Strachey wanted to tell the history of the victorian age by examining the lives of four somewhat prominent but not the most prominent personalities. Cardinal henry edward manning 18081892, an ambitious anglican cleric who, after conversion, became an ambitious roman catholic cleric and rose to the highest church post in the nation and. Until strachey, biographers had kept an awestruck distance from their subjects. Stracheys wit is no less cutting than his pen, exposing with relentless precision the hypocrisy, the ambition, the immorality and in some cases outright cruelty of some of the victorian ages most treasured legends. Eminent victorians is often seen as an oedipal massacre of discredited father figures an assault on the victorian establishment from which strachey, the son of a general, had sprung. 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. Strachey needles the hypocrisy of the selfserving victorian establishment with elegance and wit. But it is still worth reading this section in full, because, contrary to virginia woolfs belief that stracheys picture of the queen would become the accepted one see her essay, the art of biography, both victoria and victorianism were already sliding precipitately from grace.
Lytton stracheys excerpt on florence nightingale free. Eminent victorians by lytton strachey a string quartet. Queen victoria research papers on the sovereignty of the. Unlike the other biographies weve looked at this year ropers life of more, cavendishs life of cardinal wolsey, and boswells life of johnson, lytton strachey s eminent victorians is a work marked by distance seen through the fresh eyes of a new generation.
On the other hand, one of the great faults of the victorian age was its incurable. But his sense of form and his witty, ironic style inspired a host of imitators who were eager to reduce historical figures to life size. Lytton strachey first of the great literary biographers. My motivation to read this book has been generated from my interest in the bloomsbury group, which the eccentric lytton strachey 1880 1933 was a prominent member of.
In fact, lytton strachey is best known for his ironic attitude towards the subjects of his biographical studies. Strachey s portraits of cardinal manning, florence nightingale, thomas arnold, and eminent victorians, collection of short biographical sketches by lytton. This is a survey of strachey s development as a writer in relation to his life. The biography that changed biography forever the washington post. The victorian age slipped back into the concept of biography as hagiography.
Paul levy on lytton stracheys masterwork, eminent victorians. Strachey is able to explain the basis for mannings life pattern. The book shows its other subjects in a less than flattering light. Eminent victorians is a book by lytton strachey first published in 1918 and consisting of biographies of four leading figures from the victorian era. Treating his subjects from a highly idiosyncratic point of view, he was fascinated by personality and. Cardinal manning, florence nightingale, thomas arnold and general gordon. In 1912, lytton strachey, who was living on his occasional journalism chiefly for his cousin st loe strachey s spectator, and amusing himself and. Read eminent victorians by lytton strachey available from rakuten kobo. What are ten books to read to get the best possible. Lytton strachey s excerpt depicts the popular misconceptions and the actual reality of who florence nightingale was.
The history of the victorian age will never be written. Eminent victorians, collection of short biographical sketches by lytton strachey, published in 1918 strachey s portraits of cardinal manning, florence nightingale, thomas arnold, and general charles chinese gordon revolutionized english biography. Lytton strachey was born in london on march 1, 1880. His father, sir richard strachey, was a colonial indian civil servant and civil engineer and a british army general. Eminent victorians wikisource, the free online library. Indeed, stracheys eminent victorians had given it the first push. Lytton strachey s eminent victorians is both a new and modern form of biography, rebelling against the standards of his period, and a return to the moral.
It is now forty years, walter houghton writes, since lytton strachey decided that we knew too much about the victorian era to view its culture as a whole. Its a splendid bookinsightful, witty and enjoyableand gives one a sense of life in the grip of victorian mores and victorian habits of mind. Considered a masterpiece of biographical writing, eminent victorians examines the lives of four important figures representative of the victorian era. Eminent victorians by lytton strachey full text free. Eminent victorians is a book by lytton strachey one of the older members of the bloomsbury group, first published in 1918 and consisting of biographies of four leading figures from the victorian era. In stracheys view, gordon was an impulsive, eccentric romantic, with a. Lytton strachey 18801932 was a founder of the famed bloomsbury group, an influential group of intellectuals and writers in wartime england. His point of view was highly personal and some of his judgments have been described as exaggerated. Ferns shows how eminent victorians grew out of strachey s opposition to world war i, for which he held the late victorian generation responsible. The book made strachey s name and placed him firmly in the top.
The following 2 users say thank you to last island for this useful post. Strachey uses satire to present his view of manning as a man of lyrton ambition. Giles lytton strachey was an early 20th century writer and biographer who developed a reputation for writing biographies that dealt with individuals as people, rather than the events they were associated with. Of the victorian eras twovolume official lives, he scornfully wrote, who does not. His 1921 biography of the british monarch, queen victoria, is. Arnold the great educationalist is an antiintellectual sadist.
Strachey s euphemism of calling nightingale the lady with the lamp as opposed to the agitations of her soul portrays the idea that her reality. This 1918 work is noted for its irreverent sense of realism toward generally heroized individuals. Queen victoria and her age, an analysis by lytton strachey. Eminent victorians and millions of other books are available for instant access. Eminent victorians, collection of short biographical sketches by lytton strachey, published in 1918. W 7hat did lytton strachey mean when he insisted in the preface to eminent. Eminent victorians, by lytton strachey, penguin classics, first published, 1918. Everyone knows the popular conception of florence nightingale. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historianignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art. Lytton strachey the history of the victorian age will. Eminent victorians is a book by lytton strachey, first published in 1918 and consisting of biographies of four leading figures from the victorian era. Eminent victorians by lytton strachey consists of biographies of four leading figures from the victorian era. I most enjoyed the chapter on cardinal manning, which touches on the life and work of john henry newman and the oxford movement as well as the english catholic church at a turbulent time in its history. Lytton strachey quotes from the history of the victorian age will never be written.
Eminent victorians by lytton strachey kansas city public. His eminent victorians, published in 1918, inaugurated a new style of biography distinguished by irony, wit, irreverence, and elegance of language. The georgian era unto which alexandra victoria was born was a completely different world that the one from which she departed, but in strachey s hand, what emerges is the petty, pampered and petulant nature of the various sons of george iii, as described by lytton strachey in. The one distinguishing fact about the time was that we are living inan age of transition. In eminent victorians 1918, lytton strachey examined the lives of four famous english individuals from the victorian era and found that they were not quite what previous biographies and popular legend had made them out to be. The saintly, selfsacrificing woman, the delicate maiden of high degree who threw aside the pleasures of a life of ease to succour the afflicted, the lady with the lamp, gliding through the horrors of the hospital at scutari, and consecrating with the radiance of her goodness the dying soldiers couchthe vision is familiar to all.
Adopting an irreverent attitude to the past and especially to the monumental lifeandletters volumes of victorian biography, strachey proposed to write lives. He insisted that the spirit of the biographer should be free and that he should write from a definite point of view. The victorian period is a key moment in the history of sexuality. For at least some of this, we can thank the iconoclastic lytton strachey. Born in 1880, strachey was a british biographer and a critic who is credited of. In his first work on the victorian age, eminent victorians. Lytton strachey, english biographer and critic who opened a new era of. The witty lytton strachey unseats victorian icons from their pedestals.
Nightingales reforms are loathed by bureaucrats so they turn her into a pallid angel. Its impact, however, on the reputations of his four subjectsthomas arnold, general gordon, cardinal manning and florence nightingalehas been. Although strachey does not dispute mannings formidable energy and administrative skills, he presents him in a negative light. Lytton strachey 18801932, among the most famous writers of his time, was a member of the bloomsbury group and the author of a number of biographies. Eminent victorians lytton strachey innovating the application of psychological principles to history, strachey presents four artful biographies, or victorian visions. For although all ages are ages of transition, never before had men thought of. In 1912, lytton strachey, who was living on his occasional journalism chiefly for his cousin st loe stracheys spectator, and amusing himself and his bloomsbury friends by writing plays and. Perhaps lytton strachey was the first to create the new biography, not wrapping his subjects in flowery adjectives as was the style of his times, but instead skewering them with sarcastic and scathingly funny written portraits. Florence nightingale in eminent victorians by lytton.
The only constant theme is strachey s hatred of what frances partridge the last survivor of bloomsbury calls, in her foreword, the hypocrisy of the age. Giles lytton strachey 18801932 was an english biographer and critic known for his satire of the victorian era. Eminent victorians by lytton strachey full text archive. In eminent victorians 1918, lytton strachey examined the lives of four famous. Adopting an irreverent attitude to the past and especially to the monumental lifeandletters volumes of victorian biography, strachey proposed to write lives with a brevity which excludes everything that is redundant and nothing that is. Cardinal henry edward manning 18081892, an ambitious anglican cleric who, after conversion, became an ambitious roman catholic cleric and rose to the highest church post in the nation and was mentioned as a possible candidate for pope. The four in question were cardinal manning, the leader of englands roman catholic community. Lytton strachey s eminent victorians has long been regarded as a watershed in attitudes to victorian culture, widely seen as having instigated a revolutionary backlash against the values and heroes of the victorian era in england. Strachey, in eminent victorians reflects on the character of infamous historical heroine florence nightingale to cast the past lives of ordinary citizens, primarily women, as unsatisfactory and unfulfilling, and through this negative depiction of victorian england, the author is able to uphold perceptions of the 20th century, through contrast, as a period of female liberation.
He was the eleventh of thirteen children of an uppermiddleclass family. Lytton strachey, in full giles lytton strachey, born march 1, 1880, londondied jan. Strachey s elegant satire was original, but the book relied on critiques of victorian icons published before 1914. Roper, cavendish and boswell were all writing of their contemporaries, and of contemporaries for whom they cared deeply. The catchphrase we are not amused now seemed to sum up a stiff and starchy matron, completely at odds with the figure that emerges from her.
One should rather read lytton stracheys eminent victorians if one is interested to gain an insight into how strachey dismounts with relish victorian heroes and values. In so doing, he makes a powerful argument for the art of the biography against the questionable value of idealized. Eminent victorians, by lytton strachey penguin classics. These deliberations suffice to signify that strachey is the greatest biographer of the victorian age. Michael holroyd, strachey s biographer, said that eminent victorians began without a thesis but acquired a theme because of the first world war. Short answers of florence nightingale nazar bazmis notes. Treating his subjects from a highly idiosyncratic point of view, he was. Eminent victorians by lytton strachey preface the history of the victorian age will never be written. Giles lytton strachey 18801932 was an english biographer and critic known for his satire of the victorian era lytton strachey was born in london on march 1, 1880. Eminent victorians, first published in and consisting of.