Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147692 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

About the Author
Former Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and President of the European Commission, Roy Jenkins is currently Chancellor of Oxford University and President of the Royal Society of Literature.

Customer Reviews

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.

Much Acclaimed - Fatally Flawed
This much acclaimed biography was to be my introduction, not just to the great man, but to the Victorian era itself and the history and politics of Britain in the 19th Century. Sure enough, Gladstone has inspired me beyond expectation; his biography has informed me of the rich variety of the Victorian era and of the complexities of British politics.

Roy Jenkins has produced a work which is transparently honest and scrupulous in the richness of detail it unfolds. I can well believe the plaudits which acclaim its scholarship. Yet only a few chapters into it I found myself on an unexpected journey which has proved fascinating and instructive in further feeding my appetite for Gladstone and the Victorian era, but wary of the critics who have acclaimed this book.

Four themes In Roy Jenkins book increasingly unsettled me. They drove me to a second hand bookshop where I found a copy of an earlier biography of Gladstone by Philip Magnus. It was the earlier biography (published 1954) which captivated me and led me to plough my way through both biographies side by side. It was Magnus who proved to be more interesting and rewarding. Perhaps because he is slightly shorter he has also greater clarity. So what was it in Jenkins biography which sent me down this route?

First the prose. Whilst generally very readable his syntax reminded me of that master of written argument, Bernard Levin. But sometimes for Jenkins the complex and lengthy sentences just didn’t work. Several times I read a multi-clause sentence again and again and still failed to find either the intended sense or the gramatical logic. The prose was at times over ambitious and cumbersome.

Second and most strikingly, I came early to the conclusion that Jenkins did not understand Gladstone’s personal religion. Jenkins regarded his subject as 'priggish' in his attitude to certain ways of the world. He seems to categorise Gladstones struggles with personal sin as being flights of eccentricity and delusion rather than a common feature of Christian life through the ages. I can understand they might be alien to the author but his viewpoint intruded too much.

Then, as I later found, in trying to grasp an overview of 19th century events Magnus was just more interesting. To be told, for example, on page one that Lincoln, Tennyson and Darwin were born in the same year as Gladstone set the context rather better than Jenkins had done and the unfavourable comparison continued as I read the books side by side.

Finally, the (socially) liberal Jenkins draws a portrait of the Liberal Gladstone which is unsympatheic on some of the great moral and social issues common to both the 19th century and the present. Again it intruded.

So the book turns out to be an impressive work with fatal flaws which, by happy circumstance, drove me to a rather better work written 50 years earlier. But the critics don't think he wasted his time.

Portait of a Victorian
Before I read this book, the only things I knew about Gladstone was that the budget bag UK chancellors' use was his, that he was in favour of Home Rule for Ireland, and that he had a thing about rescuing fallen women.
Obviously I know a lot more about him now - there is a wealth of information in this biography, most of which is written in an informative, accessible style. Occasionally Mr Jenkins becomes precious about politics and the reader is aware of his superior and inside knowledge. Mostly though he is a very considerate and authoritative guide to the life of a man who shaped 20th century politics and attitudes.
Facinating.