Nineteenth-Century Lives

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Nineteenth-Century Lives
Authors and Contributors      Edited by Laurence S. Lockridge
Edited by John Maynard
Edited by Donald D. Stone
Edited by David Staines
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:240
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 140
Category/GenreLiterary studies - c 1800 to c 1900
ISBN/Barcode 9780521090506
ClassificationsDewey:820.9008
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 27 November 2008
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

In Nineteenth-Century Lives, first published in 1989, ten distinguished critics and biographers consider what it means to narrate a life. Their illustrative texts are largely taken from nineteenth-century biography, autobiography and the novel, but narrative is the broader genre that unites their various inquiries. The principal issues, theoretical and practical, are framed by Margaret Atwood, J. Hillis Miller and Phyllis Rose. 'The biographer, like the novelist, is a constructor of narratives; it's just that the ground rules are a little different,' writes Atwood. Among the matters they debate are the boundaries of fact and fiction, the professed power of the narrator, and the figurative underpinings of autobiography. But many of these essays are delightful and provocative biographical and autobiographical excursions in themselves. Atwood describes her early fear of biography, Morton Cohen narrates an exciting bit of detective work into the life of Lewis Carroll, and John Rosenberg gives a vivid and frequently revisionary reading of many aspects of Darwin's life.