Eminent Victorians

Eminent Victorians Lytton Stracheys wonderfully witty and Wildean quartet of biographies stands out as one of the most radical and groundbreaking works of its genre. With relentless precision Strachey explores the lives of four exemplars of the Victorian age: Cardinal Manning Florence Nightingale Thomas Arnold and General Gordon irreverently bringing to light the flaws strengths ambitions and hypocrisies of these treasured legends. The combination of thrilling and imaginative narratives with Stracheys ironic reckoning shocked many contemporary readers of the time and even altered the course of biography making a powerful case for its elevation to high art.