Coningsby (Nonsuch Classics) (Nonsuch Classics)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Benjamin Disraeli Our price £4.80 (£6.00) New from £2.92 Used from £4.58 Pages: 384 (Paperback) ISBN: 1845882156 Pub: Nonsuch Publishing Pub date: 2007-06-29 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 33198

Reader Reviews:

An Interesting, But Dated, Political-Romantic Novel (6/8 people found this helpful)

Coningsby is an interesting political-romantic novel set in early nineteenth century England. In much of the first part of the book, Disreali introduces the main characters and the political and social background against which the action in the later parts of the book will be played. In this book Disraeli covers several topics. He explains the state of parliamentary politics of the day and the changing social and political situations of the nobility and the rising manufacturing class. As the title character, Coningsby, develops his political philosophy, Disraeli gives an insight into his own core political beliefs. Through Sidonia, one of his main characters, Disreali makes a pitch for the rights of Jews, a group to which Disraeli is linked by consangunity, though not be religion. To make it all entertaining, Disraeli takes Coningsby and his lover through a long and chaste romantic quest, in which they finally overcome the obstacles placed in their way by their families. The book, ultimately, provides a triumph of love over hatred and pettiness. The strong points of this book are its pleasant story line and the ability to tell a romantic and political tale without including the moral failings, without which so many modern authors seem incapable of expressing themselves. The weak points are found in its age and storybook ending. The repeated references to so many details of political life of his day and the simililarities of characters to prominent people, which may have been amusing to the readers of his day, are lost on most contemporary readers. The ending, in which all the injustices inflicted on Coningsby by petty people around him are reversed through acts of self-sacrifice which set the world right, introduces a sense of fantasy which makes the book seem just a bit too much to believe. Overall this book is a worthwhile read

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