William Kuhn's 'The Politics of Pleasure. A Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli 2006

The free Press first edition - 2006

Although one of my heroes is William Gladstone and I regard Benjamin Disraeli as a bounder, I must admit to a sneaking regard for the latter. I have read several biographies on Disraeli, but this was pitched quite differently. As the blurb on the dust jacket says, William Kuhn dusts off Benjamin Disraeli's reputation as an 'eminent Victorian' and reveals him to be Britain's most flamboyant Prime Minister yet. A dandy, an inveterate social climber, bon vivant and incorrigible myth-maker... In fact, the author's work is such a sustained effort to convince the reader that, above all, Disraeli's novels simply proved what the man in actual life was - a homosexual, whether latent or active - that I searched for what I could find about Kuhn on the Internet. The brief, seven line, write-up about him on the back fold of the dust wrapper gave little away. I found out he had also written about Lord Byron, saying that in his work he managed to make a queer love life thrilling... Guess what? In the same piece the author reveals himself to be 'gay'. Absolutely no problem; but it would have helped if he had put that fact on the dust wrapper. At every chance Kuhn has, he either states that Disraeli was gay, or he insinuates it. It becomes the leitmotif of the book. A favourite word of his, used throughout the book, is homoeroticism. To misquote Shakespeare - Methinks he doth protest too much?

Notwithstanding the above, the book was an enjoyable read. I found many of his chapters entertaining: The Boys Will  Laugh At Me, Chateau Desir, Quite a Love of Man, He Interests Me, Enamoured Sexagenarians. I think the best way to encapsulate Kuhn's argument - that Disraeli glorified in his Jewishness (even though baptised as a Christian), felt more at home in the Middle East, dressed like a dandy for the first half of his life; was a great fan of Lord Byron; felt closest to older women; and surrounded himself with attractive young men - is to copy some of his sentences below. 

When he did know [the truth], and altered it to suit his purposes, he became one of the great liars in British history: his art was in his lies...

Disraeli never ceased to think of himself as something like a cross between a rake and a fop of the era of Charles II.

Indebtedness is a major theme in Disraeli's biography until he was well into middle age.

Lord Blake said of these [early] years that Disraeli 'acquired a reputation for cynicism, double dealing, recklessness and insincerity which it took him years to live down'.

Drink could be a remedy for disappointment, but from an early age he also appreciated it for its sensual pleasure and the way it assisted social enjoyment.

His philosophy was based on cheerful hedonism for the few rather than improving government for the many.

There was, however, a good deal of ambiguity surrounding male effeminacy in Disraeli's day and he appears to be exploiting that ambiguity.

...the homosexual element in Disraeli's personality and his desire to know more about his own Jewishness both spurred him to travel to Constantinople, Jerusalem and Cairo...

for Disraeli his Jewishness and his sexuality were mixed together. They had a common eastern geography...

power brought Disraeli newly intensified relations with other men...there was something compulsive in Disraeli's relationships with these men that he was not able to stop.

Disraeli never liked the Irish and never went to Ireland.

Punch took the opportunity to depict him as a cross-dressing angel, a man with his hair in flowers, wearing a lady's gown admiring himself in a mirror as he prepares for a masked ball.

He could not underrate play or pleasure, they were the purpose of life, not secondary to it. This was the transcendent theme of his political just as much as of his literary life...the pleasure of food combined with the pleasure of good company: this was the ultimate enjoyment for Disraeli.

Certainly, it was slightly odd that Disraeli composed several lists in his 'Commonplace Book' for 1842. One of the lists was headed 'men who had romantic feelings for other men'. The list included  Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Hadrian, Socrates, Byron, Marlowe, Jesus, Napoleon, Leo X, Julius II, Julius III, Horace Walpole, William Beckford and George Canning (Lord Castlereagh). There were many more!

There were several references by Disraeli to Lord Castlereagh, who committed suicide possibly because of a homosexual affair becoming public; romantic fantasies about the author Edward Bulwer Lytton; the young Frenchman, Alfred, Count d'Orsay; George Smythe, a young M.P.; Lord Henry Lennox, third son of the Duke of Richmond; and his last Secretary, Montagu Corry.

The author is very perceptive about Disraeli's relationships with Queen Victoria (he regularly sent her political 'gossip') and his long feud with William Gladstone. I also found his comments on Disraeli's novels, which he had obviously read very carefully  (even if one felt he found what he wanted to find), quite enlightening.