Sayings of Disraeli

by Robert Blake (editor)

This series collects together the best-known aphorisms, epigrams and reflections of a wide variety of figures from antiquity to our own humorists and novelists, poets and philosophers, politicians and playwrights.

64 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Robert Norman William Blake, Baron Blake was an English historian. He is best known for his 1966 biography of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, and for The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill, which grew out of his 1968 Ford lectures. He was created a life peer as Baron Blake, of Braydeston in the County of Norfolk.

Lord Blake was editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, a Trustee of the British Museum, and Chairman of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.

Reviews

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sayings of Disraeli edited by Robert Blake (That Blake?) is a disappointment. Disraeli could be a lot more venomous and a lot more humorous. His reputation as a writer is not that great but there had to be more good stuff than is quoted here. In the case of the best of the bon mot and political quips there are likely many prior claims and cross claims. A chapter on Disraeli quips with challenged as to the original speaker might have added some bulk to this very short booklet ( 63 pages with lots of empty space).

Much of what is here is only as good as the reader’s intimate knowledge of Disraeli’s political contemporaries and factions. Many do not seem to be especially funny or insightful. If I can manage to remember any of the selections here, I may get to use them in some book discussions from Victorian and Regency reading groups, otherwise there is little in the Sayings of Disraeli to add to ones conversation.