Biography: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) [Paperback]

Hermione Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0199533547 | ISBN-13: 978-0199533541 | Edition: 1

Hermione Lee is one of the leading literary biographers in the English-speaking world, the author of widely acclaimed lives of Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf. Now, in this Very Short Introduction, Lee provides a magnificent look at the genre in which she is an undisputed master--the art of biography. Here Lee considers the cultural and historical background of different types of biographies, looks at the factors that affect biographers, and asks whether there are different strategies, ethics, and principles required for writing about one person compared to another. She also discusses contemporary biographical publications and considers what kind of "lives" are the most popular and in demand. And along the way, she answers such questions as why do certain people and historical events arouse so much interest? How can biographies be compared with history and works of fiction? Does a biography need to be true? Is it acceptable to omit or conceal things? Does the biographer need to personally know the subject? Must a biographer be subjective?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Biography: Questions for Consideration and Discussion

Do you think there can be set rules for biography?

What do you think are the particular challenges of writing literary biography?

Do you think biography should tell the whole truth?

What do you think is the relationship between different kinds of “life-writing”: diaries, memoirs, letters, autobiography, biography?

Could you have a biography of a river, or a city, or a disease?

Do you think men’s and women’s lives have been written about in different ways, and if so, why?

Review

"Distinguished writer, reviewer, and biographer Lee...details the biography as an autopsy, a posthumous exercise in scrutiny, and a portrait that captures characterization, referencing many works of classic British biography to show the changes in the writing form from the Victorian era through the golden ages and modern times...Students of biography and writing will appreciate the broad overview packed into this succinct work." --Library Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (August 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199533547
• ISBN-13: 978-0199533541
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Reference & Collections

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction to biography as a genre, November 2, 2009

By 

Dr. Bojan Tunguz (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biography: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

Biography is a story of someone's life, and biographies have been written for as long as people had been interested in lives of others. This very short introduction takes us on a trip throughout centuries at exploring the genre, it's ever evolving conventions and the basic requirements that we expect from all good biographies. The main focus of the book is the British biographies, with a few others used as examples. There are no biographical examples from non-western sources, unless you count those from the Bible. Nonetheless, even with these constraints we get to see a vast variety of approaches to biography. Some biographers had intimate first-hand knowledge of their subject, while other wrote from a vast spatial and temporal distance, relying solely on secondhand sources. Another big difference that biography as a genre has undergone is the change of mores that nowadays puts a stronger stress on disreputable and salacious aspects of one's life. This is a far cry from "exemplary lives" model that had been popular in the past, which had presupposed the purpose of biography to be enlightenment and edification of the public.

Reading about biography in abstract can be rather boring. Luckily, this book is replete with examples from various notable biographies. However, if you are not interested in biography as a genre you may not get too much out of reading this book.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful, December 16, 2009

By 

Teacher of Teachers - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Biography: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

These books are quite useful, and this one is recommended for anyone who enjoys biographies and would like to learn a bit about biography in general.