Endymion (Disraeli novel)

Endymion is a novel published in 1880 by Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, the former Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was paid £10,000 for it.^[1] It was the last novel Disraeli published before his death. He had been writing another, Falconet, when he died; it was published, incomplete, after his death.

Plot introduction

Background

Like most of Disraeli's novels, Endymion is a romance, although Disraeli took the unusual step of setting it between 1819 and 1859. This meant that the hero of the novel–Endymion Ferrars–had to be a Whig, rather than a Tory. The time period that Disraeli chose was dominated by the Whig party; there would have been little opportunity for a young, rising Tory. Given that, it seems likely that Disraeli chose the time period in order to move a final time in the world in which he grew up and began his ascent.

First edition from 1880 title page from Vol iii

The title character's name is a reference to the shepherd Endymion of Greek mythology, familiar in 19th century culture as the title of an 1818 John Keats poem among other references. It is explained in the text as a traditional name of his noble family since the time of Charles the First, and is in fact represented historically among English nobles such as Endymion Porter.

Characters in "Endymion"

• Endymion Ferrars
• Myra Ferrars
• Lord Roehampton
• King Florestan
• Lady Montfort
• Lord Montfort
• Count Ferrol
• Baron Sergius
• The Duke of St Angelo
• Bertie Tremaine
• Tremaine Bertie
• Thornberry
• The Archbishop of Tyre
• St. Barbe

Publication details

Disraeli, Benjamin (1880). Endymion (3 volumes). London: Longmans & Green.  Internet Archive: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3. (The author's name appears only on the spine.)

References

• Blake, Robert (1966). Disraeli. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-19-832903-2. OCLC 8047. 
• Blake, Robert. "The Dating of Endymion" in The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 17, No. 66. (May, 1966), 177–182.

External links

• Project Gutenberg e-book