Customer Reviews

Disraeli (Reputations)

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This is an insightful lesson into the man. Edgar Feuchtwanger makes the subject more interesting than ever with an easy to read style.

Disraeli did not become PM until 1874 just after his 70th birthday, at which time he was already a living myth, though much of the myth had been created and staged by 'Dizzy' himself. He began his ascendency into the high councils of England by becoming a writer of popular fiction. Though none of his early books could have been described as popular successes, they were the talk of the 'salons', who were peopled by the aristocracy and the shakers and movers of the victorian era.

He came from all the wrong parts of the wrong class, but was able to endear himself to many who were not as quick witted as he was. While playing the prig, satirist and clown he was able to make himself indispensible to the Tory frontbenchers. But he spent many years in the background and then as a lieutenant to Derby.

The book itself is very academic and written for an English/Commonwealth audience, so that americans might find that certain ideas are given short shrift because they are easily understood by the english public. For myself I don't have enough background in how the two houses of parliament functioned in concert to fully understand the Lords v Commons. Also I find the use of multiple names for the same people to be distracting like reading Tolstoy (Stanley, who becomes Lord Derby and then Duke of Something is just one example).

The writing is a little ponderous and you will find paragraphs that are almost two pages. It's also hard sometimes to tell where and who is being quoted.