Gladstone

Rating:
Summary: Not very revealing
Review: One of the reviewers below, Donald Press, has expressed my views in clear terms so it was with some disappointment that I note that three of the first four readers of that review found it unhelpful. The fact is that Jenkins, who has a lively erudite writing style and who is very knowledgible about his subject, gives us little understanding of what kind man Gladstone was and, if anything, even less understanding of how Gladstone fit into his times. If you didn't know why Gladstone was important when you started the book, you will be no closer to understanding why when you finish. You will, however, know where he slept almost every night of his life, how long most of his major speeches were, how many trees he chopped down, and how many times he used particular symbols in his diary.

I agree with the comment that this is good stuff for future researchers but for the general reader looking to understand Gladstone or to learn more about Victorian Great Britain, I found this book to be a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Not very revealing
Review: One of the reviewers below, Donald Press, has expressed my views in clear terms so it was with some disappointment that I note that three of the first four readers of that review found it unhelpful. The fact is that Jenkins, who has a lively erudite writing style and who is very knowledgible about his subject, gives us little understanding of what kind man Gladstone was and, if anything, even less understanding of how Gladstone fit into his times. If you didn't know why Gladstone was important when you started the book, you will be no closer to understanding why when you finish. You will, however, know where he slept almost every night of his life, how long most of his major speeches were, how many trees he chopped down, and how many times he used particular symbols in his diary.

I agree with the comment that this is good stuff for future researchers but for the general reader looking to understand Gladstone or to learn more about Victorian Great Britain, I found this book to be a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Brian Wells, Esquire, Reviews "Gladstone" by Roy Jenkins
Review: The book, "Gladstone" by Roy Jenkins is an extremely hard read because of the author's assumption that the reader already possessed a wide knowlege of British History. This reader who has an undergraduate degree with a History minor was was required to read this book in conjuction with "Queen Victoria" by Elizabeth Longford and "Disreali" by Robert Blake as well as make frequent trips to the Encyclopedia Britannica in order to understand what was going on in the book and to follow all the names that were dropped in the text without explanation.

Furthermore, the author's habit of drawing comparisons of the events within Gladsone's life with events from both much earlier times and much later times did not clarify the story he was trying to tell and indeed had the effect of further confusing the reader.

Rating:
Summary: A Very British Biography
Review: The negative reviews have a point. It does help if you understand British history before you read this book. And Jenkins assumes, without argument, that a major Victorian Prime Minister of England is, ipso facto, an important person worthy of the reader's time.

One wonders how long a biography of Gladstone that did not assume knowledge of British history and of Gladstone's importance would have been. Certainly longer than the 700+ pages Jenkins delivers.

The question is: what does one look for in buying a life of Gladstone? One answer is: "no history, nothing but biography, for that is life without theory".

One must ask, however, whether Jenkins unfortunate epithet (used, e.g., for Charles Sumner's activity during the Alabama Claims) is appropriate. Jenkins must have had some other way to express the thought in a book published in 1997.

Rating:
Summary: A Very British Biography
Review: The negative reviews have a point. It does help if you understand British history before you read this book. And Jenkins assumes, without argument, that a major Victorian Prime Minister of England is, ipso facto, an important person worthy of the reader's time.

One wonders how long a biography of Gladstone that did not assume knowledge of British history and of Gladstone's importance would have been. Certainly longer than the 700+ pages Jenkins delivers.

The question is: what does one look for in buying a life of Gladstone? One answer is: "no history, nothing but biography, for that is life without theory".

One must ask, however, whether Jenkins unfortunate epithet (used, e.g., for Charles Sumner's activity during the Alabama Claims) is appropriate. Jenkins must have had some other way to express the thought in a book published in 1997.

Rating:
Summary: Gladstone Book is almost as long and tedious as his speeches
Review: The recent book by Roy Jenkins on William Gladstone, one of the premier figures of 19th century British Politics has received strongly positive reviews from multiple sources. After reading the book, or as much of it as I could before I decided to try a different book on the topic, I am wondering about the reviewers. This book lacks the heart and soul of a good biography. It gives a lot of minute details about aspects of his life without ever tieing them together into a bigger picture. While the book talks about Gladstone's religion and refers at times to his own repressed sexuality, the book never provides a theory on why he starts spending so much time reforming prostitutes. Repeatedly, Jenkins refers to his walks and tells a little about the woman, but the psychology of Gladstone is not better understood due to his writing. More important, Jenkins never provides enough context to understand where a bill or action is coming from. I mean this on both a personal and macro level. So Gladstone wanted justice for Ireland. Why? Also, what was the big picture that made this such an important part of 19th Century British Poltiics? One final criticism, Jenkins may have delved into Gladstone, but he fails to draw clear images of the surrounding cast. A good biography should provide knowledge of the time, but I learned little about Peel, Palmerston, Disraeli, Victoria or Albert. I learned less about the great diplomatic and political issues of the time. For these reasons, my rating of a three might be generous. For a better understanding of this man and his time, I strongly suggest books on Disraeli, which, like their main character, are written with more flair and pinache. Also books on Victorians by Gertrude Himmelfarb and Asa Briggs provide more knowledge than Roy Jenkins' book. One final thought, are the good reviews this book has received due to the political popularity of Jenkins, the dearth of good books on Gladstone, or to use Moynihan's theme, the defining down of historical writing in recent times?

Rating:
Summary: An arduous slog for little reward
Review: There are two opposite poles in the writing of biographies: "let's explain the man by including everything he did" or "let's explain the man by stringing together the highlights of his life." Roy Jenkins has opted for the first choice in a big way. This book is a massive catalog of what Gladstone did, said and thought throughout his long and impressively productive life. But somewhere along the line Jenkins forgot the part about explaining the man's life. After battling my way through this monster, I was left saying "So what?" If you're hoping for some sort of insight into the man and his achievements, prepare to be disappointed. What you get is a massive laundry list of speeches made and not made, books purchased, walks taken - a tidal wave of minutiae that utterly obscures the larger picture. Good heavens, after 700+ pages I expect some insight into the man and his importance. Jenkins certainly receives an A for effort, but he barely attempts any sort of analysis - what was so important about Gladstone? What were his finest achievements? In short, why does he matter? I'll take my share of the blame. I know my ignorance of Victorian British history hurt my enjoyment of this book. But you know what? I read a lot of books about subjects about which I know very little. And many of those books are very good. I am baffled by the excellent reviews this book received. Good biographies - and good history - leave you with a sense of who a person was, what he or she thought, and why we should care about that person. This book has precious little of that. It reads like a synopsis of Gladstone's multi-volume diaries. If you want to know how many miles Gladstone walked on such-and-such a day, read this book. If you want to know who Gladstone the man was, or why you should care about him, keep waiting.

Rating:
Summary: Gladstonian in length
Review: This book has the merit of being well-written despite the occasional lapse into the tedious. It makes excellent bed-time reading, a long-term read , and I take a dollop of it before 'schlafen' as one would a pleasant sedative

Rating:
Summary: A very British biography of a very British subject
Review: When my company was acquired by a British corporation in 1996, one of the new managers purchased the original edition in Britain and forwarded it to me. I had read a review in the Economist and was dying to read it, especially after reading a fine biography of Disraeli.

I will admit that it was not the easiest book I have ever read, however I think some of the other reviews quoted here are unjustifiably harsh.

Gladstone was a man of his time and reflected the values and concerns of the Victorian era. Probably, neither Gladstone nor Disraeli would be remotely electable today, and having read excellent biographies of Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson, I have begun to truely understand the adage, "the past is another planet."

I believe Roy Jenkins achieved the goal of capturing the essence of Gladstone as it related to the values of his time. Albeit, Jenkins has a very dry, British sense of humor, and that can throw off American readers and made certain passages harder to read for me.

(Incidently, the original British edition had a timeline at the top of the page to make the chronology easier to follow.)

In summary, I feel the this is an eloquent biography that, perhaps, is a little more difficult to read and fully understand. But I believe that is more do to the amazing complexity of the subject than Roy Jenkins' prose.