ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to approach a better understanding of Benjamin Disraeli the man through his life as a novelist. Disraeli gave Thomas Longman licence to deal in the property of the novel as if it were his own, and so conscious was the publisher of the trust which had been vested in him that he became very sensitive of any impediment which he felt might influence his business acumen. The real benefit that the school gave him was not in its positive doctrinal stance, but in the fact that it allowed the mind of the idiosyncratic genius a greater freedom of thought and conscience than would have been possible at many of the more institutionalised English schools. The conduct of the schoolmaster was due partly to his liberal upbringing, and partly to his own educational precepts which were often a reflection of his religious beliefs.
