To Thomas Carlyle he was "not worth his weight in cold bacon," but, to Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli was "the kindest Minister" she had ever had and a "dear and devoted friend." In this masterly biography by England's "outstanding popular historian" (A.N. Wilson), Christopher Hibbert reveals the personal life of one of the most fascinating men of the nineteenth century and England's most eccentric Prime Minister. A superb speaker, writer, and wit, Disraeli did not intend to be a politician. Born into a family of Jewish merchants, Disraeli was a conspicuous dandy, constantly in debt, and enjoyed many scandalous affairs until, in 1839, he married an eccentric widow twelve years older than him. As an antidote to his grief at his wife's death in 1872, he threw himself into politics becoming Prime Minister for the second time in 1874, much to the Queen's delight.

Acknowledgements * Part One: 1804-46 * Boyhood * A Young Man of High Fashion * A Continental Holiday * Mental Breakdown * Travels and Adventures * 'The Jew d'Esprit' * The Candidate * Affairs * The Reforming Tory * Debts and Duns * The Member for Maidstone * 'Most Brilliant and Triumphant Speeches' * 'A Pretty Little Woman, a Flirt and a Rattle' * A Troubled Courtship * A Happy Marriage * The Brilliant Orator * Young England * Coningsby and Sybil * Damning Attacks * Tancred * Part Two: 1846-81 * The Jockey and the Jew * The Country Gentleman * The Chancellor * Marital Difficulties * Balls and Banquets * Visits and Visitors * Fetes and Follies * Distinguished Persons and Private Secretaries * The 'Potent Wizard' * A Guest as Balmoral and Osborne * Ministed in Attendance * The Widower * Female Friends * Prime Minister Again * Troubles at Court * Earl of Beaconsfield and Viscount Hughenden of Hughenden * Berlin * The 'Guardian Angel' * The Last Act * 'A Wise and Worldly Man' * References * Index