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List of Illustrations xi <p>Acknowledgements xii</p> <p>Introduction xiii</p> <p><b>1 Literary Biography Now and Then 1</b></p> <p>The Cinderella of Literary Studies 1</p> <p>The Rise and Rise of Literary Biography 4</p> <p>Dr Johnson: Biographer, Theorist and Subject 7</p> <p>Virginia Woolf: Time, Memory and Identity 12</p> <p><b>2 Life [Hi]Stories: Telling Tales 18</b></p> <p>Aspects of Narrative 18</p> <p>(i) Beginnings: Charlotte Brontë 19</p> <p>(ii) Middles: Thomas Hardy 21</p> <p>(iii) Endings: Jane Austen 25</p> <p>The Naked Biographer 28</p> <p>Inventing the Truth 30</p> <p><b>3 Reading Biography 35</b></p> <p>Biographer, Biography and the Reader 35</p> <p>Imagining Blake 38</p> <p>Problems of a Hybrid Form 42</p> <p>Reading Lessons 45</p> <p><b>4 Literary Biomythography 47</b></p> <p>Biomythography 47</p> <p>Myth-Making: The Brontë Paradigm 48</p> <p>(i) Facts: Selection and ‘Spin’ 49</p> <p>(ii) Fact into Fiction 50</p> <p>(iii) Fiction into Myth 50</p> <p>(iv) Myth into ‘Faction’ 51</p> <p>(v) Demythologising the Brontës 52</p> <p>Variations on the Theme 53</p> <p>(i) Byron 54</p> <p>(ii) Dickens 55</p> <p>(iii) Sylvia Plath 58</p> <p>Conclusions 63</p> <p><b>5 Inferential Biography: Shakespeare the Invisible Man 67</b></p> <p>Virtual Shakespeares 68</p> <p>(i) The Facts 68</p> <p>(ii) The Theatrical Context 69</p> <p>(iii) The Social Context 71</p> <p>(iv) The Shakespeare Mythos 72</p> <p>(v) The Shakespeare Canon 73</p> <p>The Implied Author: Inferential Biography 74</p> <p>(i) The Art of Love: The Sonnets 75</p> <p>(ii) Prejudice, Discrimination and the Law: The Merchant of Venice 77</p> <p>(iii) War and the Politics of Nationhood: Henry V 79</p> <p>(iv) Language and Thinking: Hamlet 82</p> <p>(v) Art and Artifice: The Tempest 85</p> <p>The Limits of Imagination 87</p> <p><b>6 Literary Biography and Portraiture 92</b></p> <p>Sister Arts 92</p> <p>(i) Biography and Portraiture: Reynolds’s Portrait of Dr Johnson 94</p> <p>(ii) Reading the Image: Cassandra Austen’s Sketch of Jane Austen 96</p> <p>(iii) Visual Myth-Making: Henry Weekes’s Shelley Monument 98</p> <p>(iv) Celebrity Image: Thomas Phillips’s Portrait of Byron in Albanian Dress 100</p> <p>(v) Visual Memoir: Joseph Severn’s Portrait of John Keats 102</p> <p>(vi) Bardography: The Chandos Portrait of Shakespeare 104</p> <p>(vii) The Inner Life: R. W. Buss’s Dickens’s Dream 106</p> <p>(viii) Sisters’ Arts: Vanessa Bell’s Portrait of Virginia Woolf 108</p> <p>(ix) ‘To prepare a face …’: Patrick Heron’s Portrait of T. S. Eliot 110</p> <p>(x) Branwell’s Ghost: Branwell Brontë’s Portrait of his Three Sisters 112</p> <p>Art to Order 114</p> <p><b>7 Comparative Biography: Dickens’s ‘Lives’ 117</b></p> <p>The Victorian Dickens 118</p> <p>The Modern Dickens 121</p> <p>The Post-Modern Dickens 125</p> <p>Lives and Times 130</p> <p><b>8 Literary Auto/Biography 132</b></p> <p>Acts of Self-Creation in Wordsworth and Joyce 132</p> <p>Wordsworth’s ‘biographic verse’ 134</p> <p>Joyce’s ‘artist, like the God of creation’ 143</p> <p>Masks and Metaphors 149</p> <p><b>9 Biography in Practice 152</b></p> <p>An Interview with Dominic Hibberd, author of Wilfred Owen: A New Biography 152</p> <p>Living with the Subject 153</p> <p>Imagining Wilfred 157</p> <p>Matters of Life and Death 166</p> <p><b>10 Authorised Lives 171</b></p> <p>The Life of Graham Greene by Norman Sherry 172</p> <p>Bernard Shaw by Michael Holroyd 176</p> <p>T. S. Eliot by Peter Ackroyd 181</p> <p>Orwell: The Life by D. J. Taylor 186</p> <p>Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion 192</p> <p>Contemporary Lives 199</p> <p><b>11 Literary Lives: Scenes and Stories 202</b></p> <p>Dinner with Dr Johnson and John Wilkes 203</p> <p>Dinner with Mrs Ramsay 208</p> <p>Biography and Fiction 215</p> <p><b>12 Biography and the Future 218</b></p> <p>Select Bibliography 225</p> <p>Further Reading 225</p> <p>General Bibliography 229</p> <p>Index 239</p>

"Last year I was sent Michael Benton's <i>Literary Biography: An Introduction</i> prior to publication, and was happy to supply a recommendation for the dust jacket. I described it then as an "elegant. introduction which is likely to appeal to both established scholars and to the growing number of university students who study the subject at all levels." Having read the book again for the purposes of this review, I am happy to stand by my initial response. Indeed, I would add that the book is sufficiently rich and thoughtful to provide an even more enjoyable and informative reading experience the second time around." (<i>Biography</i>, Summer 2010)<br /> <br /> "A general reader with an interest in literature or biography or both will find much of interest here." (<i>M/C</i> Reviews, March 2010) <p>"Lucid and intelligent." (<i>The Times Literary Supplement</i>, November 2009)</p>

<b>Michael Benton</b> is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southampton. His publications include the highly influential <i>Teaching Literature 9–14</i> (with Geoff Fox, 1985) and several widely used anthologies of poetry, most notably the <i>Touchstones</i> series (with Peter Benton, various editions 1968–2008). His most recent book was <i>Studies in the Spectator Role: Literature, Painting and Pedagogy</i> (2000).

<i>Literary Biography: An Introduction</i> illustrates and accounts for the literary genre that merges verifiable historical facts with the familiar conventions of narrative. It also reveals how the biographical context can enrich our understanding and appreciation of canonical authors. Thematically linked chapters trace the genre’s development, define its primary characteristics, and illuminate its connections with fiction and portraiture. Further insights are gained by approaching literary biography from historical, comparative, inferential and autobiographical perspectives. Examples are drawn from the mainstream literary canon and include a variety of classical and contemporary authors ranging from Shakespeare, Dickens, Blake and Wordsworth to the Brontës, Hardy, Plath and Larkin. Biographical writers discussed feature both seminal figures such as Johnson, Boswell and Woolf to distinguished present-day biographers including Hermione Lee, Richard Holmes, Peter Ackroyd, Claire Tomalin and Michael Holroyd. <p><i>Literary Biography: An Introduction</i> offers an erudite and insightful introduction into the history, theory and practice of the increasingly popular literary genre of life-writing.</p>

<p>"Provides tutors and students with a useful means of entry to a complex and rapidly developing area of debate."—(Dinah Birch, University of Liverpool)</p> <p>"I found this book both highly enjoyable and informative. It is simply excellent – very well written, elegant in structure and individual phrasing, a fascinating topic and a provocative introduction to a range of biographies."—(Geoff Fox, Exeter University)</p> <p>"Last year I was sent Michael Benton's <i>Literary Biography: An Introduction</i> prior to publication, and was happy to supply a recommendation for the dust jacket. I described it then as an "elegant. introduction which is likely to appeal to both established scholars and to the growing number of university students who study the subject at all levels." Having read the book again for the purposes of this review, I am happy to stand by my initial response. Indeed, I would add that the book is sufficiently rich and thoughtful to provide an even more enjoyable and informative reading experience the second time around."—(Katherine Hughes, <i>Biography</i>)</p> "Brisk and readable … lucid and intelligent"—(Claire Harman, <i>Times Literary Supplement</i>)  

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