Sybil, or The Two Nations

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 700+ words | Copyright

Sybil, or The Two Nations, a novel by B. Disraeli, published 1845.

This is the second book of the trilogy Coningsby—Sybil—Tancred. It was written, like Coningsby, to celebrate the ideas of the ‘Young England’ Tories and was designed to describe ‘the Condition of the People’ and of the ‘Two Nations of England, the Rich and the Poor’. The book points to reforms a generation before Disraeli's government was able to introduce them. Poverty and oppression are described with feeling, and in the industrial town of Mowbray aspects of the wealthy social and political world are described with irony and contempt.

The plot concerns the love of Charles Egremont for Sybil Gerard, daughter of Chartist Walter Gerard, and Egremont's growing understanding of the Chartist cause, as he endeavours to win her affection. In a violent denouement Egremont's brother, the pitiless landowner Lord Marney, is killed by rioters, and Sybil's friend the radical Stephen Morley is shot: Egremont rescues Sybil (who has been revealed as true heir to the Marney lands) and they are married. See also social problem novel.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Sybil, or The Two Nations." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Sybil, or The Two Nations." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-SybilorTheTwoNations.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Sybil, or The Two Nations." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-SybilorTheTwoNations.html

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