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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... thathe might be swallowed byits quicksands or dashed upon its rocks. [9] His mother could not indeed infect others with the same cruelty. As itwas impossible toavoid the inquiries which the curiosity or tenderness ofher relations made ...
... thathe had desired him to come thither that he might write for him. They soon sat down to the work. Sir Richard dictated, and Savage wrote, till the dinner that had been ordered was putupon the table. Savage was surprised at the ...
... had been seen in bed. They swore in general that Merchant gave the provocation, which Savageand Gregory drew theirswords to justify; that Savage drew first, and thathe stabbed Sinclair when he was notin a posture of defence, or.
... thathe was enabledby frequent presents not only to support himself, butto assistMr. Gregory inprison; and, when he was pardoned and released,he found thenumber of his friends not lessened. [90] The nature of the act for which he had ...
... Thathe wasnot altogether free from literary hypocrisy, and that hesometimes spoke onething and wrote another, cannot be denied; because he himself confessed that, whenhe lived in great familiarity with Dennis, he wrote an epigram ...
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 | |