Historical Context
Britain in the Late Victorian Era
In 1885, Britain was entering the final quarter of the Victorian Era (1837–1901). In that...
(The entire section is 838 words.)
Literary Style
Satire
Satire is the use of wit and humor to ridicule or show scorn of a subject. Strachey’s satire in Eminent...
(The entire section is 1192 words.)
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
Altick, Richard D., ‘‘Eminent Victorianism: What Lytton Strachey Hath Wrought,’’ in American Scholar,...
(The entire section is 243 words.)
Bibliography
Further Reading
Altick, Richard. “Eminent Victorianism: What Lytton Strachey Hath Wrought.” American Scholar 64, no. 1 (Winter, 1995): 81-89. Argues that Strachey’s aim in Eminent Victorians was explicitly literary. Because he took such liberties with historical fact, it is Strachey’s method that came to be discredited, rather than the Victorian ethos he attempted to subvert.
_______. “The Stracheyan Revolution.” In Lives and Letters: A History of Literary Biography in England and America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966. An excellent summary of the pivotal role of Eminent...
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Compare and Contrast
1800s: Britain’s Industrial Revolution leads the world, and the British Empire continues to expand. More than a quarter of the...
(The entire section is 496 words.)
Topics for Further Study
Mark Twain wrote, ‘‘Biography is the clothes and buttons of the man, but the real biography of a man is lived in his head twenty-four...
(The entire section is 223 words.)
What Do I Read Next?
Strachey’s Queen Victoria (1921) is not as satirical as Eminent Victorians, although there is much humor and comedy in the...
(The entire section is 167 words.)