5 h 8 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Romance promises delight, adventure brings danger, and ambition quietly schemes for power.
In Sketches, Benjamin Disraeli brings together shorter fiction and pieces shaped by romance, adventure, and political intrigue. His eye rests on vanity and ambition: the desires that make people reach for more. These are separate encounters with his storytelling, rather than one continuous plot with a steady cast.
Disraeli is both a novelist and a politician who serves as prime minister under Queen Victoria. Here, his love of stories meets his interest in power and society. Ornate prose, dry wit, and short, polished remarks invite you to linger over how he describes a person or sums up a situation.
What you’ll discover
- Romance and adventure Explore tales that draw on the Victorian appetite for love, danger, and consequential choices.
- The pull of power Follow political intrigue through the quiet scheming of people who want influence.
- An eye for vanity Meet a writer alert to ambition and the importance people place on themselves.
- Wit worth lingering over Savour dry humour and polished remarks that capture a person or situation.
- A different Disraeli Discover the storyteller alongside the statesman, with his lasting taste for fiction.
Who will love it
Readers who like old romances, tales of Eastern travel, ruins of ancient Egypt, quick conversation scenes and the early thinking of a famous politician, all gathered in one varied collection.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A feud, a shrine and a pigeon
- A secret engagement on a sunny island
- A bored baron meets a clever doctor
- How Ibrahim Pasha conquered Syria
- Egypt, Lebanon and the Bosphorus observed
- The Spirit of Whiggism defends English institutions
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Esquisses
A white pigeon carries love letters across a feuding valley, and the huntsman Rufus is watching the sky.
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In short
Sketches gathers short pieces by Benjamin Disraeli, who died in 1881 and who wrote novels long before he led the British government. The book moves between worlds.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A feud, a shrine and a pigeon
The collection opens with a short romance set in a valley divided by an old feud. On one height stands Charolois Castle, and on the other stands Branchimont. The Count of Charolois lost his only son in a tournament, killed by the late Baron of Branchimont, and the grieving father took the baron's life in return. Now the count's daughter, Lady Imogene, meets the new baron, Lothair, in secret at her dead brother's shrine.
Their whispers there set the plot moving. Lothair begs her to flee to Italy, where his cousin the Duke of Milan rules. Imogene fears the cost, yet she adores him. Her small page, Theodore, who dreams of becoming a squire and growing a beard, notices Rufus, the count's huntsman, slipping into the woods. The boy's fear proves right, because the count shuts his daughter in a high tower.
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What is Sketches by Benjamin Disraeli about?
It is a collection of varied pieces. Two romantic tales, a Dresden conversation, travel sketches of Egypt, Syria, the Bosphorus and Munich, an essay on Ibrahim Pasha's Syrian campaign, and a political pamphlet on the English constitution.
Who is Mr. Ferrers in Henrietta?
Ferrers is a reserved, well traveled Englishman who lands on the consul's island with no letter of introduction. He charms the consul's daughter Henrietta, yet keeps his true identity secret, which drives the tale.
What is The Spirit of Whiggism?
It is a political pamphlet in six short chapters. Disraeli argues that the Whig party has always sought rule by a few great families and that the English constitution protects liberty better than reform schemes.
The author
Benjamin Disraeli
1804–1881 · British statesman and novelist
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) was a British politician and novelist. He was born in London and lived in England. His novels include Henrietta Temple (1837), Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845), and Tancred (1847). He led the Conservative Party and served as British prime minister in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880.
More by Benjamin Disraeli
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