Later to become famous for his thesis novels, Benjamin Disraeli used the popularity of silver-fork fiction to produce a romance in Henrietta Temple. While the plot did emphasize the pressures placed on individuals by society to marry well, that is not its major focus. Instead, it produces a bittersweet tale of romantic confusion where all comes out well in the end.

The novel moved beyond Disraeli’s melodramatic excesses first displayed in the anonymously published Vivian Grey (1826), but it did not come close to the quality of his later works. He based the novel on his own affair with Lady Henrietta Sykes, important to literature historians, with Ferdinand’s poverty and ambition reflecting his own.

The poor Henrietta Temple is engaged to Ferdinand Armine, also from a poverty-stricken, although noble, family. While Ferdinand sincerely loves Henrietta, he has felt driven also to engage himself to a wealthy cousin, Katherine Grandison. The situation produces an often-quoted phrase from the novel, in connection with Disraeli: “Debt is the prolific mother of folly and crime.”

Benjamin Disraeli

When Henrietta discovers Ferdinand’s double engagement, she abandons him to move from England to Italy. While Ferdinand is not without scruples, Disraeli yet moralizes on his portrait. However, he basically presents the situation as a problem needing a solution. The simple story proves successful, as Disraeli makes no demand on society to “fix” the relationships but leaves that to his characters. His novel, like most society plots, accepts the world as a place where love may be seen as one more commodity, where people want simply to advance their lives through material and emotional gain.

It represents more of an 18th-century portrayal, incorporating a real character, Lady Bellair, who had actually had her portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and knew Dr. Samuel Johnson. Disraeli offered a detached approach concealed by an enthusiastic and attractive style, never allowing his tone to become overly serious and shaping his male protagonist as a good-natured, if completely self-centered, man. He disregards what other writers of his day termed nature to create an artificial dialogue and improbable plot meant only to entertain.

Her heart broken, Henrietta bows to her father’s pressure and becomes engaged to the wealthy Lord Monfort. Katherine, in the meantime, has released Ferdinand from his commitment to her and works with Count Mirabel to help Ferdinand mend his relationship with Henrietta, actions supported by the novel’s line, “Time is the Great Physician.”

When Ferdinand encounters Henrietta again, his passion for her is renewed, while Katherine feels drawn to Lord Monfort, whom she marries. Henrietta conveniently inherits a fortune and chooses to help Ferdinand financially.

Disraeli’s novel came during a decade that lacked superior fiction. However, it helped the future politician and novelist hone his craft, something silver-fork fiction also did for Disraeli’s contemporary Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The novel remains important only in moving Disraeli’s fiction closer to the important contributions to the development of the novel that it would make in the next decade.

Bibliography
Jump, Harriet Divine. Silver Fork Novels: 1826–1841. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2005.
Ridley, Jane, ed. The Early Novels of Benjamin Disraeli. Vol. 5. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2004.
Powell, Anthony. Introduction to Novels of High Society from the Victorian Age. London: Pilot Press, 1947, vii–xv.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

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