For writing Coningsby, or The New Generation (1844), Benjamin Disraeli, who had moved from a modestly successful career as a novelist into the limelight of political life, is widely credited with inventing the political novel. “Disraeli has created a new type [of novel]”, says Robert Blake in his biography of Disraeli. “[Coningsby] is essentially political, written to expound a political creed” (190). Although earlier novels, such as William Godwin’s Caleb Williams (1794) and Robert Bage’s Hermsprong (1796), had dealt with such abstract political ideas as reason, justice, and government, it was not until Coningsby that a novel devoted itself primarily to the activity of contemporary politics, written from the perspective of a practising politician. A quarter of a century later, in the General Preface to the Collected Edition of his novels (1870-71), Disraeli was explicit...
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Citation: Clausson, Nils. "Coningsby". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 February 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9772, accessed 09 June 2026.]
