Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
  • List Price: $15.00
  • Save: $4.38 (29%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
Only 9 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Eminent Victorians (Class... has been added to your Cart
Want it Thursday, Aug. 11? Order within and choose this date at checkout.
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Used: Acceptable | Details
Sold by Jenson Books Inc
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comment: The item is fairly worn but continues to work perfectly. Signs of wear can include aesthetic issues such as scratches, dents, and worn corners. All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 3 images

Eminent Victorians (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) Paperback – July 19, 1990

by
Lytton Strachey (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Lytton Strachey Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Lytton Strachey (Author), Michael Holroyd (Introduction)
4.4 out of 5 stars 44 customer reviews
See all 60 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$2.12
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
$37.56
$31.99 $29.90
Paperback
"Please retry"
$8.99
$7.25 $2.99
Paperback, July 19, 1990
$10.62
$6.73 $0.01
Mass Market Paperback
"Please retry"
—
— $23.00
Audio, Cassette, Unabridged
"Please retry"
$28.99
$28.99 —
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Author interviews, book reviews, editors picks, and more. Read it now
$10.62 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. Only 9 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • Eminent Victorians (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
  • +
  • The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (New York Review Books Classics)
Total price: $24.43
Buy the selected items together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (New York Review Books Classics)
    A.J.A. Symons
    3.9 out of 5 stars 12
    Paperback
    $13.81 Prime
  2. Between the Acts
    Virginia Woolf
    3.6 out of 5 stars 17
    Paperback
    $10.69 Prime
  3. Jacob's Room (Norton Critical Editions)
    Virginia Woolf
    3.9 out of 5 stars 37
    Paperback
    $17.81 Prime
  4. Howards End (Dover Thrift Editions)
    E. M. Forster
    4.0 out of 5 stars 234
    Paperback
    $3.50 Prime
  5. Orlando: A Biography
    Virginia Woolf
    4.2 out of 5 stars 132
    Paperback
    $12.36 Prime
  6. Portrait of a Marriage: Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson
    Nigel Nicolson
    4.1 out of 5 stars 31
    Paperback
    $13.45 Prime
Next

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
The latest book club pick from Oprah
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Series: Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin
  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics (July 19, 1990)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140183507
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140183504
  • Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.6 x 7.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsThe importance of not being earnest
By Charlene Vickers on September 23, 2005
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Some of Lytton Strachey's choices of subject for the four scathing biographical essays contained in _Eminent Victorians_ may seem rather strange. Florence Nightingale was an obvious choice for any biographer, but who cared about Matthew Arnold in the post-war era when Strachey was writing these essays? Who gave a thought to Cardinal Manning or Chinese Gordon? And why combine their biographies into one book?

The answer may be that all four shared one unusual character trait, one so reminiscent of the Victorian age that even the thought of it brings the scent of lavender to mind: extreme earnestness. Each figure cared very, very deeply about something, but for each that earnestness also masked a corresponding personal craving. Like many young Britons in the post-WWI era, Strachey was deeply distrustful of earnestness, often seeing it as an excuse for personal gain or fulfillment. This was especially true when one man's deeply held beliefs sent others to their deaths, as it often had during WWI. He had no time for official incompetence, ignorance, or inaction, but often found the opposite just as dangerous.

The first essay in _Eminent Victorians_ is that of Cardinal Manning. Manning was a priest in the Church of England who became involved in the Oxford Movement, a group of churchmen who disliked the increasing secularization of the C of E and who wished to bring it back to its Catholic roots. Most of those involved remained in the Anglican communion, forming the nucleus of the "High Church" movement of the late 19th century.Read more ›
3 Comments 36 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsLAUGHTER AT POMP'S EXPENSE
By Daniel Myers VINE VOICE on January 8, 2001
Format: Paperback
The most famous anecdote about this book (and the one that made me aware of it) is the scene of Bertrand Russell in his prison cell incarcerated for his Pacifism during WWI laughing hysterically while reading the work. (And being henceforth rebuked by a guard for doing so in what was, after all, a penal institution.)-The other reviewers are pretty much on the mark in that Strachey set a new standard for biography.-But the piece on General Gordon surpasses all. I can see myself on death row laughing over this section.-It is in part a sad reflection on what years in the Sudan can do to an orthodox Englishman's mind. It is indeed uncanny to hear Gordon aver, on his famous expedition to save Khartoum, nearly the exact words of Baudelaire as he gazed across the perhaps too familiar desert landscape:"It is necessary to be drunken always. This is everything. This is the unique question." (my translation)-This is the aged General the sober English sent on this perilous quest. This is the man who daily battled with the question of what God's Will was for him.-What the Gordon section and the others show, of course, is that man (or woman) is not one-dimensional. Far more often, he(she)is multi-dimensional to the point of being paradoxical. The hypocritical Victorian mindset was pushed over the edge by this book.
Comment 15 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsAll Time Classic- Worth it for Chinese Gordon Alone!
By Hans Castorp VINE VOICE on January 31, 2002
Format: Paperback
Most of us here in the old "colony" have probably never heard of General Gordon. For Brits, he's a legendary eccentric military man of the late 1800's who died a hero in terrible circumstances.(At least that's what I think many Brits think..) After a brilliant career in many parts of the vast Empire, and beyond, Gen Gordon was sent to control some Islamic revolutionary jihadist types (sound familiar) led by a charismatic Mahdi (messiah). By all accounts the general was a man worthy of this assignment, and brought his small force to Khartoum to free the slaves, and rally the locals...The rest is bizarre and insane in the extreme with the good general suffering breakdowns of sorts, including having dinner with some rodent friends...When word gets to London, after political maneuvering and bickering, the people damand an expeditionary force to save Gordon and his men.Too late!! A great tragedy ensues. If there's a better short bio out there than this one, I'd read it ASAP...Florence Nightingale has a great story too, and her experiences show once again the horrors of war (this time the earlier Crimean one), and indifference of the comfortable few sitting at home by the fireplace in willful ignorance. No doubt she was a force to be reckoned with, and her ideas about clean hospitals and nursing helped change the world...This book is recommended to those looking for a different historical perspective on current events, and for nurse everywhere! The other two bios are good, but may be put aside for later.
Comment 14 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsDelightfully bitchy, impeccably written
By A Customer on October 8, 1999
Format: Paperback
This book dealt a death blow to hagiographic biography as it was practised well into this century. The deligtfully bitchy tone, with conspiratorial overtones, takes one instantly into the boudoir of the personages portrayed. This shows it is not necessary to read a 1000 page tome to properly understand a historical figure. Strachey was obviously biased against religion (particularly of the Catholic variety), and against politicians in general. He was also selective of the material he chose to disclose and never wavered from allowing his preconceptions to substitute for analysis. But could he write!
Comment 17 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsfull of good ideas!

Simple and to the point, full of good ideas!

Published 11 days ago by Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 starsI haven't finished this yet, but I am enjoying ...

I haven't finished this yet, but I am enjoying the style, so different from how biographies would be written today. I really wanted it because it was an armed services edition. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Carol Browning
3.0 out of 5 starsNot this edition!

I found the endnotes far more annoying than useful - definitely should be footnotes instead!

Published 3 months ago by John S.
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great historical insights.

Published 5 months ago by John A. Brooks
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

No problems and product was as advertised

Published 10 months ago by A Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsIt came promptly and my grandson was able to do ...

It came promptly and my grandson was able to do the study he needed before starting school.
Thank you for that.

Published 11 months ago by Kay
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat historian with a satirical bent Good condition book and ...

I have read all of his books. Great historian with a satirical bent Good condition book and fast delivery!

Published 12 months ago by Rochelle Upton
4.0 out of 5 starsGood essays

Well documented essays on an interesting historical time.
Particularly interesting, for me, were those on Gordon Pasha and Florence nightingale. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 starsStrachey set out to expose both good and bad about his characters and...

Writing during the First World War and armed with Darwin’s theory of evolution, in his book Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey examines the lives of four famous characters from... Read more

Published 15 months ago by Holly
4.0 out of 5 starsAn almost forgotten magnum opus

A good read by the man whose biography was made into the movie Carrington.

Published 18 months ago by Jules F.

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Eminent Victorians (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: Eminent Victorians (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.