Author | Benjamin Disraeli |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | The Times |
Publication date | 1905 |
Media type |
Falconet is the name generally given to the untitled, final and unfinished novel of the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, who died before completing it.
Disraeli started work on his final novel in late 1880, a few months before his death in April 1881. [1] It ends mid-sentence one paragraph into its tenth chapter. The work was first published in 1905 in The Times , twenty-four years after Disraeli’s death and was entitled Falconet since Disraeli usually named his novels after their main character. [2]
Joseph Toplady Falconet is the third son of the owner of a successful bank. He is determined to uphold religious traditionalism and talks too long and earnestly, sometimes on rumours which turn out to be untrue (such as the return of the slave trade in the Red Sea).
Early in the novel an unknown middle-aged gentleman takes a hackney carriage journey from the London port to a hotel accompanied by a buddhist called Kusinara whom he has met on the voyage and who has come to England to investigate reports that it is in decline. Arriving on a Sunday when the streets are deserted, he is pleasantly surprised.
The novel then introduces Lady Claribel Bertram who is a remarried widow. Lord Bertram has a son from his first marriage, Lord Gaston, who got expelled from public school, university and a foreign embassy before becoming an MP, which position he also quit. He holds radical views which were starting to influence Lady Bertram, until she became acquainted with Gaston’s successor as MP, Falconet, who visits her regularly to expound his views at length.
A neighbour of Falconet's father dies and his brother, Mr Hartmann, and niece come to live in the deceased’s home. Falconet's parents are concerned that Mr Hartmann is not a churchgoer. Mr Hartmann is an acquaintance of the unknown gentleman and Kusinara and shares the view that mankind needs to be eradicated and that a vehicle for achieving this is religion.
At a ball Lady Bertram is approached by an elegant man saying that the hostess (Lady Clanmore) has asked him to attend her. The gentleman says that his friends admire her, respect her views and that she could in some sense lead them. Lady Bertram has no idea what he is talking about but, out of vanity, plays along. When Lady Clanmore approaches, the gentleman disappears and it transpires that nobody knows his identity.
The novel ends in describing how Kusinara is well acquainted with the Falconets.
A review of the novel appeared in The Spectator when the incomplete work was finally published in 1905. [3] Although complimentary about some aspects of the novel (such as its “amazing facility in portraiture” and its “peculiar brand of epigram of which Disraeli alone had the secret”) the reviewer was overall disappointed since Disraeli’s “wisdom and acumen had ebbed,” resulting in, “the comic spirit [being] a little weary.”
Disraeli’s biographer Robert Blake, however, wrote that, “the novel shows no signs of failing talent….and one can only regret that it was never finished." [1]
Falconet is generally regarded as a cruel parody of Disraeli’s long-time political rival William Gladstone. [4] [3] [1] [2] Falconet shares with Gladstone his religious fervour, intelligence and oratorical style but is described as “essentially a prig”, “arrogant and peremptory” and having “a complete deficiency in the sense of humour”. [5]
It has also been suggested that Lady Bertram was "one more memory of Lady Palmerston" [2] and that the character of Hartmann, a nihilist, was inspired by the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia which took place whilst Disraeli was writing the novel. [1]
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, was a British statesman, Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the British Empire and military action to expand it, both of which were popular among British voters. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been born Jewish.
Disraeli is a 1929 American pre-Code historical film directed by Alfred E. Green, released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., and adapted by Julien Josephson (screenplay) and De Leon Anthony (titles) from the 1911 play Disraeli by Louis N. Parker.
Mary Anne Disraeli, 1st Viscountess Beaconsfield was a British peeress and society figure who was the wife of the British statesman Benjamin Disraeli.
Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, in 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories with many characters. Issues include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Despite comic elements, Middlemarch uses realism to encompass historical events: the 1832 Reform Act, early railways, and the accession of King William IV. It looks at medicine of the time and reactionary views in a settled community facing unwelcome change. Eliot began writing the two pieces that formed the novel in 1869–1870 and completed it in 1871. Initial reviews were mixed, but it is now seen widely as her best work and one of the great English novels.
Phineas Finn is a novel by Anthony Trollope and the name of its leading character. The novel was first published as a monthly serial from 1867 to 1868 and issued in book form in 1869. It is the second of the "Palliser" series of novels. Its sequel, Phineas Redux, is the fourth novel in the series.
Hughenden Manor, Hughenden, Buckinghamshire, England, is a Victorian mansion, with earlier origins, that served as the country house of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield. It is now owned by the National Trust and open to the public. It sits on the brow of the hill to the west of the main A4128 road that links Hughenden to High Wycombe.
Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Earl of Cranbrook, was a prominent British Conservative politician. He held cabinet office in every Conservative government between 1858 and 1892. He served as Home Secretary from 1867 to 1868, Secretary of State for War from 1874 to 1878, Lord President of the Council from 1885 to 1886 and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster until 1886. In 1878, he was appointed Secretary of State for India and thereafter was elevated to the peerage, entering the House of Lords as Viscount Cranbrook. He has been described as a moderate, middle-of-the-road Anglican, and a key ally of Disraeli.
Robert Norman William Blake, Baron Blake,, was an English historian and peer. He is best known for his 1966 biography of Benjamin Disraeli, and for The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill, which grew out of his 1968 Ford lectures.
Frederick Greenwood was an English journalist, editor, and man of letters. He completed Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Wives and Daughters after her death in 1865.
Endymion is a novel published in 1880 by Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, the former Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was paid an advance of £10,000 for it. It was the last novel Disraeli published before his death. He had been writing another, Falconet, when he died; it was published, incomplete, after his death.
At Bertram's Hotel is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 15 November 1965 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1966. The novel features the detective Miss Marple staying at an upmarket hotel that is at the centre of a mysterious disappearance.
Mansfield Park is the third published novel by the English author Jane Austen, first published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton. A second edition was published in 1816 by John Murray, still within Austen's lifetime. The novel did not receive any public reviews until 1821.
Coningsby, or The New Generation is an English political novel by Benjamin Disraeli, published in 1844.
The Watsons is an abandoned novel by Jane Austen, probably begun about 1803. There have been a number of arguments advanced as to why she did not complete it, and other authors have since attempted the task. A continuation by Austen's niece was published in 1850. The manuscript fragment itself was published in 1871. Further completions and adaptations of the story have continued to the present day.
Coningsby Ralph Disraeli, was a British Conservative politician, and MP for Altrincham.
The amateur detective, or sometimes gentleman detective, is a type of fictional character. He has long been a staple of crime fiction, particularly in detective novels and short stories set in the United Kingdom in the Golden Age. The heroes of these adventures are often members of the British gentry or gentlemen by conduct. They are sometimes contrasted with professional police force detectives from the working classes.
Lothair (1870) was a late novel by Benjamin Disraeli, the first he wrote after his first term as Prime Minister. It deals with the comparative merits of the Catholic and Anglican churches as heirs of Judaism, and with the topical question of Italian unification. Though Lothair was a hugely popular work among 19th century readers, it now to some extent lies in the shadow of the same author's Coningsby and Sybil. Lothair reflects anti-Catholicism of the sort that was popular in Britain, and which fueled support for Italian unification ("Risorgimento").
Contarini Fleming: A Psychological Romance is the fourth and most autobiographical novel written by Benjamin Disraeli, who would later become a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was published anonymously in May 1832 but despite the author considering it his best novel, was a financial failure.
Henrietta Temple is the ninth novel written by Benjamin Disraeli, who would later become a Prime Minister of Britain.
The Young Duke - a moral tale, though gay is the third novel written by Benjamin Disraeli who would later become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Despite its moderate success, Disraeli came to dislike the novel which was a hindrance to his political career.
{{cite book}}
: |work=
ignored (help)