The Young Disraeli, 1804 1846 by Matt Ridley

A concise portrait of Benjamin Disraeli’s formative years, tracing his Jewish origins and conversion to Anglicanism, flamboyant self-invention as a novelist and dandy, chronic debts and romantic entanglements, and shrewd marriage to the wealthy Mary Anne Lewis, through his hard-fought entry into Parliament and ascent as a fierce critic of Peel during the 1846 Corn Law crisis, showing how literary flair, ambition, and resilience forged the persona that would later shape Conservative politics.