The Wondrous Tale of Alroy

The Wondrous Tale of Alroy is the sixth novel written by Benjamin Disraeli, who would later become a Prime Minister of Britain. Originally published in 1833, a "new edition” was published in 1834, a heavily revised edition in 1846 entitled Alroy: A Romance and another in 1871 based on that. It is a fictionalised account of the life of David Alroy. Its significance lies in its portrayal of Disraeli's "ideal ambition" and for its being his only novel with a distinctive Jewish subject. Cecil Roth described it as perhaps the earliest Jewish historical novel and Adam Kirsch as "a significant proto-Zionist text". Philip Rieff described an answer by Alroy as "perhaps one of the earliest Zionist perorations given in Western literature".