Review: The Disraeli myth is consequential but endangered, a new book shows
Writing about Benjamin Disraeli as an American, as I do, can be lonely. The 19 th century British prime minister and 12-time novelist’s only recent appearance in the American pop consciousness came in a cameo on the animated television show “The Family Guy.” In one of the show’s famous cutaway gags Disraeli turns to the TV audience and intones dolefully “You don’t know who I am.” That walk-on is mentioned by Emily Jones in the opening pages of her excellent new book The Disraeli Myth: The Making of a Conservative Tradition. But Jones cites it as evidence of Disraeli’s continued relevance and leaves out the point of the bit: Disraeli is passé . This is a lesson I also learned when I tried to sell my near mint copy of a scholarship-packed edition of Disraeli’s first novel Vivian Grey at a hip used bookstore in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. The bookstore employee offered me a quarter of its sticker price and explained, with a look of remorseful pity, “Not too many people are loo...