Coningsby

The first of Disraeli’s political novels follows Harry Coningsby, orphaned grandson of a rich and domineering marquess, as he comes of age in the unsettled England that followed the 1832 Reform Bill. At Eton he befriends Oswald Millbank, son of a self-made manufacturer his grandfather despises, and the friendship pulls him between the old aristocracy and the rising industrial class. Guided by the enigmatic financier Sidonia, Coningsby gropes toward a new kind of Toryism built on principle rather than mere party. Disraeli poured his own Young England politics into the book, and it made his reputation as a novelist. Published in 1844, it opened the trilogy continued in Sybil and Tancred. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.