Chapter Four

1832-7

New Horizons

DURING THE five years between his return to England and his election to Parliament Disraeli continued to explore his personality, using the literary, historical and political dimensions of his imagination and his driving ambition to connect with a Britain in transition. Industrialiszation, urbanization and the extension of the franchise, three of the main engines for change, would radically alter British society and present Disraeli's generation of political leaders with challenging agenda. Disraeli would emerge as one of the key figures shaping Victorian Britain in the second and third quarters of the century. But in the thirties he was a prolific writer of articles, books and pamphlets, standing for parliament five times, falling in love - and dodging his creditors.