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December 29, 2014. A delightful picture of gardenesque planting can be found in Disraeli's high-flown romantic novel, Lothair; written in 1870, it describes a park planted in about 1800 with all the trees as specimens, no longer in the belts and clumps of Capability Brown. Page 66 The Pleasure Garden An Illustrated History of British Gardening.
- Introduction
- Lothair-Mania
- A Political Bildungsroman
- The Political Role of Religion
- Secret Societies and Roman Catholic Conspiracy
- Hebraism and Hellenism
- A Mild Satire on The English Aristocracy
- ‘God Works by Races’
- Reception
- Conclusion
After his resignation from the ministry in 1868, Disraeli returned once again to literature. On 2 May 1870, Longmans, Green and Co. published his new novel in three volumes, Lothair, which blended the silver-fork convention of his earlier novels with reflections on the Catholic and the Anglican Churches as the competing heirs to Judaism, the influe...
The novel, which reinvigorated both Disraeli’s literary fame and his political career, sparked Lothair-mania in both Europe and America. Lothair became the favourite topic of almost every drawing-room discussion in both Britain and America. Commercial products, including a perfume, a racehorse, and a clipper ship were given the name of the eponymou...
The novel, which Disraeli set in the years 1866-1868, recounts the adventures and spiritual dilemmas of a young Scottish aristocrat Lothair, apparently a marquis, who — after the death of his parents — was brought up by two guardians – his strict Presbyterian uncle, Lord Culloden – and a clergyman, who later ‘seceded from the Anglican communion and...
In Lothair, Disraeli is concerned with the political role of religion and the subversive activities of secret societies. Throughout the nineteenth century England was a Christian country with the Anglican Church as the preserver of state religion. The only substantial non-Christian faith was Judaism. As Anglicanism was the official religion in Engl...
Disraeli as an MP and next Prime Minister was becoming increasingly obsessed with the subversive activities of various secret societies in Europe and Britain. In a speech in the House of Commons in 1856, he claimed: There is in Italy a power which we seldom mention in this House... I mean the secret societies. It is useless to deny, because it is i...
When Lothair first met Mr Phoebus in London, he heard with bewilderment his striking racial views on Hebraism and Hellenism. Convinced of Aryan racial superiority, Phoebus tells Lothair that he admires the Aryan principles in art which were created by a ‘first-rate race’. ‘ARYAN principles’, said Mr. Phoebus; ‘not merely the study of Nature, but of...
When Lothair frankly admits that he is extremely ignorant of worldly knowledge, Phoebus consoles him that it is his strength and the great asset of the English aristocracy, the members of which do not read, speak only one language and excel in athletic sports like the ancient Greeks. ‘Do not regret it’, said Mr. Phoebus. ‘What you call ignorance is...
When Lothair visits Phoebus on his Aegean island, where he lives a comfortable life of a Hellenist ‘in the company of his beautiful Greek wife and her equally attractive sister’ (Buckle 160), the host greets him: ‘Welcome to an Aryan clime, an Aryan landscape, and an Aryan race! It will do you good after your Semitic hallucinations’ (173). Lothair’...
In spite of its great commercial success, the book was not very well received by critics, with the exception of those in the Times and the Pall Mall Gazette. Reviewers did not really understand whether Disraeli had written a novel about the Italian Risorgimento, a religious novel, or a ‘silver-fork’ romance about elegant lifestyle. In his review of...
Lothair, Disraeli’s penultimate published book, revives the style of his earlier ‘silver-fork’ novels, adds elements of romance in the tradition of Walter Scott's fiction, and conveys a clear political message to the young members of the English aristocracy suggesting that they may not lose their sense of duty for the nation and ought to persevere ...
Apr 12, 2020 · In addition to obvious problems with characterization, such as this “provoking immateriality of Lothair,” Disraeli’s book remains a “decided failure” as a “novel of purpose,” because its supposed "ruling idea,” the “encroachments of the Romish church,” completely lacks “conviction.”. The review closes with James ...
Church, Lothair illustrates Disraeli's cry for the supremacy of personal faith over institutional allegiance. And within its broader intellectual history, the novel's main focus emerges as a petition for belief in the face of unbelief. In what follows, this essay locates Lothair within the lineage of Disraeli's other religious novels.
Other articles where Lothair is discussed: Benjamin Disraeli: Conservative leader: …his followers, and his novel Lothair (3 vol., 1870), a political comedy, seemed to some of them undignified.
The duchess one of the greatest heiresses of Britain singularly beautify and gifted with native grace had married in her teens one of the wealthiest and most powerful of our nobles and scarcely order than herself.
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