Venetia

Benjamin Disraeli

Jan 1853 · London : Longmans, Green, [185-?]

About this ebook

The beauty of the young Venetia was not the hereditary gift of her beautiful mother. It was not from Lady Annabel that Venetia Herbert had derived those seraphic locks that fell over her shoulders and down her neck in golden streams, nor that clear grey eye even, whose childish glance might perplex the gaze of manhood, nor that little aquiline nose, that gave a haughty expression to a countenance that had never yet dreamed of pride, nor that radiant complexion, that dazzled with its brilliancy, like some winged minister of Raffael or Correggio. The peasants that passed the lady and her daughter in their walks, and who blessed her as they passed, for all her grace and goodness, often marveled why so fair a mother and so fair a child should be so dissimilar, that one indeed might be compared to a starry night, and the other to a sunny day.

About the author

Benjamin Disraeli was born in London, England on December 21, 1804. His first novel, Vivien Grey, was published in 1826. His other works include The Voyage of Captain Popanilla, Contarini Fleming, A Year at Hartlebury, Coningsby, Sybil, Tancred, and Lothair. He became England's first and only Jewish prime minister, serving from 1867 to 1868 and again from 1874 to 1880. He is best remembered for bringing India and the Suez Canal under control of the crown. During his second term of office, when he was knighted, he took a name from his first novel and became the first Earl of Beaconsfield. He died on April 19, 1881 at the age of 76.