Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli, Collection Novels

Publisher Marketing: Benjamin Disraeli, (1804 - 1881) was a British Conservative politician, writer and aristocrat who twice served as Prime Minister. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy." He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He is as of 2014 the only British Prime Minister of Jewish birth. In the 1840s Disraeli wrote a trilogy of novels with political themes. With Coningsby; or, The New Generation (1844), Disraeli, in Blake's view, "infused the novel genre with political sensibility, espousing the belief that England's future as a world power depended not on the complacent old guard, but on youthful, idealistic politicians." Coningsby was followed by Sybil; or, The Two Nations (1845), another political novel, which was less idealistic and more clear-eyed than Coningsby; the "two nations" of its sub-title referred to the huge economic and social gap between the privileged few and the deprived working classes. The last in Disraeli's political novel trilogy was Tancred; or, The New Crusade (1847), promoting the Church of England's role in reviving Britain's flagging spirituality. In this book: Sybil or the Two Nations Coningsby Tancred Or, The New Crusade Contributor Bio:  Disraeli, Benjamin Benjamin Disraeli is perhaps the best known and certainly the most colorful of Britain's Prime Ministers during the long reign of Queen Victoria. He was also a prolific writer. His novelistic trilogy: Sybil, Coningsby, and Tancred and later works: Lothair and Endymion would alone earn him a special place in English life and literature, but it is his career as the leading Conservative of the century and writings and speeches on events of the age that earn him a special place in the pantheon of parliamentary politics.