Tancred; Or, The New Crusade

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881) was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. Disraeli was well-known as a literary and social figure, though his novels are not generally regarded as part of the Victorian literary canon. Invented the political novel, of which Sybil and Vivian Grey they became perhaps the best-known even today.

A great master of the political novel, Disraeli may be said to have originated the genre. Disraeli's early books were all romans a clef, novels in which he introduced real personages who were easily recognizable beneath fictitious names. With Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845), and Tancred (1847), Disraeli produced his best work. All of them are political novels and more or less comprise a trilogy, since the same characters appear and reappear. In these novels Disraeli dramatized ambition, romantic egoism, and the role of the outsider, particularly the Jew, and revealed a strong sense of the social and economic problems of mid-Victorian Britain. Begin your acquaintance with wonderful novels of 19th century.