The Development Of English Biography
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:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
From the hagiographies of medieval saints to the polished literary portraits of the Victorian age, The Development of English Biography presents a masterful survey of one of literature's most intimate and revealing forms. Harold Nicolson chronicles the evolution of biographical writing in England with scholarly precision and elegant prose, tracing how the genre gradually shifted from idealized, moralistic accounts toward a pursuit of psychological truth and authentic human portraiture. Beginning with its earliest ecclesiastical origins, Nicolson maps the key figures, movements, and cultural forces that shaped biographical writing across the centuries, arguing that the genre's maturation mirrors the broader intellectual and social progress of English civilization. Written with the authority of a man who was himself a distinguished biographer, diplomat, and man of letters, this work stands as a landmark contribution to the study of literary history and critical theory. Nicolson's style is characteristically lucid and witty, never allowing scholarly rigor to overwhelm the pleasures of good prose. First delivered as a series of lectures at the Slade School, the text retains an engaging, conversational vitality that draws the reader effortlessly through centuries of literary development — leaving one to wonder what Nicolson himself might have said about the biographies written of him.
Author: Harold Nicolson
Format: Hardback
Published: 1968, The Hogarth Press
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
From the hagiographies of medieval saints to the polished literary portraits of the Victorian age, The Development of English Biography presents a masterful survey of one of literature's most intimate and revealing forms. Harold Nicolson chronicles the evolution of biographical writing in England with scholarly precision and elegant prose, tracing how the genre gradually shifted from idealized, moralistic accounts toward a pursuit of psychological truth and authentic human portraiture. Beginning with its earliest ecclesiastical origins, Nicolson maps the key figures, movements, and cultural forces that shaped biographical writing across the centuries, arguing that the genre's maturation mirrors the broader intellectual and social progress of English civilization. Written with the authority of a man who was himself a distinguished biographer, diplomat, and man of letters, this work stands as a landmark contribution to the study of literary history and critical theory. Nicolson's style is characteristically lucid and witty, never allowing scholarly rigor to overwhelm the pleasures of good prose. First delivered as a series of lectures at the Slade School, the text retains an engaging, conversational vitality that draws the reader effortlessly through centuries of literary development — leaving one to wonder what Nicolson himself might have said about the biographies written of him.