Criticism > Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism > Victorian Autobiography - Robert Tracy (essay date 1986)

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Robert Tracy (essay date 1986)

SOURCE: Tracy, Robert. “Stranger Than Truth: Fictional Autobiography and Autobiographical Fiction.” Dickens Studies Annual 15 (1986): 275-89.

[In the following essay, Tracy compares Charles Dickens's novel David Copperfield and Anthony Trollope's An Autobiography in order to suggest generic affinities and distinctions between autobiographical fiction and autobiography.]

… Il me semblait que j'étais moi-même ce dont parlait l'ouvrage … le sujet du livre se détachait de moi, j'étais libre de m'y appliquer ou non …

Proust, Du coté de chez Swann

The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life or of the work …

W. B. Yeats, “The Choice”

The two passages, from Proust and from Yeats, which I have prefixed as epigraphs, suggest to me a direction to take in considering the nature of...

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1. Introduction
2. Representative Works
3. Criticism: Overviews And General Studies
   1. Linda H. Peterson (essay date 1986)
   2. Martin A. Danahay (essay date 1993)
   3. Philip Davis (essay date 1996)
4. Criticism: Autobiography And The Self
   1. Paul Jay (essay date 1984)
   2. Robert Folkenflik (essay date 1993)
   3. Robert D. Aguirre (essay date fall 2002)
5. Criticism: Autobiography And Gender
   1. Estelle C. Jelinek (essay date 1986)
   2. Martin A. Danahay (essay date fall 1990)
6. Criticism: Autobiography And Class
   1. Julia Swindells (essay date 1985)
   2. Regenia Gagnier (essay date 1989)
   3. Nan Hackett (essay date summer 1989)
7. Criticism: Autobiography And Fiction
   1. Robert Tracy (essay date 1986)
   2. Janice Carlisle (essay date fall 1990)
   3. Sara Murphy (essay date winter 2001)
8. Further Reading
9. Copyright

1. Victorian Literature
2. Autobiography