Sybil traces the plight of the working classes of England. The "two nations" of its subtitle refers to the huge economic and social gap between the privileged few and the deprived working classes. Disraeli was interested in dealing with the horrific conditions in which the majority of England's working classes lived - or, what is generally called the Condition of England question. The book is a novel with a thesis - which was meant to create a furor over the squalor that was plaguing England's working class cities.