Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli: A Strange Romance

by Daisy Hay

Overview

When Mary Anne Lewis met Benjamin Disraeli, she was married to Wyndham Lewis, a rich, mildly successful politician at the center of nineteenth-century British high society. The three became friends and with his deep pockets Wyndham helped Disraeli—young, ambitious, and swimming in debt—get his start in the political arena. Mary Anne even referred to him as her "Parliamentary protégé." But when Wyndham suddenly died of a heart attack, Mary Anne's friendship with Disraeli (fifteen years her junior) soon evolved into a peculiarly romantic and undoubtedly advantageous marriage: Mary Anne avoided life as a widow, while Benjamin used her financial means to stay out of prison and make a run for office.

Anecdotally the Disraelis cultivated an outrageous reputation. Once asked if he had read any new novels, Benjamin reportedly replied, "When I want to read a novel, I write one." Mary Anne, on the other hand, supposedly once told Queen Victoria that she always slept with her arms around her husband's neck. "My wife is a very clever woman," Benjamin said, "but she can never remember who came first, the Greeks or the Romans."

An unusual story of Victorian romance and politics, Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli moves beyond the anecdotes to reveal the interior life of one of Britain's most influential couples. Often eclipsed by Benjamin, Mary Anne had at least as much political acumen as her husband, and this dual biography shows that she was frequently his voice of reason. In the wake of British Romanticism, Daisy Hay examines the paths available to women like Mary Anne, and chronicles a relationship that is surprising, unconventional, and deeply inspiring.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374536008
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	02/09/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Daisy Hay is the author of Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives (FSG, 2010) and has a PhD in English literature from Cambridge University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Part 1 At the Beginning (1792-1839)

1 Storytelling 3

2 Tall Tales 17

3 Tittle-Tattle 44

4 Fairy Story 68

Part 2 Ever After (1840-1867)

5 On Heroes and Hero-Worship 109

6 Household Words 142

7 Princess Nobody 169

8 The Rose and the Ring 196

Part 3 Once Upon a Time (1868-1873)

9 Happy Ending 225

10 Afterwards 243

List of Illustrations 263

Select Bibliography 265

Notes 271

Acknowledgements 293

Index 295

Editorial Reviews

[A] remarkable book . . . Hay's thoughtful and measured prose, filled with quotations from letters, missives, and love poems, is a page-turner of a historical, political, and feminist romance. A superlative achievement.” —Eloise Kinney, Booklist (starred review)

“Through strong scholarship and deft storytelling . . . Hays's vivid account offers an empathetic, modern understanding of a passionate, seemingly mismatched couple.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Hay provides insight into the marriage of convenience that became a love story to rival Victoria and Albert's . . . With this new addition to Disraeli-ana, readers will be enlightened by the younger man and how alike he was to Mary Anne, who became the love of his life.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A vivid portrait of a marriage . . . a tour de force, written with intelligence and compassion.” —Paula Byrne, The Times

“A warm and rounded portrait.” —Tim Bouverie, The Daily Telegraph

“A beguiling account of a very unusual marriage. . . [Hay goes] beyond the conventional chronological narrative to discover the roads not taken, the unspoken realities beneath the factual skeleton. . .Hay brings alive a marriage that has always been a puzzle to Disraeli's conventional biographers with skill and imagination.” —The Sunday Times

“All marriages have their mysteries, political marriages more than most. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli was stranger than fiction, but every bit as compelling.” —Robert McCrum, The Observer

From the Publisher

2014-11-04
A dual biography of Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) and Mary Anne Lewis.Before he was Queen Victoria's close friend, Disraeli failed as a lawyer, stock speculator and newspaper proprietor, but even as he found success, he sank into vast debt but found a satisfying, useful relationship. Hay (Young Romantics: The Tangled Lives of English Poetry's Greatest Generation, 2010) provides insight into the marriage of convenience that became a love story to rival Victoria and Albert's. These two middle-class people succeeded as Mary Anne charmed the voters and Disraeli's intense, clear outlook brought them fame and position. Mary Anne was a sailor's daughter first married to Wyndham Lewis, owner of Welsh ironworks. Also a marriage of convenience, Lewis adored Mary Anne, and she lived happily on his wealth. She secretly supported her brother, paying his debts and buying his military promotions. At the time, Disraeli was always in fear of debtors prison, as his poetry and the romantic silver fork novels he wrote could never pay his debts. Lewis and Mary Anne propelled him into Parliament. He enjoyed Parliamentary privilege as opposed to debtors prison, but his eventual marriage to the widowed and wealthy Mary Anne paid only a fraction of his debt. She never knew how desperate he actually was, and she was deemed vulgar and graceless by the upper classes. However, the queen's favor assured Disraeli a place in society. Hay provides interesting discussions of how Mary Anne's devotion to her brother, and Disraeli's to his sister, created major deceptions in their marriage. Mary Anne's political acumen and her adulation by his constituency got him elected, and his brilliance made him a leader. With this new addition to Disraeli-ana, readers will be enlightened by the younger man and how alike he was to Mary Anne, who became the love of his life.

Kirkus Reviews