Title: Disraeli's disciple : the scandalous life of George Smythe /
Authors: Millar, Mary S., 1939-
Publisher: University of Toronto Press,
Year: 2006
Subjects: Strangford, George Augustus Frederick Percy Sydney Smythe,; Disraeli, Benjamin, Friends and associates.; Disraeli, Benjamin, Friends and associates.; Young England movement.; Politicians England Biography.; Nobility England Biography.
Abstract: "One of the most intriguing relationships in Victorian history is that between George Smythe (1818-57), handsome aristocrat and iconoclast, and Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), society novelist, Jewish outsider, and future British prime minister. While Smythe's friendship was central to Disraeli's rise to political power in the 1840s and 1850s, little has been written about Smythe's life beyond a few paragraphs in biographies and histories of the period."
Contents: The wild ass's skin -- A splendid failure? -- 1400-1817: The Strangford inheritance -- 1818-26: Cradled in commotions -- 1826-35: George Smythe's schooldays -- 1836-7: Herstmonceux and Cambridge -- 1837-8: Faber -- 1838-9: Pearls and swine -- 1840: Lady Tankerville -- 1841: Heaven-born statesman or Devil-born orator -- 1841: I am a very zero -- 1842: Young England -- 1843: Worrying Peel -- and reading Casanova -- 1844: Coningsby and Historic Fancies -- 1844: The pursuit of Psyche -- 1845: The double game -- 1846: Falling upstairs -- and down -- 1847: With a tongue and a pen of his own -- 1848-9: Very like assassination -- 1850-2: Diplomatic moves -- 1852: Something about the Duke -- 1853-5: The stage-box of my soul -- 1857-57: Bed-ridden lovelace.