Gladstone - Hardcover

Jenkins, Roy

3.8

367 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0333602161 ISBN 13: 9780333602164

Publisher: Macmillan Pub Ltd, 1995

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Gladstone stands alone as the only man who was four times Prime Minister. Biographically more important than that, he was the most remarkable human being who ever held that office. This is not to say that he was the greatest Prime Minister - he made many mistakes, failed in his last major objective of Home Rule for Ireland, and left behind a demoralized and squabbling Liberal Party. But he was always the biggest beast in the forest and everything he touched he infused with magic. With Newman, Tennyson, Darwin and Carlyle, he was one of the natural stars of the nineteenth century. He could be wrong, self-righteous, even faintly ludicrous, but he was hardly ever dull.
This many-faceted figure with his flashing eye and stirring oratory presents Roy Jenkins, writing as a senior politician who is also an acclaimed author, with the most ambitious of the many biographical subjects he has attempted at greater or lesser length. He uses Gladstone's life not only to shine light on his manifold activities but also to compare the nineteenth century with the present day: the political rhythms, travel patterns and religious assumptions of Victorian England are all related to those of today. In his first full-scale canvas since Asquith in 1964, Jenkins has created a vivid and often funnily told picture of a very remarkable man.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Publisher:

Random House editor Ian Jackman: Roy Jenkins has taken one of the towering figures of nineteenth century Britain and fleshed him out brilliantly in this biography that has been an award-winning bestseller in the U.K. Roy Jenkins has been one of the most important European politicians of this century, holding two of the three biggest jobs in British politics - Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary as well as the most important position in the European Community. It is as if the Dulles brothers and Henry Stimson had combined to write a biography of Theodore Roosevelt.

William Ewart Gladstone was British Prime Minister four times, a unique accomplishment, and a founder of the Liberal party and the modern democratic Parliamentary system. His were the last efforts made by any British politician that had a good chance to resolve the situation in Ireland. He was a great scholar and linguist, a wonderful orator, a devout Christian, and a vigorous walker and tree-feller. But he was also a deeply passionate man, constantly aghast at his own sexual impulses and the means he sought to relieve and divert them. It is extraordinary to read how the British Prime Minister would stand undisguised in Piccadilly, one of London's busiest streets, and accost prostitutes and try to talk them round from their fallen ways. He was a mild flagellant and enjoyed being disgusted by moderately pornographic books.

In short, he was complicated, and Jenkins, with a delicate, wise, and often funny hand, has rendered this apparently contradictory Gladstone whole - a genuinely interesting and commanding figure whose life forms a great part of the history of nineteenth-century Britain.

From the Inside Flap:

York Times bestselling author of Churchill, a towering historical biography, available for the first time in paperback.

William Gladstone was, with Tennyson, Newman, Dickens, Carlyle, and Darwin, one of the stars of nineteenth-century British life. He spent sixty-three of his eighty-nine years in the House of Commons and was prime minister four times, a unique accomplishment. From his critical role in the formation of the Liberal Party to his preoccupation with the cause of Irish Home Rule, he was a commanding politician and statesman nonpareil. But Gladstone the man was much more: a classical scholar, a wide-ranging author, a vociferous participant in all the great theological debates of the day, a voracious reader, and an avid walker who chopped down trees for recreation. He was also a man obsessed with the idea of his own sinfulness, prone to self-flagellation and persistent in the practice of accosting prostitutes on the street and attempting to persuade them of the errors of their w

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.