British Biography: A Reader

Carl Rollyson

juil. 2005 · iUniverse

E-book

320

Pages

Les notes et avis ne sont pas vérifiés. En savoir plus

Passer au livre audio

À propos de cet e-book

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.

À propos de l'auteur

Carl Rollyson is the author of Biography: An Annotated Bibliography, A Higher Form of Cannibalism? Adventures in the Art and Politics of Biography, and the forthcoming Biography: A User?s Guide. His iUniverse titles include Reading Biography, Essays in Biography, and biographies of Marie Curie, Lillian Hellman, Norman Mailer, and Rebecca West.

Donner une note à cet e-book

Dites-nous ce que vous en pensez.

Informations sur la lecture

Smartphones et tablettes

Installez l'application Google Play Livres pour Android et iPad ou iPhone. Elle se synchronise automatiquement avec votre compte et vous permet de lire des livres en ligne ou hors connexion, où que vous soyez.

Ordinateurs portables et de bureau

Vous pouvez écouter les livres audio achetés sur Google Play à l'aide du navigateur Web de votre ordinateur.

Liseuses et autres appareils

Pour lire sur des appareils e-Ink, comme les liseuses Kobo, vous devez télécharger un fichier et le transférer sur l'appareil en question. Suivez les instructions détaillées du Centre d'aide pour transférer les fichiers sur les liseuses compatibles.

Signaler un contenu illicite