Alroy

1846. Known as a dandy, a novelist, a brilliant debater and England's first and only Jewish prime minister, Disraeli (Earl of Beaconfield) is best remembered for bringing India and the Suez Canal under control of the crown. He wrote Alroy following a Middle Eastern tour with a friend that included the Holy Land. Paradoxically, the melodramatic novel, heatedly overwritten, about a pre-Zionist adventurer and martyr, David Alroy, glorified Disraeli's Jewish background just as he was adventuring in another career, politics, at a time when observant Jews were barred from Parliament. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.