Disraeli, Benjamin. The Wondrous Tale of Alroy [vt Alroy: or, The Prince of the Captivity, a Wondrous Tale]
Divergence: c 1135 CE
Summary: The story of a 12th Century Jewish false messiah who in our history conquered some minor provinces before he was destroyed. Here, however, he founds a global empire based in Baghdad.
Comments: Dramatized as a
music-drama by P.P. Grunfeld.
May be the first novel-length alternate history, predating
Geoffroy-Château's
Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812-1823 by three years.
However, some readers have commented that it seems more a secret history than an alternate history.
Published: Saunders and Otley 1833;
Carey, Lea and Blanchard 1833;
Carey and Hart 1837;
Tauchnitz 1846;
Routledge, Warnes, and Routledge 1859;
Dunne 1904;
Bradenham 1927;
Knopf 1934;
AMS 1976 (0404088007);
and
Elibron Classics 2001.
Published: Included in Alroy; Ixion in Heaven; The Infernal Marriage; Popanilla, Longmans 1878; Routledge 1878; Longmans, Green 1881, 1900, 1919; and P.F. Collier [[date unknown]].
Original in: English.
Translation: German as
David Alroy, Leiner 1862, Brandeis 1912.
Translation: Hebrew by A.A. Rakovski as
Chother megeza ishay, [[publ. unknown]] 1883, 1888, 1898, 1909.
Translation: Hebrew by A. Rozet as
David Alroi: sipur histori mi-tekufat ha-geonim,
Barkai 1924, 1935; Yizreel 1950, 1954.
Translation: Hebrew by Eliyau Amikam as
Alroi, Friedman 1952.
Web link: Project Gutenberg
Grunfeld, P.P. Alroy; A Music-drama, in Four Acts
Comments: Adaptation of Benjamin Disraeli's novel Alroy, q.v., with
music by Bernard De Lisle.
Published: Women's Printing Society 1907.
