Short description
A definitive biography of one of Britain's greatest nineteenth-century politicians and statesmen describes the life and times of William Ewart Gladstone, his ideas and contributions, and his role as prime minister, founder of the Liberal party, and political orator. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.
Review
[An] enthralling biography...utterly absorbing.
--The Atlantic Monthly
Excellent...wry, urbane, and laced with a gentle, affectionate irony--exactly the right tone for a historical monument who really was monumental....Jenkins makes Gladstone's life intelligible, affecting...entertaining.
--The Boston Sunday Globe
A question that Jenkins's biography raises for the reader: why is it so much fun to read about Victorian politics?...An exhaustive, permanent biography, whose greatest virtue is its extraordinary worldliness. Jenkins has a bred-in-the-bone sense, almost unique among political biographers, of politics as improvisation, game, and even theatre.
--The New Yorker