The Politics of Pleasure: A Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli - Couverture souple

'There's plenty to admire in this rollicking romp of a biography, which puts the pursuit of pleasure - both Disraeli's and ours - at its heart . . . Kuhn's book manages to be both scholarly and huge fun. It's a rare combination in non-fiction, and he has done wonderfully to pull it off'
Mail on Sunday
'I thrilled to [Kuhn's] diligent and allusive method which reinforces the notion of Disraeli's complex and magnetic personality'
Daily Telegraph
In The Politics of Pleasure William Kuhn dusts off Benjamin Disraeli's reputation as an 'eminent Victorian' and reveals him to be Britain's most flamboyant Prime Minister yet. A dandy, an inveterate social climber, bon vivant and incorrigible myth-maker, Disraeli loved aristocratic glamour and gossiping with Queen Victoria in the hour before dinner. He also wrote sparkling novels that included important autobiographical materials. Kuhn shows how these novels were the memoirs Disraeli never wrote and in doing so explores Disraeli's love affair with high society, his devotion to the monarchy and his ambiguous sexuality. From all of these he derived the pleasure that lay at the core of his irreverent and flirtatious genius as a parliamentary speaker. In his zest for life and oratorical daring he reinvigorated the drama of democratic politics in a way that can still inspire us today, and this provocative reassessment reveals a figure altogether more attractive and interesting than previously imagined.
'An important biography of Britain's most extravagant Prime Minister, one that combines serious scholarship with readability'
Scotland on Sunday
£8.99
1-4165-2601-3

He was acknowledged to be a brilliant debater and parliamentarian, and is still England's first and only Jewish prime minister, but there was much more to Benjamin Disraeli than his career as a nineteenth-century politician. Dandy, novelist, social climber, he often behaved as if politics was merely a conduit to a more interesting life rather than an intellectual vocation.
This new biography takes four areas of Disraeli's complex character and through them constructs an entirely new portrait of one of our most fascinating prime ministers. Exploring Disraeli's attitudes to society, the monarchy, his own sexuality and his innate political daring, William Kuhn rediscovers his irreverence and sheds new light on the man and his legacy.
Drawing on primary sources and much original research, THE POLITICS OF PLEASURE seeks to restore the core characteristic of humanity to someone who has long been judged merely another eminent but worthy Victorian. It also explores the game of politics as Disraeli saw it -- the fun and pleasure of it, as a means of persuading the electorate to take an interest in a way that often seems lost today.