Brief Lives (1669-1697) is a collection of short biographical
sketches on famous British figures by author, antiquarian, and
archaeologist John Aubrey. The work is significant for its unique
style, a blend of facts-names, dates, family, important works-and
personal anecdotes for which Aubrey combined his skills for
research and conversation to compile. Unpublished during his
lifetime, the text was pieced together from extensive handwritten
manuscripts by numerous editors and scholars, and over the
centuries has become a beloved cultural artifact of early-modern
Britain. A fascinating figure and gifted researcher in his own
right, John Aubrey sought to capture the significance of his era
and the people whose contributions to art, politics, science, and
philosophy were not only changing Britain, but the world, forever.
As a historical record, his Brief Lives provides valuable
information on such figures as poet John Milton, playwright William
Shakespeare, philosopher Thomas Hobbes, and chemist Robert Boyle.
But as a work of art, the text humanizes them, reminding its
readers that these were people whose desires, imperfections, and
day-to-day lives were not unlike our own. We turn to his works to
discover that Sir Walter Raleigh was a "poor" scholar "immerst...in
fabrication of his owne fortunes," or to read that Shakespeare, the
son of a butcher who worked for his father as a youth, was known to
"make a speech" while slaughtering a calf. At times
straightforwardly factual, at others filled with gossip, Brief
Lives is a document of its time that attempts to record a living
history of knowledge and influence. Whether it succeeds is beside
the point-that it speaks to us centuries on is the heart of the
matter, the reason it must be read. A well-known man in his
lifetime, Aubrey moved between cultural and political circles with
ease, compiling the sources that would later become Brief Lives.
Although a tireless writer and scholar, he published little during
his life. His work, including Brief Lives, is thus the product of
centuries of diligent research and editing from numerous scholars
who understood, as the reader of this volume surely will, that
Aubrey's work deserved to reach the public. With a beautifully
designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition
of John Aubrey's Brief Lives is a classic of British literature and
biography reimagined for modern readers.
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