Disraeli by Robert Blake, 766 pages
Benjamin Disraeli was born into a Jewish literary family, baptized into the Church of England at an early age, and educated at a second-rate school (or one he evidently felt was second-rate). He was in turns a failure as a journalist, a middling success as an author, a greater success as a dandy, and then a brilliant success as a politician, twice serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and dominating the Conservative party during its first half century. He was a romantic both by upbringing and inclination, undeniably an adventurer, disliked by the British establishment and yet an icon of Victorian Conservatism.
The definitive biography of Disraeli, begun by WF Monypenny in 1910 and finished by GE Buckle in 1920, runs to six volumes. Robert Blake begins his biography by apologizing for its length, but pointing out that it isn't as long as Monypenny and Buckle. Fortunately, his light touch makes even the intricacies of parliamentary politics amusing, if not always interesting. This complements his subject, for as Blake demonstrates, throughout his career Disraeli approached politics as something of a game. This playfulness has its attractive aspects, but also raises questions as to what, if any, principles he actually held, especially as the ideas he expounded in his political novels seem to bear little relation to the practical politics he pursued. Yet Blake insists that despite - and, indeed, through - his flexibility, Disraeli consistently upheld the traditional, "irrational" divisions and institutions of England against the spectre of "centralizing Benthamite bureaucracy, however 'democratic'." In this view, the central element of his playfulness was his rejection of the cant and cliche of "a society which has mistaken comfort for civilization."
