From the Publisher: Hermione Lee is one of the leading literary biographers in the English-speaking world, the author of widely acclaimed lives of Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf. Now, in this Very Short Introduction, Lee provides a magnificent look at the genre in which she is an undisputed master-the art of biography. Here Lee considers the cultural and historical background of different types of biographies, looks at the factors that affect biographers,...

English writer "Fitzgerald, born into an accomplished intellectual family, the granddaughter of two bishops, led a life marked by dramatic twists of fate, moving from a bishop's palace to a sinking houseboat to a last, late blaze of renown. We see Fitzgerald's very English childhood in the village of Hampstead; her Oxford years, when she was known as the 'blonde bombshell'; her impoverished adulthood as a struggling wife, mother, and schoolteacher,...

A new examination of Willa Cather's life and works and of the relationship of her writings to her life.

The elderly Duke of Omnium struggles to overcome his grief at the loss of his wife, Lady Glencora. To complicate matters, he must deal with the willfulness of this three adult children as he tries to guide and support them. While his two sons, sent down from university in disgrace, rack up gambling debts, the Duke's only daughter yearns to marry the poor son of a country squire. Though the Duke's plans for his children are thwarted, he comes to realize...

A reference book on English language fiction to inspire and enlighten all readers. An alphabetically arranged list of authors gives concise information on writers classical and contemporary, literary and popular, British and foreign, and recommends other writers hwo deal with similar subject matter or who write in the same genre. The book also includes 34 essays by well recognized authors and critics discussing diverse literary genres.