SOURCE: “Disraeli's Political Trilogy and the Antinomic Structure of Imperial Desire,” in Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 22, No. 3, Spring, 1989, pp. 305-25.

In the following essay, Bivona discusses Disraeli's novels in relation to his political ambitions and ideals.

Recent history provides few examples of successful political careers founded on literary careers. When politicians turn to letters, they usually do so after leaving the political wars to beguile the hours of retirement by constructing overly-detailed, self-aggrandizing memoirs. Benjamin Disraeli's career is unique in this respect. The son of a collector of literary curiosities who was admired by Byron, Disraeli forced his way into “society” and thence into the House of Commons at least partly by cultivating a reputation as a somewhat unscrupulous literary figure. The notoriety which descended on him after he was revealed as the author of the roman à clef Vivian Grey, much discussed in London in the...