Post good biographies you've read. I just finished puc related. I think Stubb does a good job of explaining Swift's unconscious system of thinking and engaging the reader with the context of early 18th century Britain, but that the whig party position is assumed to be familiar to the reader.
What it lacks in genuine musical insight it makes up for in painting a vivid picture of Mozart and his times. About 150 pages of opera synopses with no real insight or commentary are skippable. Overall very good.
bump
>>24876004just started Eminent Victorians. highly enjoyable.
This is the gold standard for modern literary biography. I especially like Ellman's analysis of "The Dead" and the material on Lucia Joyce's decline.
>>24876004What's some good group biographies?
>>24876004Is the stereotype true that as talented as him or Pope may have been, their satire is so tightly bound to 18th century politics that they are practically impossible to enjoy nowadays?
>>24876323A beautiful young nymph going to bed has only gotten better with age.
>>24876318
>>24876004
Mark Twain
>>24876323Do you not think 18th century politics (and especially 18th century politics) contained within it political-philosophical strains of perennial relevance?
Jonathan Swift is a cannibal. Fuck him.
>>24877778Shut up nonconformer
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
>>24876004Intellectual biographies. Gimme.
>>24878836There's a trilogy and all three books are good.
In general, I hate biographies, but this one really nice. Mcluhan was something extraordinary, and Coupland is very very good writer. Perfect combo.Another one was The Starship & the Canoe about Freeman Dyson, guy who is mostly known from Dyson sphere. Less known fact that he also invented starship engine that run on crapping nukes.Both, Dyson and Mcluhan, had autism through the roof.
Augustus
>>24876004Here I Stand
Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert Massie>biography of the notorious Russian ruler examines his background and accomplishments, detailing the armed conflicts during his reign and scrutinizing his transformation of medieval Russia into modern Russiahttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2279714.Peter_the_Great
>>24882725conversely:Ivan the Terrible by Isabel de Madariaga>Isabel de Madariaga situates Ivan within the background of Russian political developments in the sixteenth century. And, with revealing comparisons with English, Spanish, and other European courts, she sets him within the international context of his time. The biography includes a new account of the role of astrology and magic at Ivan's court and provides fresh insights into his foreign policy. Facing up to problems of authenticity (much of Ivan's archive was destroyed by fire in 1626) and controversies which have paralyzed western scholarship, de Madariaga seeks to present Russia as viewed from the Kremlin rather than from abroad and to comprehend the full tragedy of Ivan’s reign.
>>24876318The Twelve Caesars by SuetoniusLives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes LaertiusThe Lives of the Artists by Giorgio VasariNicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massiethis >>24876123
Truman
Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus
>>24885948Didn't that book get Fawn Brodie excommunicated? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWoePkBt31g
