Product Description

Originally published in 1966 by Eyre and Spottiswood a biography of the great Conservative leader and Prime Minister. Disraeli was an unusual man to be Prime Minister and was reknowned for his close relationship with Queen Victoria and his rivalry with Gladstone. In the LOST TREASURES series.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1158076 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 819 pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent biography from an accomplished Historian.
'Disraeli' is one of the few truly great political biographies. Blakes' mastery of his subject has provided an accurate insight into the life of one of the most extraordinary statesmen of the nineteenth century, and his book makes compelling reading. From Disraeli's youth as struggling would-be radical MP to the height of his fame and popularity at the time of the Balkan crisis, Blake demonstrates an unparalled ability to judge the character and actions of this great politician with a fair and just commentary. Disraeli's relations with his contemporaries, in particular with Peel, Derby and Gladstone, are well shown and serve to portray his political stand in a light rarely rivalled in Historical studies. An excellent piece of biographical literature.

A brilliant biography of a political great.
This biography is one of the better I've read going into detail on the life of a Victorian great. It is eminently readable and very enjoyable which makes it a pleasure to read. Also due to its length it can go into great detail on some of the more forgotten aspects of his life but still be enjoyable to the everyday reader. I would recomend this for anybody especially as it deals with a figure who shaped Britain and the Conservative Party but is not as well known as he should be and has been a subject of a number of disparaging comments which don't take account of his whole life and what he achieved.

Flamboyant Tory
For all its length, this is an immensely enjoyable book. One feels Mr Blake enjoyed writing it, and indeed he makes me feel that Disraeli was a man who enjoyed life himself and took pleasure from giving pleasure to others.

Disraeli was born into middle-class Italian Jewish stock. His father wrote books which collected literary sayings and was a respected figure. For much of his early life Disraeli was a dandy whose hero was Byron. He was a radical who gradually came to feel he belonged in the Tory party, but kicked against the conscientious positioning of Peel, seeking a more flamboyant image for himself. He was not afraid to lampoon and ridicule others and he had the gift of the gab, in speech and in the written word. His first published novel made him many enemies, and for several decades he seemed anxious to add to their number by the opportunist invective he employed to get his way in the House of Commons. However Disraeli had a real feel and appetite for parliament and hung on in there through two or three decades of tough times for the Tories, supporting his senior colleague the Earl of Derby all the way.

He wasn't far off 70 when he became premier and followed the Tory tradition in the Victorian era of passing radical legislation which for one reason or another the Whigs never managed to when he saw through the second Reform bill, allying his party with radical elements to outmanoevre Gladstone.

His rivalry, even according to Blake hatred for Gladstone was a feature of his later years and the combination of their rivalry and the widening suffrage saw in the kind of party politics and electioneering which we are so used to today, replacing the interminable wheeling and dealing in coffee-houses of bygone days.

Blake sees his halcyon days as his foreign policy in outflanking European rivals in managing Turkish-Russian opposition, and flair in managing distractions in Afghanistan and South Africa.

Another feature of this book is a considered view on his novels, his long and successful marriage and his close relationship with Queen Victoria, all of which put him in a sympathetic light.

This book is as good as Gash's biography of Peel; different man, different writer, but equally good.