Her lack of education and modest social background led many in their circle to think Mrs Disraeli ‘common’. Occasionally she would astound fellow guests at parties with outlandish remarks, such as telling ladies admiring a painting of a nude Greek god, ‘You should see my Dizzy in the bath!’ Yet for all her flightiness and occasional gaffes, Mary Anne could show steely resolve in protecting and nurturing her husband’s genius. Often by the 1860s this meant downplaying her own increasingly poor health. Even when a clumsy footman shut her hand in the carriage door while accompanying Disraeli to
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