Beginnings (Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Biography Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Gwendolyn Reed
- First Published: 1971
- Time of Work: 1500 to the 1960’s
- Setting: Italy, France, Germany, England, the United States, Denmark, Russia, and Ireland
- Principal Characters: Benvenuto Cellini, Michel de Montaigne, Johann Dietz, William Hutton, François René de Chateaubriand, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Tanner, Hans Christian Andersen, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Piotr Alekseyevich Kropotkin, Tomás Ó’Crohan, Alfred Kazin
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Revolutionaries, Authors or writers, Literature, Doctors, Poetry or poets, Criticism, Biography, Flutes or flute players
- Locales: France, United States, England, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Russia, Denmark
Form and Content
In Beginnings, Gwendolyn Reed presents the lives of twelve men in chronological order. The chapter devoted to each individual includes an introduction, an excerpt from his childhood autobiographical materials, and an afterword. “Benvenuto Cellini: The Reluctant Flautist” describes the life of a man known for his sculpture Perseus and for his autobiography. Despite his father’s hopes, however, Cellini became a goldsmith. “Michel de Montaigne: A Peculiar Education” reveals how, during his first five years, Montaigne was immersed in Latin...
[The entire page is 1492 words long]

