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Benjamin Disraeli Letters

Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1857-1859, Volume 7

M.G. WIEBE General Editor
MARY S. MILLAR Co-editor
ANN P. ROBSON Co-editor
ELLEN L. HAWMAN Research Associate
Series: Letters of Benjamin Disraeli
Volume: 7
Copyright Date: 2004
Published by: University of Toronto Press
https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442671300
Pages: 650
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442671300
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  • Book Info
    Benjamin Disraeli Letters
    Book Description:

    Benjamin Disraeli was perhaps the most colourful Prime Minister in British history. This seventh volume of the highly acclaimedBenjamin Disraeli Lettersedition shows also that he was a dedicated, resourceful, and farsighted statesman. It contains 670 letters written between 1857 and 1859. They address friends, family, political colleagues, and, not least, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

    During this period, Disraeli shepherded a fragile Conservative government through the Indian Mutiny, the Second Opium War with China, the Orsini bomb plot, and the Franco-Austrian-Piedmontese War, only to fail at home over parliamentary reform. Day-by-day politics and behind-the-scenes strategy dominate, while lighter-hearted letters to friends and family reveal the private Disraeli?s charm and wit.

    With an appendix of 115 newly found letters dating from 1825, as well as information on 219 unfound letters, full annotations to each letter, an exhaustive name-and-subject index and a comprehensive introduction, this volume will be a vital resource for new understanding of this enigmatic statesman.

    eISBN: 978-1-4426-7130-0
    Subjects: History

Table of Contents

  1. Front Matter
    (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    (pp. v-v)
  3. ILLUSTRATIONS
    (pp. vi-vi)
  4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    (pp. vii-viii)
  5. INTRODUCTION
    (pp. ix-xxiii)

    ‘We must accommodate the settlement of 1832 to the England of 1859.’ With this determined declaration, Disraeli sums up the tone of his letters in Volume VII, 1857-9. When Volume VI ended in December 1856, with the Derby Conservatives four years out of office, he could muster only restrained optimism. In Volume VII, however, there is a new sense of purpose, of moving, as the 1850s close, into a new era and of taking British politics with him. From opposition in 1857, he moved with a vigour and resolution which culminated in his party’s return to power for eighteen months...

  6. EDITORIAL PRINCIPLES
    (pp. xxiv-xxv)
  7. DISRAELI CHRONOLOGY 1857–1859
    (pp. xxvi-xl)
  8. ABBREVIATIONS IN VOLUME SEVEN
    (pp. xli-xlv)
  9. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF LETTERS 1857–1859
    (pp. xlvi-2)
  10. Letters
    (pp. 3-442)

    I wish you a happy New Year from the Imperial City.

    It is the first letter, that I have written this year, & I will accept it as a good omen, that it is addressed to Mount Braddon.

    Ten years, / as long as the siege of Troy, since I found myself last in this place.

    Troy could not be more changed in the time. Everything squalid has been pulled down, or driven out of sight – a city of palaces & glittering streets, & illimitable parks & pleasure gardens, & lakes & / gondolas, & beautiful birds & deer. The Thuilleries & Louvre, joined, form a kingly residence...

  11. I Pre-l857 Letters Newly Found
    (pp. 443-513)
  12. II The Derby government of 1858–1859
    (pp. 514-520)
  13. III Disraeli’s memorandum on administrative reform
    (pp. 521-521)
  14. IV Disraeli’s memoirs, extracts 1857–1859
    (pp. 522-523)
  15. RECIPIENTS, VOLUME SEVEN
    (pp. 524-527)
  16. INDEX TO VOLUME SEVEN
    (pp. 528-578)