ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to approach a better understanding of Benjamin Disraeli the man through his life as a novelist. His involvement in speculation was characteristic of his approach to life in the 1820s; he acted on impulse with a vague notion of taking a short-cut to a position of power and money. His involvement in the shares had brought him into contact with J. D. Powles, who was a partner in a firm of South American merchants. At Powles's instigation Disraeli wrote a pamphlet which propagandised the bullish views which were in the interest of the mining companies. If his own literary nature and background were reason enough for him to begin a fresh attempt at a novel, that feeling was reinforced at the end of 1825 by a desire to withdraw, at least temporarily, from the hurlyburly world, and also a need of financial resources.
