An examination of how the political literature of the 19th century sheds light on English parliamentary thought.

The English ideology is parliamentary. In this study, which first appeared in 1973, George Watson shows how literary evidence, much of it fictional, can illuminate the life of a great institution like the British parliament. The book contains chapters on political oratory and the parliamentary novel that uniquely Victorian form which Disraeli created and in which Trollope excelled. It is the first comprehensive attempt to use literary evidence to expose the politics of a whole age. It expounds nineteenth century controversies over democracy, class, race, morality and empire a study of political language in the era when modern politics was born.