Best Selling Books by Lytton Strachey

Lytton Strachey''s acclaimed portrayal of Queen Victoria revolutionised the art of biography by using elements of romantic fiction and melodrama to create a warm, humorous and very human portrait of this iconic figure. We see Victoria as a strong-willed child with a famous temper, as the 18-year-old girl queen, as a monarch, wife, mother and widow. Equally fascinating are the depictions of her relationships: with her governess "precious Lehzen", with Peel, Gladstone and Disraeli, with her beloved Albert and, in later life, her legendary devotion to her Highland servant John Brown.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Books and Characters, French & English" by Lytton Strachey. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

"Books & Characters" is a collection of literary essays by using Lytton Strachey, a prominent British writer and critic of the early 20th century. The book offers insightful and unconventional biographical sketches of numerous literary figures, presenting readers with a unique attitude on the lives and personalities of those exquisite individuals. Strachey''s writing fashion is characterized via its wit, humor, and a keen feel of observation. In every essay, he skillfully unveils the complexities of the featured authors and their works, imparting a refreshing departure from conventional biographical strategies. The book covers a numerous range of figures, along with Victor Hugo, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Thomas De Quincey, amongst others. Strachey''s "Books & Characters" is celebrated for its progressive technique to literary criticism, imparting a mix of biography and literary analysis that demanding situations conventional norms. By delving into the quirks and idiosyncrasies of every writer, Strachey offers readers with a deeper knowledge of the creative minds in the back of the literary masterpieces of the time. The series stands as a testomony to Strachey''s intellectual prowess and his contribution to shaping the panorama of modern literary complaint.

The romance of Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux captures “the real drama of ambition, passion, and personality in the pageant of veracious history” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). The author who helped to shape the modern biography turned his glorious prose and searing wit to one of the most famous romances in British history, that of Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. As the San Francisco Chronicle raved, “Elizabeth is an old subject, but here is a fresh and brilliant portrait of her, a splendidly dramatic story, an historical excursion of uncommon interest.” In these pages, Lytton Strachey follows the twists and turns of the uncommon affair. The stepson of the Earl of Leicester, the Queen’s favorite, Robert was not yet twenty when he captured the fifty-three-year-old monarch’s interest. Their tumultuous relationship survived international intrigue, political machinations, and even the young Earl’s marriage. But it was only a matter of time before his ambition would clash with the capricious Queen, bringing about his untimely end. This biography “is penetrating and true. It is not only Mr. Strachey’s best book; it is a great book” (New-York Evening Post). “A beautiful and memorable book.” —The Atlantic Monthly “If there is such a thing as imperishable prose being written in our time, Mr. Strachey has done it here.” —The New York Times Book Review “Mr. Strachey unfolds this story in brilliant chapter after brilliant chapter, unraveling the tangled threads of amorous intrigue and political machination . . . Above all, he writes as beautifully as he thinks.” —Outlook “It is a glowing history in words.” —Boston Evening Transcript

This provocative and entertaining selection of Strachey''s best short pieces (published to celebrate the centenary of his birth) contains thirty essays, ranging in subject from Pope and Dostoevsky to wartime pieces and a childhood memoir.

On November 6, 1817, died the Princess Charlotte, only child of the Prince Regent, and heir to the crown of England. Her short life had hardly been a happy one. By nature impulsive, capricious, and vehement, she had always longed for liberty; and she had never possessed it. She had been brought up among violent family quarrels, had been early separated from her disreputable and eccentric mother, and handed over to the care of her disreputable and selfish father. When she was seventeen, he decided to marry her off to the Prince of Orange; she, at first, acquiesced; but, suddenly falling in love with Prince Augustus of Prussia, she determined to break off the engagement.