British Biography: A ReaderBiography as a literary genre is largely the product of the eighteenth century and of one seminal work, James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). Boswell's innovations revolutionized the genre and made it the target of suppression and censorship. He sought not only to memorialize a great man but also to reveal his flaws. Boswell reported long stretches of Johnson's conversation, noted his mannerisms, and in general gave an intimate picture such as no biography had ever before dared to attempt. After Boswell, there was a retreat from his bolder innovations, which amounted to self-censorship on the biographer's part. When Thomas Carlyle's biographer, James Anthony Froude, braved this trend against truth and allowed his subject's dark side to show, he was vilified in the press. The tensions between discretion and candor have endured in British biography since Froude, a point Carl Rollyson makes in the reviews of contemporary British biographers he includes in British Biography, which also contains Johnson's full-length biography of Richard Savage, excerpts from Boswell's Life of Johnson as well selections from and commentaries on Southey's biography of Nelson, Mrs. Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bront, and the revolutionary work of Froude and Strachey. |
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... appeared earlier, including several by Johnson himself, and the idea ofbiography extends backward to medieval saint's lives andto Plutarch (46?— 120), whose Parallel Lives hasexerted anenormous influenceonthe history ofbiography. But ...
... appearing toconsider him ashisown, left none any reasonto doubt ofthe sincerityofher declaration; for he washis godfather, and gave himhisown name, whichwasby his direction inserted in the register of St. Andrew's parish in Holborn, but ...
... appeared, did not hinderhis genius from being distinguished, or his industry from being rewarded; and if inso low a state he obtained distinctionand rewards, it is notlikely that they were gained but by genius and industry. [13] It ...
... appeared, however, tobe gaining upon mankind, whenbothhis fameand hislife were endangered byanevent, ofwhich itis not yet determined whether it oughtto be mentioned as a crime or a calamity. [66] Onthe20th of November, 1727,Mr. Savage ...
... appeared to interest itself as in a cause ofgeneral concern. The witnesses against Mr. Savage and his friends were the woman who kept thehouse, which was ahouse of ill fame, andher maid,the men who werein theroom with Mr. Sinclair, and ...
Contents
READINGS THE RAMBLER NO 60 JOHNSONS LIFE OF SAVAGE 1744 | |
EXCEPT FROM ROBERT SOUTHEYS LIFE OF NELSON | |
EXCERPTS FROM ELIZABETH GASKELLS LIFEOF | |
EXCERPT FROM FROUDES LIFE OF CARLYLE | |
LYTTON STRACHEY EMINENT VICTORIANS 1918 | |
REVIEWS | |
JOHN FOWLES | |