Aubrey's Brief Lives
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: No dust jacket — red cloth boards in good condition with some fading. Page Condition: Yellowed/tanning consistent with age. Markings: previous owner. Binding: Firm. No stickers or labels visible.
Aubrey's Brief Lives is a celebrated collection of short biographical sketches compiled by the 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey, covering some of the most fascinating figures of his era — scientists, poets, philosophers, and statesmen alike. Edited from the original manuscripts and introduced by Oliver Lawson Dick, this landmark edition presents Aubrey's candid, often gossipy portraits with scholarly rigour and wit, bringing Tudor and Stuart England vividly to life. Aubrey's prose is arrestingly direct, capturing personal quirks, scandalous anecdotes, and intellectual achievements in equal measure, making it an indispensable primary source and an irresistible read. The collection chronicles luminaries such as Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and William Shakespeare through the eyes of a man who knew many of them personally, offering an unrivalled intimacy that no formal biography can replicate. Dick's meticulous editorial work transformed Aubrey's scattered notes into a coherent and enduring classic of English literature.
Author: Oliver Lawson Dick
Format: Hardback
Published: 1950, Secker and Warburg
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: No dust jacket — red cloth boards in good condition with some fading. Page Condition: Yellowed/tanning consistent with age. Markings: previous owner. Binding: Firm. No stickers or labels visible.
Aubrey's Brief Lives is a celebrated collection of short biographical sketches compiled by the 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey, covering some of the most fascinating figures of his era — scientists, poets, philosophers, and statesmen alike. Edited from the original manuscripts and introduced by Oliver Lawson Dick, this landmark edition presents Aubrey's candid, often gossipy portraits with scholarly rigour and wit, bringing Tudor and Stuart England vividly to life. Aubrey's prose is arrestingly direct, capturing personal quirks, scandalous anecdotes, and intellectual achievements in equal measure, making it an indispensable primary source and an irresistible read. The collection chronicles luminaries such as Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and William Shakespeare through the eyes of a man who knew many of them personally, offering an unrivalled intimacy that no formal biography can replicate. Dick's meticulous editorial work transformed Aubrey's scattered notes into a coherent and enduring classic of English literature.