Disraeli's Disciple: The Scandalous Life of George Smythe

Mary S. Millar redresses this omission with Disraeli's Disciple, the first ever biography of Smythe. Drawing from extensive original research, Millar details the full extent of Smythe's early brilliance as a writer and politician with the Young England splinter group that fostered Disraeli's political rise. Millar's research reveals how heavily Disraeli relied on Smythe and how closely Disraeli's fictional characters were based on him: his looks and idealism in Coningsby(1844), his duplicity in Tancred(1847), and his charm in Endymion(1880). Millar identifies Smythe's incisive journalism for the first time, illustrating his fine grasp of European politics and the venom of his personal attacks. She also documents Smythe's numerous and often disreputable love affairs with remarkable partners: the French countess thirty years his senior, the Anglican priest who wrote him passionate poetry, the circus equestrienne he groomed for marriage to an Earl, and the Scottish heiress he married as he lay dying of tuberculosis.

In addition to the portrait it paints of a fascinating man whose public life was as earnest and idealistic as his private life was shocking and titillating, Disraeli's Disciplealso provides new insights into the politics of this formative stage in British history. It is a captivating and enthralling biography that will change the way we view Victorian England.