Falconet (novel)

Falconet is the name generally given to the untitled, final and unfinished novel of the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, who died before completing it.

He is determined to uphold religious traditionalism and talks too long and earnestly, sometimes on rumours which turn out to be untrue (such as the return of the slave trade in the Red Sea).

Early in the novel an unknown middle-aged gentleman takes a hackney carriage journey from the London port to a hotel accompanied by a buddhist called Kusinara whom he has met on the voyage and who has come to England to investigate reports that it is in decline.

Mr Hartmann is an acquaintance of the unknown gentleman and Kusinara and shares the view that mankind needs to be eradicated and that a vehicle for achieving this is religion.

[4][3][1][2] Falconet shares with Gladstone his religious fervour, intelligence and oratorical style but is described as “essentially a prig”, “arrogant and peremptory” and having “a complete deficiency in the sense of humour”.