) had produced a giant volume twice at least the size of Hibbert's back in 1968. Perhaps that remains the definitive work on Disraeli? Anyone out there recommend energetic, engrossing, rewarding work on this towering Victorian statesman-novelist as well as bon-vivant?

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, providing a personal (i.e., a non-political) history of one of the more colorful of British Prime Ministers. Concentrating on the social and personal aspects of Disraeli’s life, the reader is assumed to have a general knowledge of the place of Disraeli in political history. As such the momentous questions of Reform, Ireland, and the Eastern Question are only mentioned in passing. Likewise, the substance of his clashes with Gladstone are rarely talked about in detail, though their affect on Disraeli’s life are a major topic. Caged this way the book provides a healthy background into what made Disraeli who he was, how he was judged by others (being, as he was, one of the most outsiders making his way ’in’ to be found in modern history), and how he dealt with the stresses of his profession. The full wit and intellect of Disraeli is on display, not just his well known quips in the political sphere (“We authors, ma’am”) but longer passages to friends which show his deep understanding of the forces at work in Industrializing England and how he felt he could harness those forces in his goal for an Imperial England. All in all, a great book for understanding a man who is the quintessential Victorian but who, by background and demeanor, was anything but. Highly recommended for those wanting to know more about the social life of 19th Century politicians or who want to have a deeper understanding of Disraeli.

[Michael Baranowski · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book about one of the greatest British Prime Ministers of the 19th century with almost no politics in it. What did Disraeli stand for? I have no idea after having read this book. I know he was a conservative, and that he gave amazing speeches (about what I don't know - but they were amazing) and that he sucked up to the Queen and she really appreciated that. Based on this biography, I'd think that Disraeli was a social butterfly with no particular views who spent almost all of his time at country estates.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first half of this book, which discusses Disraeli's riotous, debt-filled youth: I suspect that if Disraeli had been a Baby Boomer, he would have been an acid-dropping hippie. However, the second half was disappointing: even though Hibbert tells us how smart and diligent Disraeli was, I didn't get a sense of what he stood for as a politician or why some of his peers distrusted him. A better book would explain what Disraeli stood for and why, and what his opponents stood for.

[Zandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of time. The cover says 'a personal history' and this is not wrong - endless accounts of speeches given, letters exchanged, illnesses, overseas travel itineraries and grand house stays. Not much, here, about his books, his ideas, his political outlook, his changed political outlook or his achievements. This book turns an extraordinary man into someone thoroughly, boringly ordinary.

[Brady Postma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing is particularly wrong with this lively, chatty little biography. I was just expecting more political tactics and ideology, whereas this book focuses on Disraeli's social life and personality. Thwarted expectations, not any fault in the writing, led to the mediocre rating.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading it, the content was good and the writing was engaging but it was very repetitive. Whole sentences were repeated chapter on chapter. Bad editing? I enjoyed reading about Dizzy’s early years and literary nonsense.

[Larry Caines · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. Not a strong recommendation. I have read other Disraeli biogs that were better.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

See review at Reading World

[JBresson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Sibold · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring book interesting man

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both Gladstone and Disraeli have been names I've run across as significant folks in British political history on many occasions but I've not taken the time to read anything in depth on either of them till I picked this book up.

Disraeli was very peculiar as a young man, more fop than dandy. Dressing in brilliant hues and extravagant clothes. And running up debts that would haunt him for years though he seemed fairly good at ignoring those.

He seemed to come to a political career as an interest based on his skill of public speaking rather in support of any particular cause. He discovered this skill by going to parties with the rich and famous and being funny and engaging. He successfully carried this over into a political career. Once embarked on politics though he seemed to steady up and take life a bit more seriously. He married a lady (widowed) 12 years older than he was (to the surprise and chagrin of some of the younger set). She was a steadying influence on him as well and it seemed they shared a life long deep love.

While British, Disraeli is the only Englishman of Jewish race to serve as England's prime minister. A position he served in twice. He was instrumental in creating the British conservative party which continues on to this day and was THE person who decided England would buy up shares in the Suez canal that ended up being very astute politically and fiscally.

[Kurtbg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was interested in a bio on Disraeli and picked this up at Borders before it became the economic dodo. It was the only one there so I grabbed it. Let me say that this is not a bio on Mr. D. This book seems to cover correspondence between Disraeli and various people, and occasionally letters talking about Disraeli. The books is set in a chronological order and tries to give a continuity to him.

This books gives me the impression that he was a son-of a respected writer which gave him access to a better social class. He was completely self-absorbed and demanded to be looked at (by wearing outrageous clothes.) He wrote books, which were panned from a literary point of view, but sometimes had some success when characters were based on real people in society - kind of an early gossip rag.

He was able to travel with society friends, run up debts, and still purchase houses. His speaking abilities allowed him entry in parliament and became the Exchequer (head of British taxes & revenue collection - even though he was heavily in debt) and ultimately Prime Minister.

The book never covers his stance on political issues, and text from Disraeli's speeches only pop up about 2 times.

I see this book as being reference material for someone looking into filling in some personal information on Mr. S. I wouldn't suggest it for someone looking for a good bio on the man.

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will have to read another biography in order to get beneath the surface of Benjamin Disraeli. This author was fascinated with Disraeli's personal life: travel, house parties and dining with the great and good. He shows almost no interest in Disraeli's political life. The Suez Canal purchase, the Act that made Victoria Empress of India and the various cabinets he served in and led are nothing more than incidental. Often it's not possible to tell whether he is in or out of office at a particular point in the narrative. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 seems to have involved nothing more than Disraeli and Bismarck dining together. The best parts of this book are either where he quotes Disraeli's letters, or the work of previous biographers who have done their homework. For anyone who is not from Britain, frequent recourse to Google, Wikipedia, and the English Heritage website will be necessary to sort out the endless lists of country houses and estates, as well as the constant name-dropping of the 19th Century rich and famous. In short: the author is far more interested in the Victorian Dandy than the Prime Minister.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an incredibly strange man - I guess I would have been among his detractors in his day. His flamboyent dress, cavalier attitude toward debt, and sheer egotism would have offended. But he was undeniably brilliant - with a WF Buckley-esqe productivity. He wrote a score of decent novels, gave multi-hour speeches without notes, mastered the arcana of British Administration without seeming really very interested in it. The Conservative Party leaders, as a group, couldn't stand him, but really had no choice but to give hime the leadership. The book is more personal than political -- fascinating in its way but not very illuminating of the specific poitical issues that separated Disraeli and Gladstone, for instance. He illustrates, in a way, the Gary Becker economic analysis regarding Jews in the professions - if you are really THAT good - it is hard to keep you down, because your services are inefficiently cheap -- and someone always buys things that are inefficiently cheap.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to really describe how much I enjoyed this book. Hibbert gives a rich and enthralling portrayal of Disraeli the man. His flaws and strengths are fairly honestly discussed, and enabled me to view Disraeli with the kind of rich affection generally reserved for people you know and know well. I don't know that it will have the same impact on others, but I found this book fascinating from beginning to end, and I find myself quite moved having finished it. Overall a remarkable book, and a remarkable man.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew little to nothing about Disraeli, other than he had been Prime Minister, so it was great to read a little more about him. This biography is a great introduction to the man. There is so much to him, that one biography that fully covers every interesting facet about him and the time in which he lived would fill a massive set of tomes, so I may have to get a few more bios to get further info.

[Colin Flanigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This English politician (1804 - 1881) wrote novels, started as a Radical, ended as a Tory, and gave one of the greatest quotes about politics in a speech in the house of Commons, March 3rd 1845 . "A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy." This was not an insult, he himself being a Tory was a Conservative. A very complex man with a complex mind that loved irony and knew how to use it.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of the Bill Clinton of 19th-c Britain, except he wrote novels and was more flamboyant and was MP and PM many times.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Might have been easier to follow if I had any previous knowledge of Victorian England, but the book doesn't give much background. Kind of disorganized, too.