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lelia_t's review
4.0
Hermione Lee is an excellent biographer and she brings her keen intellect and fine writing to this book. Her scope is limited primarily to British literary biography, yet she still packs in a wealth of information, from the evolution of biography to the challenges biographers’ face (objections raised by the subject’s family, discovering the inner world of an outwardly active subject, choosing what to include and what to omit…). This book has all the valuable insights you’d hope for in a reference book, but it’s also an engaging read for anyone who’s a fan of (student of, writer of) biographies.
kaylabjohnson's review
3.0
I read this book for a junior seminar course I am taking on the art of biography, autobiography, and memoirs.
It gave a really great overview of some of the conventions and trends in biography writing as they evolved with the changing societal and literary standards throughout different decades. The book includes lots of helpful references to and analysis of specific biographies and autobiographies, as well as the conventions they broke or introduced.
I tend not to read a lot of biographical work, but this book really got me to think about the moral implications of biography for the first time. I never realized how much public scrutiny and skepticism there was for biography before, and I found the conversation about privacy, whether to tell a story warts-and-all and whose life is worth being written down to be incredibly fascinating.
My favorite part of the book was the brilliant metaphor of biographical writing as either an autopsy—a posthumous examination of a person’s life which is very scientific and factual, but cold— or a portrait which can capture someone’s essence, personality, and “vital spark”, but may become idolatrous and distorted.
There are no true rules to biography and it can take various formats, but there is truly an art to being able to capture someone's essence in what is just a few words in comparison to the whole scope of their life.
It gave a really great overview of some of the conventions and trends in biography writing as they evolved with the changing societal and literary standards throughout different decades. The book includes lots of helpful references to and analysis of specific biographies and autobiographies, as well as the conventions they broke or introduced.
I tend not to read a lot of biographical work, but this book really got me to think about the moral implications of biography for the first time. I never realized how much public scrutiny and skepticism there was for biography before, and I found the conversation about privacy, whether to tell a story warts-and-all and whose life is worth being written down to be incredibly fascinating.
My favorite part of the book was the brilliant metaphor of biographical writing as either an autopsy—a posthumous examination of a person’s life which is very scientific and factual, but cold— or a portrait which can capture someone’s essence, personality, and “vital spark”, but may become idolatrous and distorted.
There are no true rules to biography and it can take various formats, but there is truly an art to being able to capture someone's essence in what is just a few words in comparison to the whole scope of their life.
valeriebrett's review
4.0
Really good, concise book. Only didn't give it five stars because it wasn't like WOW, but I don't have any critique other than I maybe actually thought there were too many examples (block quotes of bios).
kirrasbooks's review
informative
medium-paced
3.5
I found this really informative and a great short introduction to biography - the perfect starting point for my masters essay on biography and psychoanalysis!
merrybelletrist's review
5.0
I want to start this by saying that I have just been introduced to Hermione Lee. Although I had looked at this book before I bought it I am not at the moment familiar with her biographies.
But even though this is a short book I feel like it gives a complete though admittedly concise picture of biography as genre. It's divided into eight sections which start from Plutarch to the late 21 century. I liked that approach.
The first chapter has 10 rules for writing biography of which the last is: There are no rules. I think what Lee is trying to get across is that there are so many different ways to approach a biography and none is better or worst than the last. That's what I get from anyway.
There is a bibliography of more books on writing biography that I plan to pursue. I think this book was worth the $7 I paid for it. It'll come in handy.
But even though this is a short book I feel like it gives a complete though admittedly concise picture of biography as genre. It's divided into eight sections which start from Plutarch to the late 21 century. I liked that approach.
The first chapter has 10 rules for writing biography of which the last is: There are no rules. I think what Lee is trying to get across is that there are so many different ways to approach a biography and none is better or worst than the last. That's what I get from anyway.
There is a bibliography of more books on writing biography that I plan to pursue. I think this book was worth the $7 I paid for it. It'll come in handy.
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