DISRAELI, BENJAMIN, EARL OF BEACONSFIELD, VISCOUNT ...

born Dec. 21, 1804, London, Eng. died April 19, 1881, London Disraeli byname Dizzy British statesman and novelist who was twice prime minister (1868, 187480) and who provided the Conservative Party with a twofold policy of Tory democracy and imperialism. Additional reading Novels and Tales by the Earl of Beaconsfield, Hughenden ed., 11 vol. (1881); Benjamin Disraeli: Letters, ed. by J.A.W. Gunn et al., vol. 1 (1982 ), containing many items never before published; Lord Beaconsfield's Letters, 18301852, ed. by Ralph Disraeli (1887); Letters from Benjamin Disraeli to Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry, 18371861, ed. by the Marchioness of Londonderry (1938); The Letters of Disraeli to Lady Bradford and Lady Chesterfield, ed. by the Marquis of Zetland, 2 vol. (1929); and Selected Speeches of . . . the Earl of Beaconsfield, ed. by Thomas E. Kebbel, 2 vol. (1882). A standard biography is William F. Monypenny and G.E. Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, 6 vol. (191020; rev. ed., 2 vol., 1929, reissued in 4 vol., 1968). See also Andr Maurois, Disraeli (1928; originally published in French, 1927); Robert Blake, Disraeli (1966), and Disraeli and Gladstone (1969); and Richard W. Davis, Disraeli (1976). A popular biography is Hesketh Pearson, Dizzy (1951). For his early life, see B.R. Jerman, The Young Disraeli (1960). A good short life is Harold Beeley, Disraeli (1936). Richard A. Levine, Benjamin Disraeli (1968), is a study of the novels, particularly Coningsby, Sybil, and Tancred; Daniel R. Schwarz, Disraeli's Fiction (1979), is a positive criticism of his works.