Eminent Victorians: The Definitive Edition

Lytton Strachey's classic work Eminent Victorians was an assault on the Victorian Age and its values. In chosing four key figures, Cardinal Manning, Dr Arnold of Rugby, Florence Nightingale and General Gordon, Strachey conducted a masterly hatchett job on four key representatives of their age. His book was an instant bastseller and has been in print ever since. But now the mood has changed. Victorian studies are booming. Scholars are looking again at the Victorian age and are reassessing some of its more notable figures. The text of Eminent Victorians is printed here in its integrity but there will be new critical afterwords by scholars demonstating how lopsided was Strachey's judgement and frepresenting his subjects in fresh light. David Newsome writes on Cardinal Manning; John Pollock on General Gordon; Terence Copley on Dr Arnold and Mark Bostridge on Florence Nightingale. Each has examined Strachey's own manuscript notes for his book and is an expert on recent scholarship. Textual notes and critical apparatus are also included along with many munusal and little known illustrations. Paul Levy, editor of Strachey's correspondence, writes the introduction and the book carries a foreword by the last of the great Bloomsbury Group, Frances Partridge.