From the New York Times bestselling author of Churchill, a towering historical biography, available for the first time in paperback. William Gladstone was, with Tennyson, Newman, Dickens, Carlyle, and Darwin, one of the stars of nineteenth-century British life. He spent sixty-three of his eighty-nine years in the House of Commons and was prime minister four times, a unique accomplishment. From his critical role in the formation of the Liberal Party to his preoccupation with the cause of Irish Home Rule, he was a commanding politician and statesman nonpareil. But Gladstone the man was much more: a classical scholar, a wide-ranging author, a vociferous participant in all the great theological debates of the day, a voracious reader, and an avid walker who chopped down trees for recreation. He was also a man obsessed with the idea of his own sinfulness, prone to self-flagellation and persistent in the practice of accosting prostitutes on the street and attempting to persuade them of the errors of their ways. This full and deep portrait of a complicated man offers a sweeping picture of a tumultuous century in British history, and is also a brilliant example of the biographer’s art.

Excerpt from Life Times of William E. Gladstone To interpret the life of a great historical personage is not an easy task. In proportion as the given career has intertwined itself with the lines of general causation and made itself a brilliant thread in the history of an epoch, by so much the more is the interpretation of that career made difficult. The highest lives are closest to the Universal Flow, and to know them and translate them into language involves a knowledge of the profound sources and tendencies of the whole human drama. The small life is inconspicuous and is causative of little; the great life is conspicuous and causative of much. The life of the great man is not a biography, but a history. His purposes and actions tend constantly to the impersonal. In such a life there is always a startling paradox; for while its individuality becomes more and more intense, its personality becomes less and less distinct. The unity of the man, strengthened more and more by the conflicts through which he passes, is strongly set upon a disk which widens ever, like the penumbra of a star, until it covers the firmament. By the common consent of men and nations William Ewart Gladstone has been a great figure, a powerful personage, in the history of our times. For quite half a century his name has been heard. At the date of his death it was fully sixty years since his first book was brilliantly and adversely reviewed by the ablest critic and essayist of England. At times the fame of Gladstone has sounded across seas and continents, rising above the historical roar and clamor of the Western nations. For more than threescore years Gladstone sat in the British House of Commons. We think that no other statesman of ancient or modern times continued for such an incredible period to participate actively in the legislation of his country. Certainly no other of any age or nation retired more honorably from the arena in which he had so long performed a conspicuous part. It is my purpose in this volume to present for American readers a comparatively full account of the Life and Times of William E. Gladstone. To write his life has involved to a considerable extent a recital of the history of his times. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

All history, says Emerson, "resolves itself into the biographies of a few stout and earnest persons." These remarks find exemplification in the life of William Ewart Gladstone, of whom they are pre-eminently true. His recorded life, from the early period of his graduation to his fourth premiership, would embrace in every important respect not only the history of the British Empire, but very largely the international events of every nation of the world for more than half a century. William Ewart Gladstone, M.P., D.C.L., statesman, orator and scholar, was born December 27, 1809, in Liverpool, England. The house in which he was born, number 62 Rodney Street, a commodious and imposing "double-fronted" dwelling of red brick, is still standing. In the neighborhood of the Rodney Street house, and a few years before or after the birth of William E. Gladstone, a number of distinguished persons were born, among them William Roscoe, the writer and philanthropist, John Gibson, the sculptor, Doctor Bickersteth, the late Bishop of Ripon, Mrs. Hemans, the poetess, and Doctor James Martineau, Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Manchester New College, and the brother of Harriet Martineau, the authoress.

First published in 1903, this authorised biography of the Liberal Prime Minister Gladstone provides valuable insights into Victorian political life.