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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... of his servants,than from aformal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree,and ended with hisfuneral.” Thebiographer understands the problem of treadingon the sensibilities ofthe “many who think it an act of pietyto hide the faults or ...
... ofhis personal character which represents him as careful of his health, and negligent of his life. [9] Butbiography has oftenbeen allotted to writers who seem very little acquainted withthe nature oftheir task, orvery negligent about the ...
... the advantages ofnature orof fortune have contributed very littleto the promotionof happiness; and that those whom the splendour of their rank or the extent oftheir capacity have placed upon the summitsof humanlife, have notoften given ...
... of thoughtless mirth orthe heat of transient resentment, speakof their friends and benefactors with levityand contempt, though in theircooler momentsthey want neither sense oftheir kindness nor reverence fortheir virtue. The faulttherefore ...
... the memory,ordiffuse the censure. [45] In his Wandererhe has indeed taken an opportunity of mentioning her,but celebrates hernot for her virtue, buther beauty, an excellence whichnone ever deniedher: this istheonly encomium with which ...
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 | |