Editing Benjamin Disraeli (section)

==Legacy==
Disraeli's literary and political career interacted over his lifetime and fascinated [[Victorian Britain#Late|Victorian Britain]], making him "one of the most eminent figures in Victorian public life", and occasioned a large output of commentary.<ref>Sandra Mayer, "Portraits of the Artist as Politician, the Politician as Artist: Commemorating the Disraeli Phenomenon." ''[[Journal of Victorian Culture]]'' 21.3 (2016): 281–300.</ref> Critic [[Shane Leslie]] noted three decades after his death that "Disraeli's career was a romance such as no Eastern [[vizier]] or Western [[plutocrat]] could tell. He began as a pioneer in dress and an aesthete of words&nbsp;... Disraeli actually made his novels come true."<ref>{{cite book |author=Shane Leslie |title=The End of a Chapter |publisher=C. Scribner's sons |url=https://archive.org/details/endofchapter00lesluoft |year=1916 |page=[https://archive.org/details/endofchapter00lesluoft/page/112 112]}}</ref>

===Literary===
[[File:Sybil.jpg|thumb|Title page of first edition of ''[[Sybil (novel)|Sybil]]'' (1845)|alt=The cover of a book, entitled "Sybil; or, the Two Nations"]]
Disraeli's novels are his main literary achievement.<ref name=stewart>O'Kell, Robert. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2933312 "''Disraeli's Novels Reviewed, 1826–1968'', by R. W. Stewart"], ''Nineteenth-Century Fiction'', June 1976, pp. 84–85</ref> They have from the outset divided critical opinion. The writer R. W. Stewart observed that there have always been two criteria for judging Disraeli's novels—political and artistic. The critic Robert O'Kell, concurring, writes, "It is after all, even if you are a Tory of the staunchest blue, impossible to make Disraeli into a first-rate [[novelist]]. And it is equally impossible, no matter how much you deplore the extravagances and improprieties of his works, to make him into an insignificant one."<ref name=stewart/>

Disraeli's early "silver fork" novels ''[[Vivian Grey]]'' (1826) and ''[[The Young Duke]]'' (1831) featured romanticised depictions of [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocratic life]] (despite his ignorance of it) with character sketches of well-known public figures lightly disguised.<ref name=gale>[http://www.enotes.com/benjamin-disraeli-essays/disraeli-benjamin "Benjamin Disraeli 1804–1881"], '' Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism'', eNotes, accessed 25 August 2013</ref> In some of his early fiction Disraeli also portrayed himself and what he felt to be his [[Lord Byron|Byronic]] dual nature: the poet and the man of action.<ref name=b53>Bradford, p. 53</ref> His most autobiographical novel was ''Contarini Fleming'' (1832), an avowedly serious work that did not sell well.<ref name=b53/> The critic William Kuhn suggests that Disraeli's fiction can be read as "the memoirs he never wrote", revealing the inner life of a politician for whom the norms of Victorian public life appeared to represent a social straitjacket—particularly with regard to what Kuhn sees as the author's "ambiguous sexuality".<ref>Kuhn, pp. 5, 12 and 125</ref>

Of the other novels of the early 1830s, ''Alroy'' is described by Blake as "profitable but unreadable",<ref>Blake (1967), p. 787</ref> and ''The Rise of Iskander'' (1833) and ''The Infernal Marriage'' and ''Ixion in Heaven'' (1834) made little impact.<ref>Blake (1967), pp. 107–108</ref> ''Henrietta Temple'' (1837) was Disraeli's next major success.<ref name=b143/> It draws on the events of his affair with Henrietta Sykes to tell the story of a debt-ridden young man torn between a mercenary loveless marriage and a passionate [[love at first sight]] for the eponymous heroine.<ref name=b143>Blake (1967), pp. 143–144</ref> ''Venetia'' (1837) was a minor work, written to raise much-needed cash.<ref>Bradford, pp. 91–93</ref>

In the 1840s Disraeli wrote a trilogy of novels with political themes. ''[[Coningsby (novel)|Coningsby]]'' attacks the evils of the [[Reform Act 1832|Whig Reform Bill of 1832]] and castigates the leaderless conservatives for not responding. ''Sybil; or, The Two Nations'' (1845) reveals Peel's betrayal over the [[Corn Laws]]. These themes are expanded in ''Tancred'' (1847).<ref>Richard G. Weeks, "Disraeli as political egotist: a literary and historical investigation." ''[[Journal of British Studies]]'' 28.4 (1989): 387&ndash;410. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/175437 online]</ref> 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."<ref name=gale/> ''Sybil; or, The Two Nations'' was less idealistic 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 was ''Tancred; or, The New Crusade'' (1847), promoting the [[Church of England]]'s role in reviving Britain's flagging spirituality.<ref name=gale/> Disraeli often wrote about religion, for he was a strong promoter of the Church of England. He was troubled by the growth of elaborate rituals in the late 19th century, such as the use of incense and vestments, and heard warnings to the effect that the ritualists were going to turn control of the Church of England over to the Pope. He consequently was a strong supporter of the [[Public Worship Regulation Act 1874]] which allowed the archbishops to go to court to stop the ritualists.<ref>[[Richard Shannon (historian)|Richard Shannon]], ''The Age of Disraeli, 1868-1881: The Rise of Tory Democracy'' (1992) pp. 199&ndash;210</ref>

''[[Lothair (novel)|Lothair]]'' was "Disraeli's ideological ''[[Pilgrim's Progress]]''",<ref>Schwarz, p. 128</ref> It tells a story of political life with particular regard to the roles of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. It reflected anti-Catholicism of the sort that was popular in Britain, and which fueled support for [[Italian unification]] ("Risorgimento").<ref>Diana Moore, "Romances of No-Popery: Transnational Anti-Catholicism in Giuseppe Garibaldi's The Rule of the Monk and Benjamin Disraeli's Lothair." ''Catholic Historical Review'' 106.3 (2020): 399&ndash;420 [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/762416/summary online].</ref> ''Endymion'', despite having a Whig as hero, is a last exposition of the author's economic policies and political beliefs.<ref>Bradford, pp. 287–289 (''Lothair''); and 380–383 (''Endymion'')</ref> Disraeli continued to the last to pillory his enemies in barely disguised caricatures: the character St Barbe in ''Endymion'' is widely seen as a parody of [[Thackeray]], who had offended Disraeli more than thirty years earlier by lampooning him in ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' as "Codlingsby".<ref>Blake (1967), pp. 191–192; and Bradford, p. 381</ref><ref name=merritt/>{{refn|James D. Merritt advanced an alternative theory in 1968, proposing [[Thomas Carlyle]] as Disraeli's target.<ref name=merritt>James D. Merritt, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2932319 "The Novelist St. Barbe in Disraeli's Endymion: Revenge on Whom?"], ''[[Nineteenth-Century Fiction]]'', June 1968, pp. 85–88</ref>|group= n}} Disraeli left an unfinished novel in which the [[priggish]] central character, Falconet, is unmistakably a caricature of Gladstone.<ref>Blake (1967), pp. 739–741</ref>

Blake commented that Disraeli "produced an epic poem, unbelievably bad, and a five-act blank verse tragedy, if possible worse. Further he wrote a discourse on political theory and a political biography, the ''Life of Lord George Bentinck'', which is excellent&nbsp;... remarkably fair and accurate."<ref>Blake, Robert in Hartley, p. 1</ref>

===Political===
[[File:Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (by Sir John Everett Millais, 1881) - National Portrait Gallery (NPG 3241).jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli (Millais)|Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli]]'' by [[John Everett Millais]], 1881]]
In the years after Disraeli's death, as Salisbury began his reign of more than twenty years over the Conservatives, the party emphasised the late leader's "[[One nation conservatism|One Nation]]" views, that the Conservatives at root shared the beliefs of the working classes, with the Liberals the party of the urban élite. The memory of Disraeli was used by the Conservatives to appeal to the working classes, with whom he was said to have had a rapport.<ref>Blake (1967), pp. 523–524</ref> This aspect of his policies has been re-evaluated by historians in the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1972 B. H. Abbott stressed that it was not Disraeli but [[Lord Randolph Churchill]] who invented the term "Tory democracy", though it was Disraeli who made it an essential part of Conservative policy and philosophy.<ref>Abbott, pp. 17–18</ref> In 2007 Parry wrote, "The tory democrat myth did not survive detailed scrutiny by professional historical writing of the 1960s [which] demonstrated that Disraeli had very little interest in a programme of social legislation and was very flexible in handling parliamentary reform in 1867."<ref>Parry, p. 122</ref> Despite this, Parry sees Disraeli, rather than Peel, as the founder of the modern Conservative party.<ref>Parry, p. 123</ref> The Conservative politician and writer [[Douglas Hurd]] wrote in 2013, "[Disraeli] was not a one-nation Conservative—and this was not simply because he never used the phrase. He rejected the concept in its entirety."<ref>Hurd, Douglas and Edward Young. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10131861/Disraeli-discussed-by-Douglas-Hurd-and-Edward-Young.html "Disraeli discussed by Douglas Hurd and Edward Young"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 27 June 2013</ref>

Disraeli's enthusiastic propagation of the [[British Empire]] has also been seen as appealing to working-class voters. Before his leadership of the Conservative Party, imperialism was the province of the Liberals, most notably Palmerston. Disraeli made the Conservatives the party that most loudly supported both the Empire and military action to assert its primacy. This came about in part because Disraeli's own views stemmed that way, in part because he saw advantage for the Conservatives, and partially in reaction against Gladstone, who disliked the expense of empire. Blake argued that Disraeli's imperialism "decisively orientated the Conservative party for many years to come, and the tradition which he started was probably a bigger electoral asset in winning working-class support during the last quarter of the century than anything else".<ref>Blake (1967), pp. 760–761</ref> Some historians have commented on a romantic impulse behind Disraeli's approach to Empire and foreign affairs: Abbott writes, "To the mystical Tory concepts of Throne, Church, Aristocracy and People, Disraeli added Empire."<ref>Abbott, p. 22</ref> Others have identified a strongly pragmatic aspect to his policies. Gladstone's biographer [[Philip Magnus-Allcroft|Philip Magnus]] contrasted Disraeli's grasp of foreign affairs with that of Gladstone, who "never understood that high moral principles, in their application to foreign policy, are more often destructive of political stability than motives of national self-interest."<ref>Magnus, p. 287</ref> In Parry's view, Disraeli's foreign policy "can be seen as a gigantic castle in the air (as it was by Gladstone), or as an overdue attempt to force the British commercial classes to awaken to the realities of European politics."<ref>Parry, p. 135</ref>

During his lifetime, Disraeli's opponents, and sometimes even his friends and allies, questioned whether he sincerely held the views he propounded, or whether they were adopted by him as politically essential and lacked conviction. Lord John Manners, in 1843 at the time of Young England, wrote, "could I only satisfy myself that D'Israeli believed all that he said, I should be more happy: his historical views are quite mine, but does he believe them?"<ref name=smith>Smith, Paul. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3679151 "Disraeli's Politics"], ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'', Fifth Series, vol 37, 1987, pp. 65–66 {{subscription}}</ref> [[Paul Smith (historian)|Paul Smith]], in his journal article on Disraeli's politics, argues that Disraeli's ideas were coherently argued over a political career of nearly half a century, and "it is impossible to sweep them aside as a mere bag of burglar's tools for effecting felonious entry to the British political pantheon."<ref name=smith/>

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?54339-1/disraeli-biography ''Booknotes'' interview with Stanley Weintraub on ''Disraeli: A Biography'', February 6, 1994], [[C-SPAN]]<ref name="cspan">{{cite web |title=Disraeli: A Biography |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?54339-1/disraeli-biography |publisher=[[C-SPAN]] |date=6 February 1994 |access-date=24 March 2017}}</ref>}}

[[Stanley Weintraub]], in his biography of Disraeli, points out that his subject did much to advance Britain towards the 20th century, carrying one of the two great Reform Acts of the 19th despite the opposition of his Liberal rival, Gladstone. <blockquote>He helped preserve constitutional monarchy by drawing the Queen out of mourning into a new symbolic national role and created the climate for what became '[[Tory democracy]]'. He articulated an imperial role for Britain that would last into World War II and brought an intermittently self-isolated Britain into the concert of Europe.<ref>Weintraub, p. 665</ref></blockquote>

Frances Walsh comments on Disraeli's multifaceted public life:
{{blockquote|The debate about his place in the Conservative pantheon has continued since his death. Disraeli fascinated and divided contemporary opinion; he was seen by many, including some members of his own party, as an adventurer and a charlatan and by others as a far-sighted and patriotic statesman. As an actor on the political stage he played many roles: Byronic hero, man of letters, social critic, parliamentary virtuoso, squire of Hughenden, royal companion, European statesman. His singular and complex personality has provided historians and biographers with a particularly stiff challenge.<ref>[http://www.credoreference.com/entry/routbrithistory/disraeli_benjamin_ist_earl_of_beaconsfield_1804_1881 "Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield 1804–1881"] 2003, in ''Reader's Guide to British History'', Routledge, Credo Reference, accessed 26 August 2013</ref>}}

Historian [[Llewellyn Woodward]] has evaluated Disraeli:<ref>Llewellyn Woodward, ''The Age of Reform, 1815-1870'' (Oxford University Press, 1938) pp 111-112.</ref>{{blockquote|Disraeli's political ideas have not stood the test of time....His detachment from English prejudices did not give him any particular insight into foreign affairs; as a young man he accepted the platitudes of Metternich and failed to understand the meaning of the nationalist movements in Europe. The imperialism of his later years was equally superficial: an interpretation of politics without economics. Disraeli liked to think of himself in terms of pure intellect, but his politics were more personal than intellectual in character. He had far-reaching schemes but little administrative ability, and there was some foundation for Napoleon Ill's judgement that he was 'like all literary men, from Chateaubriand to Guizot, ignorant of the world'.... In spite of these faults...Disraeli's courage, quickness of wit, capacity for affection, and freedom from sordid motives earned him his position. His ambition was of the nobler sort . He brought politics nearer to poetry, or, at all events, to poetical prose, than any English politician since Burke.}}

Historical writers have often played Disraeli and Gladstone against each other as great rivals.<ref>Dick Leonard, ''The Great Rivalry: Gladstone and Disraeli'' (2013) is popular, while Richard Aldous, ''The Lion and The Unicorn: Gladstone and Disraeli'' (2007) is scholarly. For the historiography see Roland Quinault, "Gladstone and disraeli: a Reappraisal of their Relationship", ''History'' 91.304 (2006): 557–576</ref> Roland Quinault, however, cautions not to exaggerate the confrontation:{{blockquote|they were not direct antagonists for most of their political careers. Indeed initially they were both loyal to the Tory party, the Church and the landed interest. Although their paths diverged over the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and later over fiscal policy more generally, it was not until the later 1860s that their differences over parliamentary reform, Irish and Church policy assumed great partisan significance. Even then their personal relations remained fairly cordial until their dispute over the [[Eastern Question]] in the later 1870s.<ref>Roland Quinault, "The Great Rivalry", ''[[History Today]]'' (November 2013) 63.11, p. 61</ref>}}

===Role of Jewishness===
{{further|History of the Jews in England}}
By 1882, 46,000 [[English Jews|Jews lived in England]], and by 1890 Jewish emancipation was complete. Since 1858, Parliament has never been without practicing Jewish members. The first Jewish [[Lord Mayor of London]], Sir [[David Salomons]], was elected in 1855, followed by the [[Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom|1858 emancipation of the Jews]]. On 26 July 1858, [[Lionel de Rothschild]] was allowed to sit in the House of Commons when the hitherto specifically Christian oath of office was changed. Disraeli, a [[Jewish Christian|baptised Christian]] of Jewish parentage, was already an MP, as the mandated oath of office presented no barrier to him. In 1884 [[Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild]], became the first Jewish member of the British [[House of Lords]]; Disraeli was already a member.<ref>Andrzej Diniejko, "Benjamin Disraeli and the Jewish Question in Victorian England" ''The Victorian Web'' (2020) [https://victorianweb.org/authors/disraeli/judaism.html online]</ref>

Disraeli as a leader of the [[History of the Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]], with its ties to the landed aristocracy, used his Jewish ancestry to claim an aristocratic heritage of his own. His biographer [[Jonathan Parry]] argues:<ref>Jonathan Parry, ''Benjamin Disraeli'' (Oxford UP 2007) p 23.</ref>{{blockquote|Disraeli convinced himself (wrongly) that he derived from the Sephardi aristocracy of [[Iberian Jews]] [[Alhambra Decree|driven from Spain]] at the end of the fifteenth century....Presenting himself as Jewish symbolized Disraeli's uniqueness when he was fighting for respect, and explained his set-backs. Presenting Jewishness as aristocratic and religious legitimized his claim to understand the perils facing modern England and to offer 'national' solutions to them. English toryism was 'copied from the mighty [Jewish] prototype' (''Coningsby'', bk 4, chap. 15). Disraeli was thus able to square his Jewishness with his equally deep attachment to England and her history.}}

[[Todd Endelman]] points out that "The link between Jews and old clothes was so fixed in the popular imagination that Victorian political cartoonists regularly drew Benjamin Disraeli as an old clothes man in order to stress his Jewishness." He adds, "Before the 1990s...few biographers of Disraeli or historians of Victorian politics acknowledged the prominence of the antisemitism that accompanied his climb up the greasy pole or its role in shaping his own singular sense of Jewishness."<ref>Todd M. Endelman, ''The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000'' (University of California Press, 2002) p 6.</ref><ref>See also Anthony S. Wohl, "'Ben JuJu': Representations of Disraeli's Jewishness in the Victorian political cartoon". ''Jewish history'' 10.2 (1996): 89–134 [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01650962 online]</ref>

According to Michael Ragussis:<ref>Michael Ragussis, ''Figures of Conversion. The "Jewish Question" and English National Identity'' (1995) p. 175.</ref><ref>See also Anthony S. Wohl, "'Ben JuJu': Representations of Disraeli's Jewishness in the Victorian political cartoon." ''Jewish history'' 10.2 (1996): 89–134</ref> {{blockquote|What began in the 1830s as scattered anti-Semitic remarks aimed at him [Disraeli] by the crowds in his early electioneering became in the 1870s a kind of national scrutiny of his Jewishness — a scrutiny that erupted into a kind of anti-Semitic attack led by some of the most prominent intellectuals and politicians of the time and anchored in the charge that Disraeli was a [[crypto-Jew]].}}