A quite unique place in the history of English fiction will be universally allowed to be held by Benjamin Disraeli, once called the younger in recognition of his learned father, who is still remembered as one of the lesser lights of critical antiquarianism and afterwards the wonder of the world under his title the earl of Beaconsfield. W. F. Monypenny, in a Life of very high merit which he has not lived to complete with his own hand, 6 justly observes that “novels may not be read for biography, but biography may be used to elucidate novels, ” and it is only from this point of view that, in the following rapid survey of Disraeli’s principal writings, reference will be made to the events of his life, the most striking of which form part, for better or for worse, of our national history.
