[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
01/01/2015
When Mary Ann Evans Lewis Disraeli died in 1872, the Times of London reported that the private history of her marriage to Benjamin Disraeli, a notable Victorian-era politician, would be "remembered as a beautiful episode in political life." Hay (Young Romantics) aims to re-create that "beautiful episode" in this dual biography, the first monograph to focus extensively on the nature of their union. A sailor's daughter who became a viscountess, Mary Ann Disraeli inspired much curiosity and tongue wagging in her day as a wealthy and rather eccentric widow who was less educated and much older than her husband. Hay's goal is to strip their marriage of mythmaking, and she uses a rich array of archival material to accomplish this end. The result is a painstakingly researched narrative of their lives. Hays is a specialist in literature, thus this account takes a decidedly interdisciplinary bent, with detailed references to the novels of the period and sustained attention to works penned by Disraeli himself. She contends that both "epistolary" and "silver-fork" novels were literary models for their romance. Because Hay chooses to tell the couple's story against the backdrop of such allusions, the political and historical context in which their marriage unfolded is of secondary if not tertiary importance. VERDICT Only for the most serious students of 19th-century British studies.—Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ
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.
