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Literary Criticism General

English Biography in the Seventeenth Century

A Critical Survey

by (author) Allan Pritchard

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
May 2009
Category
General, General, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442610330
    Publish Date
    May 2009
    List Price
    $40.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802038890
    Publish Date
    Aug 2005
    List Price
    $72.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442686250
    Publish Date
    May 2009
    List Price
    $93.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442674493
    Publish Date
    Jul 2005
    List Price
    $83

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Description

Although biography is one of today’s most flourishing literary genres, its early history has attracted much less attention than that of other forms, a neglect that is especially apparent in the case of the formative period of English biography, the seventeenth century. This new work by Allan Pritchard fills the scholarly void by providing a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of this period’s biographical writings.

After charting the growth of seventeenth-century biographical writing, Pritchard explores the ways in which traditional forms of religious biography and lives of princes and other secular figures were adapted to, and transformed by, the crises and revolutions of the period. He then considers the development of less traditional biographical types and analyzes the emergence of a ‘new biography,’ concerned essentially with individuality and with private as well as public life.

Examining a rich range of texts, English Biography in the Seventeenth Century is a survey of a field important for both literary and wider cultural reasons.

About the author

Allan Pritchard is a professor emeritus in the Department of English at the University of Toronto.

Allan Pritchard's profile page