Lytton Strachey

Barry Spurr (University of Sydney)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

Born 1 Mar 1880
Died 21 Jan 1932
Activity 1912-1931

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Biographer
Essayist
Man/ Woman of Letters

Other

Literary Critic/ Historian

Resources

Strachey's Works

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Lytton Strachey accomplished a revolution in biographical writing in his succinct and satirical biographies of four

Eminent Victorians

(1918) which were written in pointed reaction to the Victorian, two-volumed hagiographical life-and-letters tradition. Coming at the time of momentous changes in literature at large (T.S. Eliot’s

Prufrock and Other Observations

, for example, had appeared in the previous year), Strachey’s volume was perfectly timed. His biography of Queen Victoria followed in 1921. With this, his literary reputation was consolidated and his fame secured. The “Preface” to

Eminent Victorians

enunciates his biographical-historical principles of selectivity and quasi-scientific detachment:

[The historian] will row out over that great ocean of material, and lower down

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1417 words

Citation: Spurr, Barry. "Lytton Strachey". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 December 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4256, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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