Disraeli’s novels and his memories
Disraeli's Reminiscences. Edited by Helen M. Swartz and Marvin Svrartz. Hamish Hamilton. 166 pp. Introduction, bibliography, appendices, illustrations, index. N.Z. price $14.35. On the Side of the Angels? By E. A. Horsman. John Mclndoe for the University of Otago Press. 64 pp. Notes. N.Z. price $3.20. (Reviewed by Stuart Perry) Although both these books deal primarily with Disraeli’s social and literary activities, with his political life usually at one remove, there is no great resemblance between them. The “Reminiscences” are perhaps a little less than that title claims: as Disraeli left them they were in fact on loose sheets, but were tantamount to entries in a commonplace book, no more than source material awaiting, in default of his own. the touch of the discriminating editors who now present them for the delectation of the modem reader. Witty and occasionally wickedly amusing they bring back the period of Disraeli’s struggles to reach the front; first rucking his way across the back of Peel, only to find Lord George Bentmck become leader before him, then finding himself for a long time denied the primacy for which his talents seemed so admirably to qualify him. As a Jew he was scarcely the obvious leader of a party which represented the privilege of the landed aristocracy. Clues to the reasons why he had to wait so long, and to the reasons why some did not wish to serve under him, are to be found in both books, and perhaps most readily in the introduction to the “Reminiscences,” which does provide a summary of his political career, as background to the personal notes and asides that follow. These peter out in 1865, some time before Disraeli's first Prime Ministership. Professor and Mrs Swartz in their introduction devote some attention to Young England, a group Disraeli used
to further his rivalry with Peel — and also his literary aspirations. From a social and literary point of view he owed a good deal to this group, but its direct political help proved to be negligible. In “Coningsby” (1844), “Sybil” (1845) and “Tancred” (1847) he combined his talent for satirical observation with an attempt to examine problems of contemporary political, social and religious life.” Politics absorbed most of his energies for the next two decades, and although these were a rich period in English fiction their achievements passed him by, as Professor Horsman shows. The Horsman book is brief but fascinating: it comprises the Macmillan Brown Lectures for 1973. Obviously the lectures were not worked on as an exercise: they contain the distillation of years of unforced exploration and sympathetic, if detached, assessment. Within the compass of 64 admirable pages there is enough to refresh one’s recollection of novels perhaps only half read long ago, and to place or understand the placing of those that never got on .o one’s reading list at all. Professor Horsman’s gentle debunking, his occasional unqualified tribute, his understanding of motive and description of it without malice or extenuation are criticism at its best. Notably, the political situation, Disraeli’s slightly equivocal social position, Disraeli's general views at the time of each approach to novel writing are presented in some detail, together with the immediate variation on the general theme, which is perhaps too simply stated by saying that Disraeli guys what he sympathises with and sympathises with what he guys. Under it all is the serious purpose of implanting in the reader’s mind acceptance of the fact that the author is at home among the landed aristocracy and gentry, a campaign which he fought on other fronts as well. In pursuing this aim in his novels he has a lot of incidental fun.
It is rather donnish fun, and without the quizzical guidance of such a don as Professor Horsman a great part of it might have escaped the modern reader, so that our understanding of the author would have been slighter. There is, of course, progression. (Robert Blake has established that “Endymion,” almost Disraeli’s last book, was written partly in 1870, partly between 1874 and 1880 while he was Prime Minister.) Professor Horsman suggests that here the drive of egotism is displaced by gentleness “which gives an old man’s delighted glance back at the things he has enjoyed, and has considerable charm.” Disraeli’s usual theme of the young man making his way, somewhere between the author and the author parodied, appears again in the last few of his fairly numerous books: ‘‘Lothair,’’ which preceded “Endymion,” and the manuscript now called Falconet, unfinished and untitled by the author. There is also some preoccupation with the secret societies of the time, more relevant to events then than now. All that Professor Horsman has to say about these things contibutes to his main theme: he writes economically and from consideration at all levels and needs no more space than he has allowed himself. His subject Disraeli himself, is another proposition. At times Disraeli spreads himself, at times his brief paragraphs are not much more than shorthand notes for future reference, or good stories put down so as not to forget them. Had he ever written his autobiography or woven these notes into organised reminiscences there would have been life and colour. Louis Napoleon, Louis Philippe, Dumas pere, Dumas fils, a host of English acquaintances in politics, in society and at the Court of a Queen who admired him: this pageant could scarcely have been sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought like Benjamin in search of his youth. Posterity, in the person of these modern writers, has done its best to repair the deficiency.
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Press, 17 July 1976, Page 15
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934Disraeli’s novels and his memories Press, 17 July 1976, Page 15
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