Contarini Fleming: A Psychological Autobiography is the fourth and most autobiographical novel written by Benjamin Disraeli, who would later become a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

On going to college, however, he develops an increasingly outgoing and popular personality on account of his wit before withdrawing again when he realises he wishes to become a great poet.

Their son has been missing for 15 years but returns that evening and turns out not only to be the Chevalier de Winter, a painter of international repute, but also the man Contarini had met in the ruined abbey.

Having been in a catatonic state for some months, Contarini is visited by Winter who inspires him to travel and so he goes on a grand tour taking in Spain, Albania, Athens, Constantinople, Egypt, Syria, Jerusalem and parts of Africa.

The New Monthly Magazine pronounced it "a vast improvement on Vivian Grey", and Henry Milman described it as the equal of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

[5][6] However, in 1977, referring to Disraeli's intention that the novel reveal the development of his poetic character, Professor Charles Nickerson wrote:Contarini is full of fine sentiments and painfully contrived expressions; yet little is presented in a way that seems genuinely and deeply felt...The effect is finally one of appalling emptiness.

"[9] More specifically, Disraeli's difficult relationship with his mother, his unhappy schooldays and "the conquest of a hostile or indifferent world" are all reflected in the novel.

[12] Although Contarini Fleming lacks any overarching political credo, the author repeatedly criticises the education system and its "museum of verbiage" for their excessive focus on words and grammar (often in dead languages) and not on ideas.

[16] In a forerunner to the style of language Disraeli would deploy when speaking of his great political rival William Gladstone, Contarini refers to an adversary spouting "the most ludicrous medley of pomposity".