Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair

Nils Clausson (University of Regina)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1870

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Romance

Resources

Lothair (1870) was composed in year following Benjamin Disraeli’s first term as Prime Minister, which ended in late 1868 with the Conservative Party’s defeat in the November general election. It became an instant bestseller, going through seven editions in 1870. Despite its initial popularity and critical praise—both Edmond Gosse and J. A. Froude judged it to be the best of Disraeli’s novels, a judgment later endorsed by Robert Blake, who thought it “perhaps the best constructed work from Disraeli’s pen” (520)—for the last 50 years it has been virtually ignored by both readers and critics despite appearing in Oxford’s English Novels series in 1975.

The incident that seems to have provided Disraeli with …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

3733 words

Citation: Clausson, Nils. "Lothair". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 April 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=26507, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Save this article