British Biography: A ReaderiUniverse, 2005 M07 14 - 320 páginas Biography 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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... did not thereby destroy biography. On the contrary, individuality now became not a happy given—something onewas bornwithand developed—but what one struggledto achieve and then maintain. Theheroicbattle became internalized, andthe hero ...
... did not leave a friend; but it must likewise be added,that he had not often a friend long, without obliging him to become a stranger.” The seesaw of Savage's life is preserved in these stately sentences, whichgive the biography decorum ...
... did not exempt him; orthose, who in confidence of superior capacities or attainments, disregard the commonmaxims oflife, shall be reminded, that nothingwill supplythe wantof prudence; and thatnegligence and irregularity, long continued ...
... 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 isvery ...
... did not imagine thatthere couldexist inahuman form amother thatwould ruin her son without enrichingherself; and therefore bestowed upon some other person six thousand pounds, which he had in his will bequeathed to Savage. [16] The same ...
Contenido
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 | |