Men of Letters, Writing Lives

In this fascinating new study Trev Broughton takes an in-depth look at the developments within Victorian auto/biography, and asks what we can learn about the conditions and limits of male literary authority.

She focuses on two case studies from the period 1880-1903, the auto/biographical theories and achievements of Sir Leslie Stephen, one of the century's most revered exponents of the written life. the debate surrounding James Anthony Froude's account of the marriage of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle The author looks at the proliferation of professions with a vested interest in the 'written life'; the speeding-up and institutionalisation of the Life-and-Letters industry; the consequent spread of a network of mainly male practitioners and commentators.

She argues that these elements all contributed to a new 'auto/biographical' subjectivity.

Men of Letters, Writing Lives will be of great interest to students and scholars of literature, cultural history, gender and auto/biography.