Eminent Victorians is a book by Lytton Strachey, the oldest member of the Bloomsbury Group first published in 1918 and consisting of biographies of four leading figures from the Victorian era. Its fame rests on the irreverence and wit Strachey brought to bear on three men and a woman who had till then been regarded as heroes and heroine. They were: Giles Lytton Strachey (March 1, 1880–January 21, 1932) was a British writer and critic. ... The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set or just Bloomsbury, as its adherents would generally refer to it, was an English group of artists and scholars that existed from around 1905 until around World War II. // History The group began as an informal socialwe have been great to society assembly of... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Ascension to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ...

• Cardinal Manning
• Florence Nightingale
• Thomas Arnold
• General Gordon

The book made Strachey's name and placed him firmly in the top rank of biographers, where he remains. 1882 caricature from Punch Henry Edward Cardinal Manning (July 15, 1808 - January 14, 1892) was an English Roman Catholic Archbishop and Cardinal. ... Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910), who came to be known as The Lady with the Lamp, was a pioneer of modern nursing, and a noted statistician. ... Thomas Arnold, 1840 Thomas Arnold (June 13, 1795 – June 12, 1842) was a famous schoolmaster and historian, head of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841. ... Chinese Gordon as Governor of Sudan Major-General Charles George Gordon, CB (28 January 1833 – 26 January 1885), known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum, was a British army officer and administrator. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

Significance

With the publication of Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey set out to breathe life into the Victorian era for future generations to read. Up until this point, Strachey felt Victorian biographies "(were) as familiar as the cortége of the undertaker, and wear the same air of slow, funeral barbarism." Strachey defied the tradition of sprawling volumes of undigested information, and took aim on a number of iconified figures with his ironic wit. Strachey's analysis is both humanizing and critical, and takes place more in the realm of thoughts than in a general timeline. It can, and often is also viewed as satire, and rather than breathing life into the Victorians, functioned as their final destruction. The satire shown throughout the book essentially corrodes the greatness of the key victorian personalities. Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Ascension to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ...

External links

• Eminent Victorians, available at Project Gutenberg.
• An on-line version of the book (by chapter)
• Lincoln Allison (Reader in Politics, University of Warwick) Colourful Eminence - Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians: a Retrospective Review Social Affairs Unit Web Review, July 2005