As Robert Blake stated in his one volume masterpiece "Disraeli" this originally 6-volume work by Monypenny and Buckle is both a "quarry and a classic." It contains a wealth of correspondence from Disraeli both is his public capacity as a minister of state and his private writings to numerous friends, relative and confidantes at various periods of his life. Reading this lengthy biography an objective observer can easily be persuaded that Disraeli was perhaps not only the most prolific but also the most interesting correspondent to ever write in the English language. The biography itself is not of the magnificent quality of Blake's Disraeli but holds the interest of the reader at every stage. At times it seems that Disraeli is his own biographer inasmuch as protracted portions of certain volumes contain nothing but his letters, but why should they not? He had a sparkling style in writing on even the most mundane subjects and the authors wisely allow him to be the primary spokesman and reporter on many of the events, both major and minor, of his and his country's life. This is an old work but repays the reader for his time, and one comes away with a larger understanding and esteem for a statesman who truly understood the nature of conservatism.

This text is a concise guide to the politics of a period dominated by the eponymous statesmen. The two individuals, both originally from the same political party - the Tory or Conservative Party - came to represent markedly opposing positions on the political spectrum, and between them sustained a personal bitterness that enlivened the parliamentary politics of the Mid and High Victorian periods. The Anglican - though Jewish by race, and mindset - Benjamin Disraeli only managed to escape his myriad debts late in life, and always had an eccentric approach to the pressing questions of the day (on being asked on whose side in the great debate on Darwin's recently propounded theory of evolution he stood, Disraeli quipped that he was "on the side of the Angels"). Neverthless, this outsider - who also found the time to be the world's highest paid novelist of his day - came to lead the great party of the establishment. His rival, William Gladstone, came from a wealthy, landed family, was educated at Eton & Oxford, in the bosom of the British ruling classes. Yet this dyed in the wool High Anglican, came to lead a party that was to systematically curtail the rights of the landowning classes and uproot the privileges of the established church in the United Kingdom. Naturally, the book principally focuses upon the High Victorian period of British politics, that is from the passage of the Second Reform Act of 1867, through Gladstone's first ministry (1868-1874) and onto Disraeli's second ministry (1874-1880). Essential information is placed in context by a judicious selection of contemporaneous source material inviting readers to evaluate the record of the two individuals for themselves. If anything, the book's utility is hindered by an overly cautious approach on the part of the author to deliver his own assessment of the history of the period. Happily, the introduction succeeds in placing the men very much in their milieu, and an extensive bibliography gives pointers for readers to pursue their studies of the period & personalities further. The author, a tutor at Brentwood School, Essex, in the United Kingdom, has written a range of intermediate level texts geared for the schools market. This book serves as a benchmark for all attempts to bring to life the struggles, issues and drama of British politics & society in that period.