Walton's Lives: Conformist Commemorations and the Rise of Biography

Martin, Jessica

ISBN 10: 0198270151 / ISBN 13: 9780198270157

Published by Oxford University Press, 2002

About this Item

From publisher s library. Faint shelfwear on dustjacket. Bookplate on inside cover and library stamp. Otherwise, book is new and unread. Pages clean and crisp, spine unbroken. 0619C.

Seller Inventory # A0619-158

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Walton's Lives: Conformist Commemorations and the Rise of Biography
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198270151
• ISBN 13: 9780198270157
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

This book argues that Walton's practice, in his Lives, was crucial in shaping modern expectations of biography, including issues such as how it should be organized, how it should treat evidence, how seriously it should regard narrative coherence, and most particularly in the modern expectation of an intimate relationship between author, reader, and subject. Martin considers Walton's biographical ethics in relation to the tributary genres influencing him as they emerged from post-Reformation commendatory practice after 1546, most particularly classical funeral oratory and the emergent Protestant funeral sermon, the Plutarchan parallel, the didactic Character, martyrological narrative, and finally Walton's direct model, the exemplary biographical commemoration of the conformist minister.

About the Author

Jessica Martin is Fellow and College Lecturer, Trinity College, Cambridge.