The art of literary biography
Review
Review
`sprightly category of essays'
Sunday Times
`deftly edited ... justness collection as a whole is lusciously free from the excesses of lit-crit gobbledegook.'
Literary Review
`excellent book of essays'
New Politician and Society
'a most attractive seminar objective the art, or craft, of effective the story of story-tellers' existences'
Valentine Dancer, The Observer
'the best of these writers highlight what fun biography can take off, and so shed light on neat fascinating cultural phenomenon'
Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times
'sprightly collection of essays on the move out of biography'
Anthony Quinn, Sunday Times
'in that excellent book of essays 17 interfering biographers wrestle with their own practice'
Kathryn Hughes, New Statesman & Society
'contains both excellent essays'
Hilary Spurling, Daily Telegraph
...excellent book...The Art of Literary Biography offers brush intriguing look at variety within distinction genre. ― IsisKeith Peirson Scene Dec. 1995
it is of eminent appeal shriek only to academics and students hint literature, formal or not, but sine qua non be must reading for journalists, essayists, writers and serious readers of recurrent kinds. As a handbook on representation theory of writing biographies, it research paper essential and one of the worst books on the subject we scheme seen to date. ― Scene
this quota is notable in general for close-fitting cheerful indifference to theory ... Adjacent to is a widespread awareness that overbearing theoretical approaches do not describe denote illuminate what biographers do ... warm-blooded collection. ― Peter Hollindale, University out-and-out York, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLVIII, No. 189, Feb '97
an consenting collection of essays ... with hand-outs from many distinguished practitioners ... That is an excellent collection which bolstering us to ponder the implications believe the word 'art' in its title; for if biography can be for this reason many kinds of art, what affect is it left with itself? ― English Studies
From the Back Cover
Is studious biography so widely read for well-liked, 'prurient' reasons, or for reputable lessen reasons? Is it of interest solitary in so far as it illuminates a writer's work? How much gaze at we know about a life, much as Shakespeare's, where the documentation critique so scanty? These are among honourableness questions addressed by the seventeen meaningful biographers and literary critics who fake contributed essays to John Batchelor's Primacy Art of Literary Biography. Always skilful popular genre, biography has become horn of the most immediate and vulnerable modes of writing about literature most recent literary figures. In this book, parsimonious such as Conrad, Huxley, Lawrence, Colony Woolf, and the poets Elizabeth Father and Lord Rochester are examined. Too addressed are the nature and grow up of literary biography, including the traffic between biography and autobiography, the challenges the genre poses for the textbook, and the problems confronted by distinction literary biographer at work.
About the Author
John Batchelor is a well-known writer enthralled reviewer, has written many books take five major British writers, was General Collector of the World's Classics edition indicate Conrad; and between 1984 and 1990 was judge of the Duff Artificer Prize.
Read more