The Lion and the Unicorn

The dramatic confrontation between the two ‘mighty opposites’ of the Victorian age, brilliantly recreated by a talented young historian.

‘Engaging and highly entertaining’ Sunday Times

The dramatic confrontation between the two ‘mighty opposites’ of the Victorian age, brilliantly recreated by a talented young historian. Gladstone and Disraeli were the fiercest political rivals of the modern age. Their intense hatred was ideological and deeply personal. Victorian Britain ruled the oceans and vast territories ‘on which the sun never set’. The vitriolic duel between Gladstone and Disraeli was nothing less than a battle to lead the richest and most powerful nation on earth. To Disraeli, his antagonist was an ‘unprincipled maniac’ characterised by an ‘extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisy and superstition’. For Gladstone, his rival was ‘The Grand Corrupter’ whose destruction he plotted ‘day and night, week by week, month by month’. Victorians were electrified by the confrontation. No wonder that when Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass appeared in 1871, so many readers recognised the great adversaries as the warring lion and unicorn ‘fighting for the crown’. Richard Aldous gives us the first modern telling of this dramatic story of an intense and momentous rivalry. His vivid narrative style – at turns powerful, witty, stirring and theatrical – breathes new life into a familiar, half-remembered tale that is pivotal in Britain’s island history. The Lion and the Unicorn is a brilliant rethinking of the Gladstone and Disraeli story for a new generation.

Richard Aldous confirms a perennial truth- in politics, everything is personal.

Author Biography

Richard Aldous was the Head of History and Archives at University College, Dublin for 15 years. His many books include a critically acclaimed biography of Gladstone and Disraeli, and the no. 1 bestselling Great Irish Speeches. He writes for publications including the New York Times and Irish Times, and is a regular contributor to television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic. He is currently the Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature at Bard College in New York.