Another writer, with higher claims to consideration than those of literature, was =Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)=, Earl of Beaconsfield. Disraeli entered life under conditions peculiarly favourable to a successful literary career. His father, Isaac D'Israeli, was an enthusiastic bookworm, whose "Curiosities of Literature" and other books are an inexhaustible mine of anecdote on the quarrels and calamities of authors. The young Disraeli wrote "Vivian Grey" in 1827, following this very successful effort with "The Young Duke," "Venetia," "Henrietta Temple," and other novels. In 1837 he was returned to Parliament as member for Maidstone. His career as an orator and statesman does not concern us here; suffice to say that of his many later novels "Coningsby," "Tancred," and "Sybil" are by far the ablest and most brilliant, and that "Sybil" was an effective exposure of many abuses in the relations of capital to labour. In addition to his work as a novelist, Lord Beaconsfield wrote an able biography of his friend and colleague, Lord George Bentinck. One of the most successful of the greater novelists of the reign was =Charles Reade (1814-1884)=, who first became famous by "Peg Woffington" in 1852. "The Cloister and the Hearth" was published in 1861, and "Griffith Gaunt" in 1866. Several of his later novels were written "with a purpose." In "Hard Cash" he drew attention to the abuses of private lunatic asylums; in "Foul Play" he aroused public interest in the iniquities of ship-knackers; in "Put Yourself in His Place," he attacked Trades Unions, and in "Never Too Late to Mend" he exposed some of the abuses of our prison system as it existed at that time. Reade was also an industrious dramatist; "Masks and Faces," and "Drink," are among his most popular plays. Of all his books "The Cloister and the Hearth" is the best, and also the most widely read. It has for its hero the father of Erasmus. Those who in days to come will want to know what provincial life was really like in England in early Victorian times will enquire for the novels of =Anthony Trollope (1815-1822)=. "Barchester Towers," "Framley Parsonage," and "Dr Thorne," are the most popular of a series of tales, in all of which the country life of England, its clergy and squirearchy, are portrayed. Trollope wrote on many subjects. His "Life of Cicero" secured the commendation of Professor Freeman, and his biography of Thackeray, though all too slight, is the best book about the author of "Vanity Fair" that has so far been given us.