Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31831 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

Synopsis
Originally published in 1995, this is a biography of William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), which charts the political career and personal life of the only person who saw four terms as the British Prime Minister and who left behind a long and successful line of legislation. Roy Jenkins examines the manifold activities of Gladstone's life and uses it to relate the political rhythms, travel patterns and religious assumptions of Victorian England to the modern day.

Customer Reviews

A brilliant biography of a political giant.
Roy Jenkin's biography of Gladstone is a very readable book which provides depth to this interesting character. Although for some it is perhaps overly long it is worth the time and effort in order to gain a fuller understanding of a man full of contradictions. If you are looking for a shorter book focusing on the arguments between Disraeli and Gladstone buy or read The Lion and the Unicorn but for a full in-depth look at Gladstone, Roy Jenkin's biography is one of the best.

The Grand Old Man
Gladstone - Roy Jenkins

Gladstone we are told would have chosen a career in the Church of England but his father wanted him to go into politics. Jenkins reckons him to be not only the oldest of prime ministers but also the greatest and the most committed Christian to hold that office.

I found this a fascinating study from which I learned much I never knew. Gladstone was a Scot by descent. His father made the family fortune in part from slave plantations in the West Indies. The great orator, Eton and Oxford educated spoke with a Liverpool accent and there are sound recordings of his voice. A great scholar and reader, he read over 20.000 books in his long life. They included the latest novels of the day.

Gladstone went from Tory to Liberal. This biography tells us much about the development of politics in Britain but I believe it would be improved by the inclusion of a time line relating events to the wider flow of contemporary history. Jenkins tells us little of contemporary events unless Gladstone was directly involved. I think Jenkins assumes the reader knows history and has a very extensive vocabulary. You need a dictionary as companion volume.

The one point where Jenkins is weak is in a sympathetic understanding of Gladstone's faith. But he can be memorable as in, "For Gladtsone, idolatry began at Calais".

A worthy biogrpahy of a worthy PM
This is the second book of Roy Jenkins that I have read, having greatly enjoyed his biography of Winston Churchill. Initially I felt that I had read the books in the wrong order - in the introduction to Churchill there are many references to this previous work - how he had thought that Gladstone was the greater Prime Minister until he had written about Churchill's life, but gradually settled down to enjoy this highly readable biography.

There were two things that immediately struck me. The first was the extreme religiosity of Gladstone, especially in regard to sin he felt from his rescue work. He was a man who continually struggled to reconcile his faith to his actions, and through his meticulous diary keeping we are allowed to peer through a large window into his soul, as opposed to the speculation that often litters biographies.

The second was his troubled relationship with Queen Victoria. Whilst I had previously been aware of her preference for Disraeli, I had not been aware of the adverse reaction she had to almost anything that Gladstone did as Premier, especially in later years. The snub she delivered to him regarding a peerage upon the close of his final premiership was particularly vitriolic (and amusing reading!), and the feel of the book is that his struggles were as much with Victoria as with Benjamin Disraeli.

Jenkins succeeds in stripping away completely the layers of Gladstone. He goes into the right amount of detail on the key events of his life, and also critically evaluates them. Jenkins is not in slavish approval of his every action or personality trait. His prose is occasionally witty but always well constructed, though the Latin and French phrases often reveal the pompous character of the author. He succeeds again in drawing parallels with other historical figures and also in drawing on his own vast experience.

The Grand Old Man emerges well out of this. No Prime Minister of politician ever has an entirely blemish free career. Jenkins leaves the blemishes in for all to see, and the decision about the extent to which Gladstone is the greatest PM depends on how you judge his faults against his successes. Jenkins makes the case for the prosecution and the defence in an interesting and lively way in a book that is well worth investigation.