Free Thinking Essay - Disraeli the Romantic

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4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2014

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Daisy Hay from Exeter University explores the way in which Disraeli invented the modern politician as a man or woman of feeling, and asks whether the image he projected as an emotionally in-touch everyman stemmed from fact or fiction? Recorded in front of an audience at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at Sage, Gateshead. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the AHRC to find the brightest academic minds with the potential to turn their ideas into broadcasts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps
0:21.2	that it's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. Imagine this. The year is 1844. The place is the market town of Shrewsbury. It is summertime,
0:47.8	and the local MP has braved uncomfortable trains and badly sprung carriages to pay a rare visit to his constituents.
0:58.0	He is an odd figure, pale-skinned and dark-haired, foreign somehow. And although the voters of Shrewsbury
1:05.9	have elected him, they don't really trust him. He doesn't look like a Tory MP, and they remember that during
1:12.9	the last election, his enemies papered the streets with broadsides listing his debts. They like his wife
1:20.2	more than they like him, since although she too is an odd creature, overdressed and over-chatted,
1:26.5	she brings some glamour and excitement to the
1:29.5	town. So, when Mr. Disraeli begins to speak and she is nowhere to be seen, a rumble of
1:36.3	discontent runs through the crowd. Faced with an audience of restive voters, Disraeli's emotions
1:43.3	appear to get the better of him, and his voice suddenly breaks.
1:47.7	Wherever I go, I hear of nothing but Mrs. Disraeli, and why she did not come, he writes in a letter home.
1:54.0	Among the shopkeepers whom I wish most to please, your name and memory are most lively and influential.
2:00.9	Such a gay lady, sir.
2:02.8	You never can have a dull moment, sir.
2:05.4	And I tell them all that you are a perfect wife, as well as a perfect companion,
2:10.3	and that separated from you for the first time after five years,
2:14.0	we are, alas, alas, parted on our wedding day. The women shed tears, which indeed I can
2:21.8	barely myself restrain. This image of a politician manfully attempting and not quite succeeding
2:30.6	to hold back the tears from his constituents has fascinated me for years.
2:36.2	We are used to politicians talking about their emotions and their domestic lives.
	...

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