Sybil

Disraeli is very much the bête noire of Gladstone's biography, but I thought reading one of his novels would provide more fun and interesting insight than adding yet another unfinished biography to my list. One of Disraeli's oft-commented upon "qualifications" for office was his ability to flatter Qu......more

Benjamin Disraeli was a politician. He had Queen Victoria's approval, or perhaps, more accurately, Victoria really disliked Gladstone. In any case, one can either enjoy or disapprove of his politics, but it is difficult to warm up to his abilities as a novelist. Sybil is first and foremost a politica......more

My full review is available on Keeping Up With The Penguins. Look, I’m all about political reform and uplifting the working classes. I can totally get behind Disraeli’s points about representative democracy and equality. But I must say, when it came to crafting a fictional story to make those points,......more

Disraeli definitely had an agenda with this book. Yes, he was very political in his life so why wouldn’t we expect his novels to reflect that? The difficulty with him is the following: a) He is trying to explain an entire movement in the Victorian period: the struggle for the rights of the working cl......more

It’s a funny little novel. Imagine a serving prime minister sitting down to write a novel, and you’d probably conjure up something pretty much like this offering. Great novelist Disraeli most certainly ain’t. His prose occasionally borders on the insane. It’s not all as clunky and awful as the extra......more