Benjamin Disraeli's The Young Duke follows George Augustus Frederick, Duke of St. James, a fabulously wealthy heir whose fortune, upbringing, and future become the battlefield for family ambition. When his father dies, the will enrages the politically powerful Fitz-pompey clan by naming Mr. Dacre, a Catholic gentleman and old friend, as guardian instead of the expected Earl. From that moment, inheritance, prejudice, and the struggle to shape a noble life drive the novel's satirical drama. The Fitz-pompeys win the boy with gifts and indulgence, weakening Dacre's influence and teaching him vanity, ease, and dependence. As George grows, he becomes a self-conscious, self-absorbed young aristocrat, more devoted to horses, appearance, and social display than to study. At Oxford he courts recklessness, then abandons the university for Europe, where travel gives him polish, manners, and worldly accomplishments without real depth. Returning to London, he is launched into high society, where salons and dinners become stages for wit, vanity, and political influence. Amid the glitter, Caroline, May Dacre, Lady Afy, and Charles Annesley sharpen the novel's romantic and social tensions, while Disraeli satirizes privilege, appetite, and the emptiness hidden beneath elegance. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

À propos de l'auteur

Disraeli, Benjamin

Benjamin Disraeli, later Earl of Beaconsfield, was a strikingly original figure in Victorian Britain: born in London in 1804 to a Jewish family, educated outside the usual pathways of the political elite, and driven by ambition, wit, and an instinct for self-invention. He first made his name as a novelist before becoming one of the most influential statesmen of the nineteenth century, rising to serve twice as Prime Minister and helping define the modern Conservative Party. His fiction and public life were closely linked, each shaped by his fascination with power, society, identity, and the drama of personal advancement. Across his literary career, he became known for sharp social observation, glittering dialogue, and a keen eye for the tensions between class, wealth, ambition, and moral purpose. His novels often explore the allure and cost of status, the instability of identity, and the way public life can be both theatrical and deeply consequential, themes that still feel vivid in an age preoccupied with image, politics, and social mobility. Disraeli’s legacy endures because he was not only a novelist and politician, but also a master of style who understood how narratives shape nations and individuals alike. Readers today continue to find in his work a blend of satire, elegance, and insight into the ambitions that drive society. He will especially appeal to those who enjoy socially observant fiction, political drama, and the pleasures of a writer who brings intelligence, irony, and grandeur to the page.