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Disraeli's reminiscences

Contarini Fleming [electronic resource] : a psychological auto-biography

Online Nineteenth Century Collections Online

Benjamin Disraeli letters

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81) was one of the most important figures in nineteenth-century Europe, spending three decades in British government and twice serving as prime minister. This volume collects 556 of Disraeli's letters from a tumultuous period in European history - years that witnessed the Italian revolution, the Polish revolt against Russia, anxiety about Napoleon III's intentions in Europe, and the American Civil War. The letters, of which more than four hundred have never before been published, provide revealing insights into Disraeli's thoughts on political and social issues; they also illuminate his style of leadership and the inner workings of the Conservative party. This eighth volume of Benjamin Disraeli Letters also includes recently recovered letters from years covered by previous volumes, including four to Lionel de Rothschild that reveal a hitherto unknown collaboration between Rothschild, Disraeli, and Lord George Bentinck on an anonymous pamphlet promoting Jewish political rights. Fully annotated, this volume is a welcome addition to the series.The Times Literary Supplement recently praised the Benjamin Disraeli Letters volumes as 'a remarkable series ...on its way to becoming one of the landmarks of Victorian-era scholarship.' Each volume provides a unique record of Disraeli's daily activities as well as rare glimpses into his decision-making process and his relationships with colleagues and political foes. This latest volume covers 1865 to 1867, crucial years leading up to Disraeli's first ministry in 1868. During this period, the prime minister, Lord Derby, and Disraeli, chancellor of the exchequer, grappled with a number of challenges. Their greatest accomplishment, however, was the passage of a landmark franchise reform bill that expanded the electorate in England to an unprecedented extent. The story is told through 697 letters, of which 525 have never before been published and 78 only in part. Thoroughly annotated, the notes often include the other side of Disraeli's correspondence - including many letters from Derby and Queen Victoria. Finally, this volume is cross-referenced with the previous ones to obtain as complete a picture as possible of political events during Disraeli's lifetime.Against a European background of the 1848 revolutions and Louis Napoleon's 1851 coup, the 602 letters of this volume cover Disraeli's accession to the leadership of his party in the House of Commons and his first attempts to move the party beyond reactionary protectionism and ultra-Protestantism. In this period, Disraeli works hard at all aspects of his new role, finding 'good men' to bring into the party, patching rifts within it, and establishing a new platform on which to maintain the system of landed aristocracy in the age of free trade. When the chance to form a government comes, however, his party is unsuccessful. The turmoil in the world at large is matched by that in Disraeli's own affairs. Foremost are the deaths of his father, a central figure in his intellectual development, and of Lord George Bentinck, the anchor of his financial and political strategies. Once again, his creditors threaten to drive him from public life, and come alarmingly close to success on at least one occasion. In addition, his marriage goes through a major crisis, as Mary Anne Disraeli's jealousy over his frequent correspondence with Lady Londonderry and his regular visits to her precipitates an actual separation and period of estrangement. His major correspondent and confidante continues to be his sister Sarah, but there are also a surprising number of letters (many of them previously unpublished) to major figures such as Metternich and Derby. The volume ends with the exchanges between Disraeli and other political leaders on the verge of a second chance at government, which in 1852 will bring a brief taste of power at last.In February 1868 Benjamin Disraeli became the fortieth prime minister of Great Britain. The tenth volume of the Benjamin Disraeli Letters series is devoted exclusively to Disraeli's copious correspondence during that momentous year. The volume contains 648 of Disraeli's letters, 510 of them never before published and all copiously annotated - often with the other side of the correspondence included. This volume constitutes a unique record of Disraeli's rise to power and of the inner workings of the Victorian political scene, all of it recorded in intimate detail. A vast project which the Times Literary Supplement has called "a monument to scholarship, " the Benjamin Disraeli Letters volumes are an essential resource for the study of nineteenth-century politics, history, literature, and the arts.Part of the critically acclaimed Letters of Benjamin Disraeli series. This volume contains or describes letters written by Disraeli between 1838 and 1841.The 435 letters in this volume cover the most dramatic period of Disraeli's middle life - one which is still subject to continuing debate and interpretation, but the one in which the potential of his diverse talents at last begins to be realized. In his second Parliamentary session (1842 to 1847) the member for Shrewsbury establishes himself as the most exciting speaker in the House of Commons. The letters also provoke reassessment of the political splinter group 'Young England, ' whose aims are nothing less than the purge and reform of the Conservative party. In 1947, as a peader of the Protectionists, he achieves his political goal of fifteen before: election as a member in his home county of Buckinghamshire. In this period, too, he becomes a best-selling novelist, with his three 'condition of England' novels. Finally, as 'knight of the shire' and with his debts more manageable through the help and thrift of his wife, Mary Anne, he is in a position to realize another ambition, that of becoming a country gentleman, and begins the purchase of Hughenden Manor. Ten appendixes include Disraeli's 1847 election canvass lists, his commonplace books of this period, and a complete inventory of the contents of his London residence, the collateral for a desperate loan in 1842.Benjamin Disraeli was perhaps the most colourful Prime Minister in British history. This seventh volume of the highly acclaimed Benjamin Disraeli Letters edition shows also that he was a dedicated, resourceful, and farsighted statesman. It contains 670 letters written between 1857 and 1859. They address friends, family, political colleagues, and, not least, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. During this period, Disraeli shepherded a fragile Conservative government through the Indian Mutiny, the Second Opium War with China, the Orsini bomb plot, and the Franco-Austrian-Piedmontese War, only to fail at home over parliamentary reform. Day-by-day politics and behind-the-scenes strategy dominate, while lighter-hearted letters to friends and family reveal the private Disraeli's charm and wit. With an appendix of 115 newly found letters dating from 1825, as well as information on 219 unfound letters, full annotations to each letter, an exhaustive name-and-subject index and a comprehensive introduction, this volume will be a vital resource for new understanding of this enigmatic statesman.Benjamin Disraeli, Queen Victoria's favourite prime minister, was, in the words of Robert Blake, 'the best letter-writer among English statesmen.' This, the latest volume in the critically acclaimed Letters of Benjamin Disraeli series, contains or describes 951 letters (784 previously unpublished) written by Disraeli between 1852 and 1856. These years cover his first cabinet post, as chancellor of the exchequer, his attempts as House leader to unify the Conservative party, and his opposition to the Crimean War, both in the House and in his newspaper, The Press. Included are significant runs of correspondence, such as 63 letters (34 previously unpublished) to the 14th Earl of Derby, and 75 letters (none previously published) to Lord Stanley, the future 15th Earl of Derby, as well as more personal ones, such as 59 letters to the eccentric Mrs Brydges Willyams, the 'female Croesus' who offered Disraeli a substantial legacy. These illuminate anew both his public and private life, and show the strength of his resolve to reshape party policies to suit the age of industrialism and free trade. New light is also thrown on other matters, such as the supposed plagiarism in his panegyric on the Duke of Wellington. Ten appendices include full cabinet lists, Disraeli's own reminiscences of the period, and Stanley's remarkable verbatim notes of intimate conversations with Disraeli at Hughenden Manor.

Online vol. 7 EBSCO University Press