Product Description
Sarah Bradford s stylish and readable biography traces the flamboyant career of Benjamin Disraeli. She follows Disraeli s progress from Byronic dandy to confidante of Queen Victoria, describing en route how bouts of fierce parliamentary fighting and intrigue alternated with periods of intense creativity which produced Vivian Grey, Coningsby, Sybil and the worlds best- seller Lothair. Using previously unknown letters and papers, she throws new light upon Disraeli s relationships with the women in his life. She also brings to life the parliamentary debates through which Disraeli destroyed Peel as leader of the Conservative Party, split the Conservatives, duelled with Gladstone and achieved power as one of England s greatest prime ministers.
From the Publisher
Amanda Foreman explains why this is one of her favourites...Benjamin Disraeli was one of life’s great adventurers. With nothing but his wit and ambition to drive him, he rose from a modest family background to the highest position in the land. He inspired strong feelings wherever he went. Queen Victoria adored him, William Gladstone loathed him with an unquenchable passion. Credited with restoring the Tory party from its long political wilderness, for all his political skill Disraeli was a romantic at heart. His novels drip with nostalgia; his speeches resemble soliloquies.
More than one biographer has caricatured Disraeli, or treated him with contempt. But Sarah Bradford’s biography is an inspiring study of the man, without the myths or prejudice. It exemplifies all that a good biography should be.
