Mapping Lives. The Uses of Biography.(Book Review)

Journal of European Studies, March, 2003 by Black, Jeremy

Edited by Peter France and William St. Clair. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. x 350. 25.00 [pounds sterling].

As part of its centenary celebrations, the British Academy is publishing a series of monographs designed to show the vitality of British scholarship. Some are to review twentieth-century developments, and others to address current topics and look forward. This volume reviews the issues of biography and offers the insights of practising biographers both on the development of the genre and on its characteristics. The editors offer an overly short introduction, asking whether it is possible to write biography. They note that, for all that can be said against biography, it remains irresistibly attractive to writers and readers, but fail to...

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