Disraeli, Benjamin.

a fluently-written draft with extensive authorial revisions throughout, with divisions into chapters, parts, and volumes, some internal pagination, modern pencil foliation (total 397 leaves), paper of various sizes, bound into two volumes, 349 and 397 pages, plus blanks, folio, c.1832, in blind tooled brown morocco with inside dentelles gilt and gilt lettering on spines, light spotting, nicks and tears to some leaves

Archibald Philip, 5th Earl of Rosebery, armorial bookplates and Barnbougle Library stamp; sold in these rooms, 15 July 1975, lot 10; Saul Shapiro, bookplates

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"Being at Jerusalem in the year 1831, and visiting the traditionary tombs of the Kings of Israel, my thoughts recurred to a personage whose marvellous career had, even in boyhood, attracted my attention, as one fraught with the richest materials of poetic fiction. And I then commenced these pages that should commemorate the name of 'Alroy'." (Disraeli, Preface to The Wondrous Tale of Alroy)

The manuscript of Disraeli's Oriental romance, set in the Medieval Middle East. The Wondrous Tale of Alroy retold the story of the twelfth-century Jewish leader who gained a significant following when he proclaimed himself the Messiah who would return the Jews to Jerusalem. He led an attack on the city of Amadiya - which is today in Iraqi Kurdistan - where he was defeated and killed. Written in a distinctive highly-wrought and poetic style soon after his return from Turkey and the Holy Land, it is among the most personal of Disraeli's novels. His claim that he started the novel in Jerusalem is probably not to be taken literally, especially as the paper on which early parts of the novel are written is very unlikely to have been available to Disraeli until his return (a section beginning with fol. 7 is on paper with a Britannia watermark dated 1831). Nevertheless, the novel's evocation of the Middle East is an expression of the deep impact his time in the region had on Disraeli, developing both his sense of cultural relativism and what was to prove a lifelong interest in Near and Middle Eastern affairs.

The theme of the novel was also of profound significance to the future Prime Minister. Disraeli presents Alroy as a heroic figure facing a dilemma between establishing a purely Jewish regime or a wider empire assimilating other faiths: "the moral of his failure was that a taste for action and the power of imagination were both needed in a leader ... Alroy shows Disraeli thinking about problems that were to concern him a great deal in the future; it portrayed 'my ideal ambition'" (Jonathan Parry, ODNB).

A novel about Jewish history also, of course, had particular resonance for a man with Disraeli's Jewish heritage. Along with his siblings, Disraeli converted to the Anglican Church in 1817, aged 13, at the request of his father, himself a religious sceptic. The conversion was made primarily for practical reasons (Jews still faced significant legal discrimination in England at the time and could not own land, attend universities or hold political office) and Disraeli admitted to having little religious faith, but he explored the issue of Jewish identity extensively in his writing.