Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life'

H-Albion Ferris on Langley, 'Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life'

Review published on Monday, May 1, 2006

Helen Langley, ed. Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 156 pp. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-85124-094-4.

Reviewed by Wesley Ferris (Department of History, McMaster University.) Published on H-Albion (May, 2006)

The Many Faces of Benjamin Disraeli

To mark the bicentenary of the birth of Benjamin Disraeli, the Bodleian Library held an exhibition on the former Conservative Prime Minister and author from December 4, 2003 to May 1, 2004. The exhibition primarily consisted of material drawn from the Disraeli Archive, owned by the National Trust and on deposit at the Boldeian Library since 1978, as well as items on loan from the John Murray Archive and three private collectors. Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life was published to accompany the exhibition, and consists of two sections: the first contains six short essays on different aspects of Disraeli's life, while the second is a catalog of the items displayed in the exhibition.

The six essays span only thirty-nine pages in total, and the short length of the essays results in most of them only being able to provide a brief overview of their subject. Four of the essays examine Disraeli's relationships with particular individuals, whether in politics, society, or business: Angus Hawkins on the 14th and 15th Earls of Derby; Annabel Jones on two of his publishers, Henry Colburn and the Longman firm; Timothy Mowl on William Beckford, who Disraeli used as a model for his novel Contarini Fleming: A Psychological Romance (1846); and Jane Ridley on the various women in Disraeli's life. Each of these essays demonstrate a firm grasp on the facts of the particular relationship under examination, but they do not go beyond details to provide a strong analysis. A clear example of this can be seen in Ridley's essay. She mentions that psycho-historians have suggested that Disraeli's poor relationship with his mother, Maria, was an important part of his political ambition (p. 46). However, she does not attempt to engage this view in her brief description of the relationship between Disraeli and Maria, and each important example in Disraeli's life of his interactions with women consists of little more than a factual summary.

The shortest essay is by the Conservative "big beast" Ken Clarke, who examines Disraeli's three terms as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is concerned with why "my great political hero ... was a disastrously bad Chancellor of the Exchequer" (p. 13). Clarke argues that Disraeli's failures were due to being given bad information by the Treasury, having to pander to protectionists and the landed interest, and an unfortunate attempt at complicated stealth taxes. Despite these setbacks, Clarke suggests that Disraeli was a masterful performer in the House of Commons on all subjects, and that the Conservative party realized that, however much it might dislike him, he was the natural successor to Derby. One cannot help but speculate that the article says as much about Ken Clarke as it does about Benjamin Disraeli.

Citation: H-Net Reviews. Ferris on Langley, 'Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life'. H-Albion. 03-26-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/16749/reviews/17972/ferris-langley-benjamin-disraeli-earl-beaconsfield-scenes-extraordinary Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Albion

The strongest essay of the collection is by Roland Quinault, and examines Disraeli's relationship with Buckinghamshire, where he had purchased Hughenden Manor in 1847, the same year he became one of the county's three representatives in Parliament. In this essay Quinault goes beyond describing the circumstances of Disraeli's involvement in Buckinghamshire to engage the historiography on Disraeli, and in particular to dispute the notion that Disraeli was essentially cosmopolitan and un-English. Instead, Quinault demonstrates that Disraeli was most at home when in Buckinghamshire, and that the county had an impact on his political views. The prominence of the wheat trade in the county made Disraeli more supportive of the Corn Laws in the years before 1846, while the lessening of protectionist sentiments after 1846 helped move Disraeli away from a doctrinaire opposition to free trade (pp. 36, 38). Disraeli was also closely linked with the landed elites of the county, in particular the Grenvilles, though Quinault suggests that Disraeli's links with the Rothschilds have been exaggerated (p. 40).

The balance of the book consists of a catalog of the items on display during the Disraeli exhibition. The catalog is composed of ten chronological chapters, each covering a major period in Disraeli's life, as well as four separate chapters containing portraits of the major figures in his life. Each chapter begins with a brief summary of that period in Disraeli's life, and each item is accompanied by a detailed description that effectively places the given item in context. There are standard political items, such as a letter from Lord George Bentinck to Disraeli in April 1846 urging him to "drive well into Peel's vitals," the Chancellor's robe that Disraeli refused to relinquish to Gladstone when the latter replaced Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer (items 62, 72), as well as pages from such novels as Henrietta Temple (a Love Story) (1859), Coningsby, or the New Generation (1844), and Sybil, or the Two Nations (1845) (items 34, 49, 50). The catalog also includes more eclectic items, such as a fan signed by all of the members of the Congress of Berlin, Sir William Harcourt's card for Disraeli's funeral, and a draft of former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson's commentary on Disraeli for the television series A Prime Minister on Prime Ministers (1977) (items 121, 131, 139). The items selected cover the many different aspects of Disraeli's life, and demonstrate the breadth of his interests and the variety of his experiences. The exhibition was also selected by the Oxford Digital Library, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, for digitization.[1]

Overall, the subtitle of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life is a good reflection of the content of the book. Each essay describes a particular "scene" in Disraeli's life, and each item in the catalog is used as a reference point for a discussion on the important episodes of his career. While the essays deal with various "scenes" in isolation, it is in the catalog that the various strands of Disraeli's life begin to be woven together. The book is of limited use to academics, but in fairness that is not its primary purpose. The printing quality of the book, particularly with respect to the display of the items, is first rate, and it succeeds as an accompaniment to and a catalog of the exhibition on Disraeli.

Note

[1]. All of the items of the catalog and their descriptions, along with several additional items, are now available online at: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/disraeli/disraeli.html.

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Citation: Wesley Ferris. Review of Langley, Helen, ed.,Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life. H-Albion, H-Net Reviews. May, 2006.URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11710

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