Melancholy and Literary Biography, 1640-1816 [electronic resource] /
Darcy, J.author.
This book traces the development of literary biography in the eighteenth century; how writers' melancholy was probed to explore the inner life. Case studies of a number of significant authors reveal the 1790s as a time of biographical experimentation. Reaction against philosophical biography led to a nineteenth-century taste for romanticized lives.
Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
Includes bibliographical references and index.
This book traces the development of literary biography in the eighteenth century; how writers' melancholy was probed to explore the inner life. Case studies of a number of significant authors reveal the 1790s as a time of biographical experimentation. Reaction against philosophical biography led to a nineteenth-century taste for romanticized lives.
Introduction -- PART I: JOHNSON, MELANCHOLY AND EARLY LITERARY BIOGRAPHY, 1640-1791 -- 1. Early Literary Biographies: Walton's Donne to Sprat's Cowley -- 2. Johnson, Melancholy and Biography -- 3. Eighteenth-century Melancholy: Boswell and Cheyne, The English Malady -- PART II: MELANCHOLY AND BIOGRAPHICAL EXPERIMENTATION AROUND 1800 -- 4. Philosophical Biography (1): Godwin's Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft -- 5. Philosophical Biography (2): Currie's Life of Burns -- 6. Religious Melancholy: Hayley's Life of Cowper -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography.
British literature.
Literature, Modern-19th century.
Literature-Philosophy.
Culture-Study and teaching.
Literature, Modern-18th century.
Literature-History and criticism.
British and Irish Literature.
Nineteenth-Century Literature.
Literary Theory.
Cultural Theory.
Eighteenth-Century Literature.
Literary History.