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Benjamin Disraeli - An Unconventional Biography - Vol I
Benjamin Disraeli An Unconventional Biography Vol I Author:Wilfrid Meynell BENJAMIN DISRAELI SOME PRESS NOTICES. The real Disraeli. This is decidedly the most fitting work presented to admirers of Lord Beaconsfield, who have wished for a personal memoir that they could cherish with some permanent pleasure and satisfac- tion. PallMall Gazette. We are able to give almost unreserved praise to Mr. Meynells captivating volu... more »me upon a fascinating, but difficult, subject. His big book is of the deepest interest, almost from the first page to the last. The great value of the work, the picture of Disraeli as a man, is, in fact, the first that we have received. Mr. Meynells Life will both be appreciated at the moment and lastingly consulted. Athenceum. BENJAMIN DISRAELI AN UNCONVENTIONAL BIOGRAPHY - WILFRID MEYNELL By With 40 Illustrations, including gravure Plates IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I SECOND EDITION 2 Photo- TORONTO THE MUSSON BOOK COMPANY ME UTAN TO WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT, OF CRABET PARK, SUSSEX, AND SHEYKH OBEYD, CAIRO COSMOPOLITAN DEAR BLUNT, A dedication is an authors -per- quisite more acceptable than even the cheque of his spendthrift publisher. For this uncovenanted page ceded to the scribbler is his to cede again twice blessed is he to receive andto bestow. Shelley, with his nosegay to give, cried, Oh, to whom But already his heart well knew the destination. I, for mypart, with this bunch of Primroses to give, thrust it in quick fancy first towards this friendly hand, then towards that. Indeed the formula of dedication seems ready made u To the most severe of critics as she is in all that concerns Dizzy, but a Perfect Wife And there are, as we know, names of other ladies that suffice of themselves to make a dull page shine. Tet among these I look in vain for a Dizzy-connoisseur vi Dedication so discriminating as you ungrateful they to their fastiaious admirer and failing in that ampler faculty of worship allowed them by our Sex with a generosity suspiciously ungrudging. True, the townsman who brings to you his Primroses , risks bringingyou those, staled, that were freshly gathered in your own Sussex copses nor am I sanguine enough to hope, in placing your name on the forehead of my book, that its pages will tell you of Disraeli aught that you do not already know, and that we have not dwelt upon together. But there are auguries, for all that, in favour of this conjunction of his name and yours. You, like him, have loved the Arab, man and horse and it is my faith that had you lived of old in Egypt, you, vexing the souls of Pharaohs, would have solaced and shortened the captivity of the Children of Israel Disraelis own fathers. Egypt for the Egyptians on your lips had then meant Let this people go And I recall the time when, even in our Island, and under Hanoverians, you, a Poet, pursued the fickle jade Politics, enamoured of her in England, in Ireland, in Egypt enduring sorrow for her sake, yet not living happily with her ever after. Disraeli, on the other hand, paramount in Parliament, was hooted from Parnassus. The pleasure of the antithesis tempts me to make allusion to this one failure of his in a Dedication career that otherwise reconciles, over the range of romance, and to the very verge of miracle faith with fulfilment -purpose vii with achievement wish with accomplishment dream with daily reality. Believe me, dear Blunt, PALACE COURT HOUSE, W,, September, 1903. Ever devotedlyyours in Dizzy WILFRID MEYNELL. DISRAELI husband, PREFACE the Man Disraeli as son, brother, friend is the theme of this book. It is an informal study of Temperament in its way, and in his own words, A Psychological Romance. A record of his public acts not here attempted, except so far as those acts illustrate his personality would be nothing short of a History of the reign of Victoria. Our England was, indeed, his chess- board and I take for granted in the reader, or dispense with it, an acquaintance with the progress and issue of the game, of the detailed moves of his pawns, his knights, his bishops, his Queen even...« less