Some Books of the Week
ADHERENTS to the enthusiastic cult of Disraeli will open with interest Mr. James Sykes'- book on Mary Anne Disraeli (Bean, 10s. 6d.), and specialists in the history of the astonishing Jew who, between a smile and a sneer, ushered England into an Empire, will receive with satisfaction the correct version of his wife's birth and upbringing. Both were eminently genteel ; her own lively spirit seems to have invented some dramatic details that confused the true story. The general reader may be disappointed, for the rest of Mr. Sykes' matter is fairly fainiliar. We realize that the devoted Mary Anne, without the pathos and gaiety of her planetary role, would be but a vulgar and silly old woman. In conjunction with the enigmatic Disraeli, smiling gently at her wildest gaffes, she becomes ridiculously touching and heroically absurd, like a character in a Dickens novel. Mr. Sykes tells the usual anecdotes of the amazing marriage, which perfectly suited her husband. He appears passionless concerning women, though he was well aware of their uses ; and his Oriental mind wasted no attention on their subtleties. The mechanical extravagance of his language towards thein betrays his cynicism. Mary Anne, fond and foolish and inveterately flaunting the habits of youth, created a climate of perpetual comfort and adoration for a husband, equally refusing to grow old. That this " enfant terrible " of seventy-six became a Viscountess in her own right was perhaps the greatest con- cession Disraeli exacted from the affection of the reluctant Victoria. There is much to wonder at in the history of Mary Anne ; and Mr. Sykes might have composed her portrait more vividly had she liked high lights. But he is conscientious; and perhaps Mr. A. G. Gardiner's spirited prefatory note takes the lustre out of his style.
Previous page
