If he is wise, he will adopt a subtler strategy.

It is not by the direct method of a scrupulous narration that the explorer of the past can hope to depict that singular epoch. Concerning the Age which has just passed, our fathers and our grandfathers have poured forth and accumulated so vast a quantity of information that the industry of a Ranke would be submerged by it, and the perspicacity of a Gibbon would quail before it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian-ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art. The history of the Victorian Age will never be written we know too much about it. 20th century / © Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images. The Lady with the Lamp, visiting the sick soldiers in hospital, by Peter Jackson, c. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.Ĭover Image: a detail of Florence Nightingale. Read moreĬover.jpg EMINENT VICTORIANS By LYTTON STRACHEY Yet it is this tone that gives the work its texture and energy-a truly artistic work of biography from one of the most modern minds of the early 20th century. His attribution of a realist psychology to his characters left many unnerved. Many found his treatment of his subjects to be offensive and unduly critical. His inventive form of biography was not greeted with total acclaim. The book was a popular and commercial success, establishing Strachey’s writing career. “Eminent Victorians” looks at the Catholic leader Cardinal Manning, the author and nurse Florence Nightingale, the Catholic reformer Thomas Arnold, and the British Army officer Charles George Gordon. This 1918 work is noted for its irreverent sense of realism toward generally celebrated individuals. Considered a masterpiece of biographical writing, “Eminent Victorians” examines the lives of four important figures representative of the Victorian era. Lytton Strachey was a founder of the famed Bloomsbury Group, an influential group of intellectuals and writers in wartime England.

Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey