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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... natural or moral knowledge, whether we intend to enlargeour scienceor increase ourvirtue,are moreimportant than public occurrences. Thus Salust, the greatmasterof nature, has not forgot, inhis account ofCatiline, to remark that his ...
... nature oftheir task, orvery negligent about the performance. They rarely afford any other account than might be ... natural reasons why these narratives are often written by such as were not likely to give much instruction or delight ...
... nature seemednot to have designed him.” Savage's fitful personality, his winningand losing ways, areembedded in Johnson's perfectly balanced sentences:“It was hispeculiar happiness, that he scarcely ever founda stranger, which he did ...
... natural affection of aparent, or what interest could be promoted byneglect orcruelty. The dreadof shame or of poverty,by which some wretcheshave been incitedto abandon orto murdertheir children, cannot be supposedtohave affecteda woman ...
... natural children and therefore demanded a positive account of him, withan importunity not to be diverted or denied. His mother, whocould no longer refusean answer, determinedat least to givesuch as shouldcut him off for everfrom that ...
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 | |