Eminent Victorians is a book by Lytton Strachey (the oldest member of the Bloomsbury Group), first published in 1918 and consisting of biographies of four leading figures from the Victorian era. Giles Lytton Strachey (ˈdʒaɪlz ˈlɪtən ˈstreɪtʃɪ 1 March 1880 &ndash 21 January 1932 was a British writer and critic The Bloomsbury Group was an English collectivity of loving friends and relatives who lived in or near London during the first half of the twentieth century Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common A biography (from the Greek words bíos (βίος meaning "life" and gráphein (γράφειν meaning "to write" is an account Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities Its fame rests on the irreverence and wit Strachey brought to bear on three men and a woman who had till then been regarded as heroes and heroine. They were:
The book made Strachey's name and placed him firmly in the top rank of biographers, where he remains. Henry Edward Manning ( July 15, 1808 - January 14, 1892) was an English Roman Catholic Archbishop and Cardinal Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC (in her own pronunciation ˈflɒɾəns ˈnaɪtɪŋgeɪl 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910 who came to be known as "The Thomas Arnold ( 13 June 1795 &ndash 12 June 1842) was a British schoolmaster and historian head of Rugby School from 1828 Major-General, CB ( 28 January 1833 &ndash 26 January 1885) known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha Biographers are Authors who write an account of another person's life while autobiographers are authors who write their own Biography.
Significance
With the publication of Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey set out to breathe life into the Victorian era for future generations to read. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities Up until this point, Strachey felt, Victorian biographies "(were) as familiar as the cortége of the undertaker, and wear the same air of slow, funeral barbarism. " Strachey defied the tradition of sprawling volumes of undigested information, and took aim on a number of iconified figures with his ironic wit; modern biographer Christopher Hitchens has been likened to him. Christopher Eric Hitchens (born April 13, 1949) is a British Author, Journalist, Literary critic and American Strachey's analysis is both humanizing and critical, but is careless with historical fact.
His chosen subjects belong firmly to the establishment. The book may be viewed as satire, and, rather than breathing life into the Victorians, was indicative of a shift in moral values. Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human
A follow-up, Eminent Edwardians by Piers Brendan, was published in 1979. It follows the same format of recounting the lives of four figures who defined the era they lived in via miniature biographies.
External links
- Eminent Victorians, available at Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works
- Lincoln Allison (Reader in Politics, University of Warwick) Colourful Eminence - Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians: a Retrospective Review Social Affairs Unit Web Review, July 2005
- OUP catalogue
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